Blind groper wrote:Crumple wrote: Humans need a mega-catastrophe to bring the numbers down, or they are extinct.
The utter, inane stupidity of statements like that above, never ceases to amaze me. People who are otherwise intelligent and rational still persist in outpourings of total crap, based on ignorance.
As I have said before, and will say again, the population explosion is over. Global average fertility has dropped from 5.5 children per woman about 50 years ago to 2.55 today, which is only marginally above replacement rate (2.2). It is still dropping and will be 2.0 by 2050 according to the United Nations (well under replacement). By the year 2100, the human global population will be falling.
So humans do not need a mega catastrophe to bring numbers down. The current trend is well on the way to drop those numbers regardless.
At the same time, there is a surge in technological capability like the world has never seen. New Scientist magazine predicts a doubling of human knowledge in the next 40 years. Incredible developments are already under way with things like highly sophisticated mini robots, 3D printers for a revolutionary new way to build almost anything, customised and really, really cheap. New genetic science to give us crops that will (among numerous other things) produce their own nitrogen fertiliser, and generate life saving drugs at a fraction of the cost currently faced. More developments than could be listed in less than encyclopedic length.
Those who predict disaster are short sighted indeed.
Bogus stance since the collapse willbe caused by excess industrialisation rather than population as the primary driver. Industrialisation isn't going to vanish just because of a decline in the birth rate.
