Is the Earth going to run out of room for us?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Is the Earth going to run out of room for us?

Kingoffrogs: Aug 14, 2023

What do you guys think? it's going to happen eventually, as all species have a carrying capacity that, when reached, further inhibits the growth of a particular population. Us humans, however, are unique in being that we have the ability to change our carrying capacity at a scale far greater than every other organism on Earth.

There are also enormous swathes of land that are still left either sparsely or entirely unpopulated today: The Amazon rainforest, the Tibetan Plateau, Xinjiang region of China, etc. These areas may be able to be terraformed (some already are, such as the Amazon Rainforest) in order to suit human habitation.

On the other hand, There is a great deal of land that is not suitable for the sustenance of any agriculture at all: in fact, only about 10% of the world's land is arable. Perhaps these territories could be terraformed and rendered viable for agriculture.

There are many parameters that us humans can modify in order to perpetuate a habitable environment - Temperature, soil, atmosphere, sunlight exposure, biome, etc. Will we be able to modify these parameters sufficiently in order to sustain our population growth? Or will the human race surpass it's carrying capacity, possibly leading to plague, famine, and war.

My opinion is, that we will eventually reach carrying capacity, but not surpass it in an eventful and destructive fashion. Human population growth rates have already slowed in many places, such as Europe and East Asia. The places that have high birth rates are still either agricultural/ hunter gatherer societies and have no/little access to contraception, along with little urbanization, which leads to lower birth rates. As these nations modernize and urbanize, growth rates will inevitably slow, and human ingenuity may increase our carrying capacity at a rate greater than our global population growth.

What do you guys think?

Kingoffrogs fucked around with this message at 12:43 on Aug 15, 2023

# ? Aug 15, 2023 12:39

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# ? May 11, 2024 23:49

TheMuffinMan: Sep 10, 2022; by Fluffdaddy

population growth will stop at some point i'm betting.

# ? Aug 15, 2023 19:30

Bremen: Jul 20, 2006; Our God..... is an awesome God

Human population growth is falling and the total population will eventually hit a maximum point before starting to drop. Not due to starvation or crowding or anything like that, simply because people are having fewer kids.

Even if it didn't, running out of room is about the last problem we'd face.

# ? Aug 15, 2023 19:36

Harold Fjord: Jan 3, 2004

Have you been celebrating Overshoot Day with us, OP?

# ? Aug 15, 2023 19:41

Kingoffrogs: Aug 14, 2023

Harold Fjord posted:

Have you been celebrating Overshoot Day with us, OP?

Not yet I'm afraid. Sounds like fun times.

# ? Aug 15, 2023 23:07

PT6A: Jan 5, 2006; Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

I've flown over northern Alberta and based on that I'm going to say: no, not for a long time.

# ? Aug 16, 2023 04:52

drilldo squirt: Aug 18, 2006; a beautiful, soft meat sack; Clapping Larry

Kingoffrogs posted:

What do you guys think? it's going to happen eventually, as all species have a carrying capacity that, when reached, further inhibits the growth of a particular population. Us humans, however, are unique in being that we have the ability to change our carrying capacity at a scale far greater than every other organism on Earth.

There are also enormous swathes of land that are still left either sparsely or entirely unpopulated today: The Amazon rainforest, the Tibetan Plateau, Xinjiang region of China, etc. These areas may be able to be terraformed (some already are, such as the Amazon Rainforest) in order to suit human habitation.

On the other hand, There is a great deal of land that is not suitable for the sustenance of any agriculture at all: in fact, only about 10% of the world's land is arable. Perhaps these territories could be terraformed and rendered viable for agriculture.

There are many parameters that us humans can modify in order to perpetuate a habitable environment - Temperature, soil, atmosphere, sunlight exposure, biome, etc. Will we be able to modify these parameters sufficiently in order to sustain our population growth? Or will the human race surpass it's carrying capacity, possibly leading to plague, famine, and war.

