SenorToenails wrote:
Ataronchronon wrote:
Im kinda jumping into this thread late, but I totally agree with this.
The other countries of the world should look at the situation in China and see it as a warning to watch their own populations. We ought to seek to avoid the extreme measures the Chinese government has had to resort to by taking our own steps now. China's situation provides us with a lesson to learn rather than an opportunity to scoff.
Like what kind of steps? Limiting the number of kids a family can have? Isn't that what China does?
We wont have to resort to extreme measures such as a one child policy like China has if we act soon. Anything from economic incentives to limits of 3 or 4 for the time being would probably be sufficient. Yes, unless science sees incredible advances within the next 100 years, in the future we will probably have to limit the number of children a couple has, but a long term plan will be less of a shock to society and will help us to avoid the route China has taken.
And yes the world is quite overcrowded, check out this link and determine your ecological footprint:
http://www.earthday.net/footprint/Im going to venture a guess and say that you will score over 1.0. I, and probably the vast majority of the first world does. This basically leaves us with three realistic choices:
1) Continue expanding our population, while sacrificing our lavish lifestyles in order to preserve Earth's resources for the ever growing amount of people.
2) Continue living our lavish lifestyle, while reducing our population in order to make sure Earth's resources dont get used up.
3) Continue expanding our population, while continuing to live our lavish lifestyles, so we end up depleting Earth's resources. At this point, humans must either learn to cope with harsh living conditions or fight wars over resources so that a few can control the whats left.
At the moment, by living the way we are, consuming more than our share of resources, we are forcing others to live without the things we over-consume (mainly food and water). If we, living in the first world, dont want to sacrifice the luxuries we enjoy everyday, we ought to reduce our population so that the third world people dont have to live in poverty.