I am number 77,679,439,148

[Paul B]

When you were born, you were the:

3,600,221,264th
person alive on Earth

77,679,439,148th
person to have lived since history began

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515

 

[Kim]

scary

 

[Paul B]

What's scary is that in my lifetime to date the world population has almost doubled.

 

[whynot]

What's scary is that in my lifetime to date the world population has almost doubled.

Meh... In someone else's lifetime it more than doubled...

 

[Paul B]

A doubling of 1 to 2 billion is far less significant than a doubling of 3.5 to 7 billion.

 

[Kim]

What's scary is that in my lifetime to date the world population has almost doubled.

That's what I meant.. that graph scared me.

 

[Floris]

Don't worry, the oceans are big enough .. And despite all that, our star will burn out eventually to ruin our fun anyway. If an astroid impact doesn't ruin it first, or an ice age when this planet is just too far away from other masses (including the star) to stay warm enough on in the inside to kickstart things again and for us to recover from it.

World population is going to be a problem, but it's not a realistic show stopper.

 

[Oblivion Knight]

When you were born, you were the:

4,889,310,105th person alive on Earth​

79,727,749,340th person to have lived since history began​

Over 2 billion people lived between Brogan and myself. Blimey!

 

[Fuhrmann]

When you were born, you were the:

5,113,277,469th person alive on Earth

80,078,993,614th person to have lived since history began

 

[ArnyVee]

When you were born, you were the:
3,828,400,911th person alive on Earth
78,047,747,527th person to have lived since history began

 

[Floris]

 

[MGSteve]

World population is going to be a problem, but it's not a realistic show stopper.

Riiiight. That attitude is partly the reason we're facing the issues we're now facing.

I'll remind you of that quote when the wars over food & water start. When countries that can actually grow surplus food start selling it to the buyer with the deepest pockets, when riots start because people can't get enough food. Water we more-or-less should be OK with, as long as we provide enough desalination plants, but - ah, of course, they take a lot of energy to run, so it will depend on whether the country has enough power / resources to run them.

Like any life form, its quite possible for the life form to end up sucking all the resources from the planet and then demand outstrips supply.

Of course, it will be the poor countries that suffer first, then the most densely populated ones, the ones that can't feed their own populations.

It may not be an issue right now, but I'm sure as hell expecting it to be an issue for our Children. Lets face it, by the time my daughter is 20, it'll be 2031 and the population is expected to be 8.3 billion.

That's more demand for food, water, clothing, heat, housing, fuel, oil etc..

It can't keep going on, something, somewhere and sometime will give.....

 

[Fred Sherman]

77,253,785,461st human

 

[Fred Sherman]

Riiiight. That attitude is partly the reason we're facing the issues we're now facing.

No, he's right. If you look at human population densities globally as a percentage of land mass, we could easily double our population with no problem. Resources themselves aren't an issue, distribution is. Desalinization makes water plentiful. Fossil fuels are a technology challenge, not a resource challenge.

 

[Floris]

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

 

[erich37]

lots of potential to sell more XenForo licences

 

[Paul B]

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

Can't argue with that.

 

[jmurrayhead]

When you were born, you were the:
4,750,264,407th person alive on Earth
79,513,404,554th person to have lived since history began

 

[AdamD]

World population is going to be a problem, but it's not a realistic show stopper.

I think that's a little close minded to be honest.

Given that we're already experiencing issues in many countries with a lack of fresh drinking water and the problem is only going to get worse, I think it IS a major problem already.

The sad part is, even if we knew the end was near and we could do something to stop it, we probably wouldn't, most people just don't think of the bigger picture.

 

[MGSteve]

No, he's right. If you look at human population densities globally as a percentage of land mass, we could easily double our population with no problem. Resources themselves aren't an issue, distribution is. Desalinization makes water plentiful. Fossil fuels are a technology challenge, not a resource challenge.

Yes we can cope with more people as far as space goes, the problem comes when more people = more food required and more food = more acreage for crops. Yes we can hope that science helps us out with improving crop yields, but people are warey of GM now anyway, let alone if they start doing anything further.

To be quiet honest though, the decline in honey bee population is a more pressing concern, without them we're screwed at current levels anyway as we need them to pollinate the crops we have now!

Yes Desalination does make water plentiful, the problem is, as I said, its a VERY energy intensive process and we've got issues around energy at the moment and how we're going to power the 'electric car revolution' first!

Yes, to a degree new technology is giving access to oil reserves before considered out of reach, but these are not cheap processes and is part of the reason behind escalating fuel costs. (Partly, most of it is down to greed of OPEC, but that's for another thread).

But burying our heads in the sand and ignoring the issue isn't going to make it go away.