My opinion is, that we will eventually reach carrying capacity, but not surpass it in an eventful and destructive fashion. Human population growth rates have already slowed in many places, such as Europe and East Asia. The places that have high birth rates are still either agricultural/ hunter gatherer societies and have no/little access to contraception, along with little urbanization, which leads to lower birth rates. As these nations modernize and urbanize, growth rates will inevitably slow, and human ingenuity may increase our carrying capacity at a rate greater than our global population growth.

What do you guys think?

I think your a moron.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? Aug 16, 2023 10:21

Triskelli: Sep 27, 2011; I AM A SKELETON
WITH VERY HIGH
STANDARDS

https://youtu.be/QsBT5EQt348

Educational video for you OP.

The argument is that the current amount of people is caused by the transition from agriculture to industry, and that further industrialization will see a decline in the birth rate as people choose not to have kids.

We�ll never overpopulate because we�d get depressed and stop loving before then, basically.

# ? Aug 16, 2023 12:02

Bel Shazar: Sep 14, 2012

Triskelli posted:

https://youtu.be/QsBT5EQt348

Educational video for you OP.

The argument is that the current amount of people is caused by the transition from agriculture to industry, and that further industrialization will see a decline in the birth rate as people choose not to have kids.

We�ll never overpopulate because we�d get depressed and stop loving before then, basically.

Counterpoint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ImRyPymRAM

# ? Aug 16, 2023 13:08

Unormal: Nov 16, 2004; Mod sass? This evening?! But the cakes aren't ready! THE CAKES!; Fun Shoe

We'll hit 10 billion then level off and drop, with most of the population growth (2+ billion) happening in a rapidly urbanizing Africa, which has the three largest metro areas on Earth by 2100. Hth op

# ? Oct 6, 2023 08:51

Tragicomic: Jun 6, 2011; by Modern Video Games

Apparently it's not even going to be a gradual dropoff, but rather a population collapse caused solely by birthrates with no violence required:

All of the Predictions Agree on One Thing: Humanity Peaks Soon https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/18/opinion/human-population-global-growth.html

We're under one billion by 2300

# ? Oct 6, 2023 14:03

Tree Reformat: Apr 2, 2022; by Fluffdaddy

Tragicomic posted:

Apparently it's not even going to be a gradual dropoff, but rather a population collapse caused solely by birthrates with no violence required:

All of the Predictions Agree on One Thing: Humanity Peaks Soon https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/18/opinion/human-population-global-growth.html

We're under one billion by 2300

Too bad it still won't be fast enough to solve the problems caused by peak population.

Also we're going way under that long before 2300 because we'll probably nuke ourselves in the climate wars before this century is out. So birth rate fretting is kind of a moot point in the grand scheme of things.

# ? Oct 7, 2023 01:45

011524_3: Jan 16, 2024

Extinction due to stagnation or Extinction due to lack of space (psychology)

# ? Jan 16, 2024 02:17

Gniwu: Dec 18, 2002

Are you calling us fat, OP? 🤨

# ? Jan 16, 2024 03:27

GABA ghoul: Oct 29, 2011

In addition to what everyone else said: agriculture is really not the bottleneck for anything anymore. Almost all worldwide agricultural production goes towards feeding livestock nowadays so we can have the luxury of eating 4 whole pigs, a wheel of cheese and 12 eggs a day. None of this is necessary (some might even say it's unhealthy) and we could probably cut global agricultural production in half by limiting livestock numbers and we would see a positive effect on health in developed countries from that. Food insecurity is mainly a result of allocating and distributing this massive overproduction in a very lovely way, i.e. prioritizing feeding pigs over feeding people.

e: also exotic fruits and biofuels are a huge waste too. Do you really need to eat a whole papaya every day? All this papaya eating is completely out of control

GABA ghoul fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Jan 16, 2024

# ? Jan 16, 2024 10:57

Arglebargle III: Feb 21, 2006

CAN the earth sustain a European lifestyle for 10 billion people? No.

But can our global political system deliver the policies to draw down consumption and ramp up sustainable technologies?

Also no.

