The human population on Earth has exceeded the planet's biochemical carrying capacity. This is fact. The two limiting reagents are nitrates and phosphates. Nitrates can be synthesized from air, but are usually pulled from rock; phosphates can only be pulled from rocks, and those rocks are running out.Phosphorus does not have a half-life. Hence, if there is enough phosphorus for a human population of thirteen billion people to exist, it will always be possible for thirteen billion people to exist. We will just have to start being very efficient in recycling the phosphorus from anything that dies at the point at which we "run out".
How odd... I was already considering making a poll about what people think the ideal population of the Earth would be, using various figures from 12 billion down to a single person.
(my personal choice would have been option #9: "101 people - me and 100 beautiful females, specifically chosen by me"... sorry guys, but your deaths would be in a good cause :wink:)
Phosphorus does not have a half-life. Hence, if there is enough phosphorus for a human population of thirteen billion people to exist, it will always be possible for thirteen billion people to exist. We will just have to start being very efficient in recycling the phosphorus from anything that dies at the point at which we "run out".
I presume, though, that part of your scenario involves the fact that plants are not necessarily terribly efficient at absorbing phosphorus from soil, so we have to apply more phosphorus to the soil than the plants deliver to that which eats them. Even so, the excess doesn't disappear.
sticking to speculation, i think we may end up well-loved and well-cared-for pets of something far more intelligent. then we can indulge our animal natures... in moderation. no peeing on the carpet! ;)
lol, like in planet of the apes ;)
:lol:
yes you finally made a monkeeey out of meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
XD
Alternatively, the population could use an influx of less materialistic people from another society
How odd... I was already considering making a poll about what people think the ideal population of the Earth would be, using various figures from 12 billion down to a single person.
(my personal choice would have been option #9: "101 people - me and 100 beautiful females, specifically chosen by me"... sorry guys, but your deaths would be in a good cause :wink:)
like who? name them
Well, immigrants from all countries in aggregate. You could probably name any of them. Immigrants in general have a much higher birth rate than the general population.
Have you ever considered that one benefit to our open southern border is that it prevents our population from shrinking? I think our government is motivated to maintain liberal immigration policies to keep the population (tax base) on the rise.
The human population on Earth has exceeded the planet's biochemical carrying capacity. This is fact. The two limiting reagents are nitrates and phosphates. Nitrates can be synthesized from air, but are usually pulled from rock; phosphates can only be pulled from rocks, and those rocks are running out. Without phosphates we can't make the fertilizer to grow enough crops to feed more than two billion people at maximum. Phosphate reserves will dry up in approximately seventy to one hundred fifty years. When they do there will be mass starvation, following by rioting, breakdown of law and order, wars, disease, and a general collapse of civilization. Population will probably fall to one billion people or so at most.
Let's postulate that by the year 2110 (100 years from now) we will run out of phosphates, with a population of thirteen billion people. We will not be able to synthesize phosphates without the phosphate-rich rocks, we will not colonize another planet, we will not reduce population peacefully. Twelve billion people will die in a span of ten years.
You are a microbiologist. You have created a strain of virus that will kill five out of six people world wide, and cannot be treated or quarantined. Your virus will reduce the world's current population (seven billion) to one billion people in the space of one year. The death is painful, but not gruesome. You can release it easily at any time.
TLDR: The choice
Do you kill six billion people now, or let twelve billion people die in the future?
I want to see what you think. There are other options, if you think on them, at least one other microbiology related. But consider the plainest case first, just to feel out your ethics.
Humans are like a disease. We migrate to a place, procreate like rabbits, infest it, strip it clean of its resources until it is dead and then move on to the next place.
Agent smith was right:
"You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area."
That's not true actually. Nature always establishes an equilibrium, we can see this where this has changed things by animals migrating to areas where there are no natural predators for them which shifts the balance that area used to have. That species becomes dominant without a natural predator to keep their numbers reasonable which in turns makes their food sparse due to greater consumption. Once food is gone they starve to death.
_All_ known extinctions have been either due to environmental changes (temperature etc) or human intervention. There are no known extinctions that occured due to overpopulation of a non-human animal. Provide a reference if you think otherwise.
Then you could have all the world's keyboards to yourself! Only problem is that you'd have 100 women nagging on you that you have too many keyboards.
He was wrong though that all other lifeforms/animals establish a symbiosis with the environment. Almost every other life form procreates until it can't be sustained anymore, then dies off.
