Earth faces a century of disasters, report warns
Source: The Guardian
World population needs to be stabilised quickly and high consumption in rich countries rapidly reduced to avoid "a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills", warns a major report from the Royal Society.
Contraception must be offered to all women who want it and consumption cut to reduce inequality, says the study published on Thursday, which was chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston.
The assessment of humanity's prospects in the next 100 years, which has taken 21 months to complete, argues strongly that to achieve long and healthy lives for all 9 billion people expected to be living in 2050, the twin issues of population and consumption must pushed to the top of political and economic agendas. Both issues have been largely ignored by politicians and played down by environment and development groups for 20 years, the report says.
"The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption ... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future", it says.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/26/earth-population-consumption-disasters
msongs
(67,502 posts)Flaxbee
(13,661 posts)I think people really need to question their biological urges to reproduce more than once. Everyone screams that having a child is a fundamental right, but that doesn't necessarily mean having more than one is a wise thing to do, given that you probably want the best for the child you do have.
Just because your biological clock is telling you to have kids, doesn't mean you have to listen.
I wouldn't mind. Would set me free
mike_c
(36,281 posts)Quick, easy, no more painful than a trip to the dentist, really, and relatively non-invasive (compared to tubal ligature and similar procedures). A lifetime of guilt and pregnancy-risk free sex. Having done it thirty some years ago, I can say that it was one of the best decisions of my entire lifetime.
japple
(9,850 posts)obvious. For men, it's a trip to the doctor's office. For women, it's a surgical procedure that, at least in my area, must be done under anesthesia in a hospital.
bhikkhu
(10,726 posts)is the same reason that hunting of male game is considered to have little effect on population sizes. A single male can fertilize a whole herd, and the rate of reproduction doesn't necessarily increase if there are more males around.
But in people I would still agree with the point - equality among the sexes should extend to equality in access to birth control. You would think with all of our medical advances and technology it could be a simple, affordable and reversible option for any person...
orwell
(7,781 posts)Earth to humans...wise up before the jig's up.
trof
(54,256 posts)Maybe even before that.
We never learn.
marshall gaines
(347 posts)the truth will set us free. bout time something is said.
bluedigger
(17,091 posts)The planet has a lot of miles left in it...
marshall gaines
(347 posts)Auggie
(31,240 posts)We're so self-important. So arrogant. Everybody's going to save something now. Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save the snails. And the supreme arrogance? Save the planet!
Are these people kidding? Save the planet? We don't even know how to take care of ourselves; we haven't learned how to care for one another. We're gonna save the fuckin' planet? . . .
And, by the way, there's nothing wrong with the planet in the first place. The planet is fine. The people are fucked! Compared with the people, the planet is doin' great. It's been here over four billion years . . .
The planet isn't goin' anywhere, folks. We are! We're goin' away. Pack your shit, we're goin' away. And we won't leave much of a trace. Thank God for that. Nothing left. Maybe a little Styrofoam. The planet will be here, and we'll be gone. Another failed mutation; another closed-end biological mistake.
bluedigger
(17,091 posts)I was thinking of it when I posted.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)cilla4progress
(24,802 posts)Moostache
(9,897 posts)There will be no action to stop any of the destructive practices.
Even after the worst of the ills start to befall humanity, there will be no way the changes needed are actually implemented.
We can't raise the top marginal tax rate to 39% or return capital gains taxes to the levels of normal income, does anyone REALLY think that politicians will be able to do the right thing and reduce CONSUMPTION? It is the foundation of the entire global economy! Its the reason the US Military exists at all in its present form.
This planet is going to be just fine in about 1,000 years...no one will even know we were ever here in 10,000 years. But the humans left living through the resource wars, nuclear exchanges and devastation do have my sympathy and apology for not being able to convince others of the folly of our ways many years ago...