# ? Jan 16, 2024 14:38

Typo: Aug 19, 2009; Chernigov Military Aviation Lyceum
The Fighting Slowpokes

human population -decrease- is now a bigger issue than overpopulation

it's not just europe/east asia: Latin American birth rates have plummeted over the last 20-30 yrs for example

# ? Jan 16, 2024 15:42

011624_4: Jan 17, 2024

Is the Earth gonna run out of Time for us?

# ? Jan 17, 2024 02:08

Rogue AI Goddess: May 10, 2012; I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees.
That was a joke... unless..?

011624_4 posted:

Is the Earth gonna run out of Time for us?

No, we'd need to go to the stars for that kind of runway. It takes time to travel in space, and it takes space to travel in Time.

# ? Jan 17, 2024 14:21

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

Typo posted:

human population -decrease- is now a bigger issue than overpopulation

it's not just europe/east asia: Latin American birth rates have plummeted over the last 20-30 yrs for example

Still growing at a greater year on year percentage than most of human history pre-industrialization. People in the places where that's not the case will either have to get used to people moving there or get used to the prosperity moving to where the people are.

# ? Jan 17, 2024 14:25

Typo: Aug 19, 2009; Chernigov Military Aviation Lyceum
The Fighting Slowpokes

Guavanaut posted:

Still growing at a greater year on year percentage than most of human history pre-industrialization. People in the places where that's not the case will either have to get used to people moving there or get used to the prosperity moving to where the people are.

I wouldn't be that pessimistic: it's not clear to me that higher population growth==lower standard of living in the modern world

# ? Jan 17, 2024 17:50

tehslime: Jun 19, 2023

No, just for you, OP.

# ? Feb 7, 2024 09:12

a primate: Jun 2, 2010

E: oops wrong forum

# ? Mar 22, 2024 14:14

Mumpy Puffinz: Aug 11, 2008; Nap Ghost

Kingoffrogs posted:

What do you guys think? it's going to happen eventually, as all species have a carrying capacity that, when reached, further inhibits the growth of a particular population. Us humans, however, are unique in being that we have the ability to change our carrying capacity at a scale far greater than every other organism on Earth.

There are also enormous swathes of land that are still left either sparsely or entirely unpopulated today: The Amazon rainforest, the Tibetan Plateau, Xinjiang region of China, etc. These areas may be able to be terraformed (some already are, such as the Amazon Rainforest) in order to suit human habitation.

On the other hand, There is a great deal of land that is not suitable for the sustenance of any agriculture at all: in fact, only about 10% of the world's land is arable. Perhaps these territories could be terraformed and rendered viable for agriculture.

There are many parameters that us humans can modify in order to perpetuate a habitable environment - Temperature, soil, atmosphere, sunlight exposure, biome, etc. Will we be able to modify these parameters sufficiently in order to sustain our population growth? Or will the human race surpass it's carrying capacity, possibly leading to plague, famine, and war.

My opinion is, that we will eventually reach carrying capacity, but not surpass it in an eventful and destructive fashion. Human population growth rates have already slowed in many places, such as Europe and East Asia. The places that have high birth rates are still either agricultural/ hunter gatherer societies and have no/little access to contraception, along with little urbanization, which leads to lower birth rates. As these nations modernize and urbanize, growth rates will inevitably slow, and human ingenuity may increase our carrying capacity at a rate greater than our global population growth.

What do you guys think?

it ain't for you

# ? Mar 23, 2024 06:12

Eddy-Baby: Mar 8, 2006; ₤₤LOADSA MONAY₤₤

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih5OTyCYMH4

# ? Mar 23, 2024 21:25

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# ? May 11, 2024 23:49

a primate: Jun 2, 2010

Typo posted:

I wouldn't be that pessimistic: it's not clear to me that higher population growth==lower standard of living in the modern world

A Canadian bank just came out with a report suggesting we may be heading into a population trap. I guess we�ll find out.

https://www.nbc.ca/content/dam/bnc/taux-analyses/analyse-eco/etude-speciale/special-report_240115.pdf

# ? Mar 23, 2024 22:29

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Is the Earth going to run out of room for us?