The Japanese, or me if I get enough money will create a robot woman that will replace females, so no man will want to have sex with real women anymore, which will cut the human population to a percentage of its current level. So all this population is out of control stuff is nonsense. You can see the dream already occurring in Japan, and is shown in the giant declining birthrate.
Women will be forced to clone themselves if they want offspring.
but that assumes legal immigration... i doubt illegals pay taxes each aprilThey don't get tax refunds each April. So if they have jobs that they got with fake SSNs, they would be paying withholding taxes.
Women will be forced to clone themselves if they want offspring.
You are a microbiologist. You have created a strain of virus that will kill five out of six people world wide, and cannot be treated or quarantined. Your virus will reduce the world's current population (seven billion) to one billion people in the space of one year. The death is painful, but not gruesome. You can release it easily at any time.
the hell u say.
dudes! u'r not all gonna let that remark just go by, are u?
/male
We're heading for disaster either way. I just hope I'm dead before the **** hits the fan.
Ha! Never happen.. Boys are stupid and men are easy...Even if there were only one male left on the planet he would still be trying to mount every female on left with him.
Geordie Laforge had good taste in holoskirt (http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Leah_Brahms):Show Image(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070216190751/memoryalpha/en/images/thumb/c/c3/Leah_Brahms_2367.jpg/600px-Leah_Brahms_2367.jpg)
I keep saying human civilization peaked in 1985. Its all downhill from here and I'm glad I lived thru the peak and wont be around for the bottom.
Can you expand a bit on this? Why 1985 is there something significant that happened that year?
And to believe I was born the year after that, ohh boy I am a downfall baby
Can you expand a bit on this? Why 1985 is there something significant that happened that year?
And to believe I was born the year after that, ohh boy I am a downfall baby
Ha! Never happen.. Boys are stupid and men are easy...Even if there were only one male left on the planet he would still be trying to mount every female on left with him.
Q: How can you tell when Voixdelion is trolling?
A: The post is clear and concise.
KillerBee, you above all people should have gotten that. Of course it was the year the Model M was introduced. After that it's been all downhill.
production on the M began in 1984
I keep saying human civilization peaked in 1985. Its all downhill from here and I'm glad I lived thru the peak and wont be around for the bottom.
1985 was also the year of Phil Collins.
And clunky keyboards.
I totally agree - 1985 was the turning point. Actually, it started a few years before, but the effects were mainly felt in 1985. You could really tell by the end of the 80's.
I remember when the world population was 3.8 billion. Back then, I read an article about "future population" and was shocked when it predicted 6 billion people by the year 2000. I couldn't believe it. I said, "Oh ****! Something has to be done to prevent that from happening!"
Of course, nothing was done. The prediction was remarkably accurate. Now we're seeing predictions for over 9 billion. I'm sure people are saying, "Oh ****! Something has to be done to prevent that from happening!"
Nothing will be done. It will happen.
we have more catastrophic, mass-death ways to die today than ever before, and most of them are becoming a reality super-fast. With no fixes in sight, not even any good ideas in some cases. We're hurtling towards a mad-max style post-modern, post-apocolyptic neo-feudal neo-tribal future where a handful of survivors scavenge a livelihood. .
But on the bright side, I hear Soylent Green tastes pretty good.
i did like some of those outfits in mad max.
I'd want the leather pants that don't have the butt cutouts.
lol. that wont help you escape the maruading butt-sex gangs.
Geordie Laforge had good taste in holoskirt:That's simply not true. He made a copy of her on the holodeck merely to help him with a problem with the warp drive on the Enterprise D. It's true he later came to respect and admire the real Leah Brahms... who was already married, unfortunately for him... but he wasn't up to any hanky-panky on the holodeck!
Notwithstanding the Model M, I thought civilization started going downhill after about 1967 or so, myself.
2 men enter, 1 man leaves?
I remember when the world population was 3.8 billion. Back then, I read an article about "future population" and was shocked when it predicted 6 billion people by the year 2000. I couldn't believe it. I said, "Oh ****! Something has to be done to prevent that from happening!"Yes, but it's not quite true that nothing was done.
Of course, nothing was done. The prediction was remarkably accurate.
Q: How can you tell when Voixdelion is trolling?
A: The post is clear and concise.
Ha! Never happen.. Boys are stupid and men are easy...Even if there were only one male left on the planet he would still be trying to mount every female on left with him.
Hmmmzz, could that be the reason I like the movie "the omega man" that much?
*laugh*
Regards.
Well, it was based on the book I Am Legover.