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)...before it gets very bad. They don't care and never will.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)mbuch64
(55 posts)started thinking that way during the Reagan years. There were studies done during the Nixon admin on the affects of overpopulation and the findings were not very pretty. Read some of Kissinger's thoughts on the subject for some wonderful bedtime reading. The powers that be have been hoarding wealth for 3 decades and they threw all in during dubya's term and they are upping the ante even more now. They know what is coming.
IthinkThereforeIAM
(3,078 posts)... it was during the Reagan years that I decided I did not want to have any offspring, who the heck would want a kid to grow up in this tripe filled world? I mean, they took Captain Kangaroo off the air in 1984. No one to tell the kids, "good morning and have a nice day", remains on television. And look at all the bullying problems that have manifested in the time being.
Perhaps sounds comical to read this, and I do get nervous laughs when I mention it. But lots of agreement, too. And look at the crap that is on the tube, "for kids", now days.
Baitball Blogger
(46,780 posts)we would be controlling our population through wars and prisons.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,780 posts)How do you control world population when women are still giving birth to nine and up children, many of which don't get the attention they deserve?
This is going to be tough.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Program on that promotes making as many pieces of cannon fodder, er, God's little angels, as the woman can shoot out her lady parts?
Isn't it part of Catholicism and Mormonism, etc.?
I have to give it to the Mormons for expecting the men to keep it in their underwear, and the Catholics for rhythm. At least if the men keep it to themselves, it'll work better.
I don't know what it's going to take. I know that most people that I knew in the 1970's really took zero population growth seriously. Then the Reagan era was forced upon us, and the religious right pushing making those babies.
The societies with lower population growth are the social democracies, in fact they allegedly suffer from having an aging demographic, but I don't believe it. As the same time we got Reagan, a lot of other places got their own version, including massive thefts of the retirement funds of all those people.
People were havingmore satisfaction with less kids, or no kids. And.. Ah, I''ll get back with you. Thanks.
Uncle Joe
(58,562 posts)Thanks for the thread, alp.
baldguy
(36,649 posts)The Twentieth Century began with the popular consciousness dreaming of the wonders of a hopeful future - but it saw the development of the most violent horrors humanity has ever unleashed upon itself.
Perhaps the bast way to avoid the disasters described in the OP is to be warned of them ahead of time.
kayakjohnny
(5,235 posts)Which is..... oh yeah.... all of them.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Lucky Luciano
(11,267 posts)GreydeeThos
(958 posts)This is just one more pull on that tired, old saw.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)But you probably don't believe in climate change either, I imagine.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)Good for you on posting this. And good for them to be drawing attention to it.
It's an emergency situation.
Matilda
(6,384 posts)But can you imagine the fuss from right-wingers of all persuasions, if it was tried world-wide?
But it will have to come one day ...
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)This is so obvious on its face, but all the big religions command prodigious procreation.
K&R
MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)It's all so subjective. Disaster for humans certainly. We're going to be the shortest lived dominant species the planet has ever seen. A virtual blink of an eye as far as it is concerned. The Earth is fine.
Remmah2
(3,291 posts)Men need to control their sacred sperm too ya know. Putting on a condum will help with contraception and reduce STD's.
The Other News
(6 posts)Until it's too late.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)It always takes a crisis, really, unless one is vigilant. As in, most people on this forum. We're alive and observant of the truth.
But even when asymptomatic, when a doctor says your left main coronary artery is 90% occluded, people believe it.
Unfortunately, breeding is a natural instinct. And mathematics isn't. So people just don't realize that we're on a vertical part of a graph that represents a dangerous rate of growth for very little input on each individual's part.
40 years ago I was cringing. Now I just sit and watch in disbelief as people jump on planes and cars as if there were no consequences to their actions.
I'm not writing a book. People have said I should do that. But I am involved in making technology better. Maybe. I'm trying. It's not the answer. Population is the answer. But as long as people aren't going to alter their breeding habits, technology is the only alternative.
CrispyQ
(36,567 posts)That was a statement in one of those eco-documentaries. It really resonated with me.