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Page added on July 10, 2017
Elon Musk: The world’s population is accelerating toward collapse and nobody cares
Elon Musk usually tweets about mundane topics, from LA traffic to Tesla projects. On Thursday he was more dire.
“The world’s population is accelerating towards collapse, but few seem to notice or care,” Tesla’s CEO tweeted to his nearly 10 million followers.
He pointed to a November article in New Scientist magazine titled, “The world in 2076: The population bomb has imploded.”
The piece, written by Fred Pearce points to Japan as a case study for what could go wrong in the relatively near future.
Rather than a meltdown where the Earth’s population outstrips the planet’s ability to feed everyone, we could be headed toward a more subtle but equally disastrous outcome where our population simply does not replace itself fast enough.
“The world has hit peak child,” the late Hans Rosling, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said in the article.
Indeed, Japan’s fertility rate is 1.4 children per woman, well below what is required to sustain population growth.
While Japan is perhaps the most well-known example of a country’s population aging, the article in the London-based magazine also points to Germany and Italy, both of which “could see their populations halve within the next 60 years.”
The article spells out some of the problems an older population might bring, including less innovation, cultural shifts and worse and more recession-prone economies.
According to the US Census Bureau, the nation’s population is roughly 325 million with a net gain of one person every 12 seconds.
However, Pearce does point out some silver linings. “Old could be the new young,” he writes, adding older societies are less likely to start wars.
And, he points out, fewer people on the planet would give Earth’s ecosystem a breather:
“Nature, at least, would enjoy the silver lining.”
The so-called population bomb has been speculated about for nearly half a century, dating back to at least 1968 when two Stanford University researchers published a book titled “The Population Bomb” that predicted mass starvation in the 1970s and ’80s due to overpopulation.
Musk has been known to pontificate on theories outside the mainstream, including famously last June when he said there is only a “one in billions” chance we’re not living in a computer simulation.
19 Comments on "Elon Musk: The world’s population is accelerating toward collapse and nobody cares"
onlooker on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 9:42 am
Nobody cares how about not that many even know
twocats on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 10:50 am
the article is about population decline. that’s a good thing. elon musk is a moron.
Sissyfuss on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 11:33 am
Exactly Twocats. He’s making a plea for more customers.
q on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 12:19 pm
Not surprising this conman see it exactly opposite of truth.
Keith McClary on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 1:34 pm
Don’t worry, Musk is building a Robot Megafactory to counter the population shortage.
q on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 1:54 pm
And when he links human brains with computers, he may program people to have much more children so underpopulation problem will be solved. 🙂
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/21/elon-musk-on-mission-to-link-human-brains-with-computers-in-four-years-report.html
DerHundistlos on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 6:17 pm
The only logical explanation for Musk’s nonsense is to lull the population into a sense of complacency so as to continue the present planet killing paradigm.
Musk is a member of the elite club that will evacuate to enormous underground facilities impervious to penetration by the rest of us poor slobs. These facilities will comfortably house their occupants for many decades, if necessary. Example, at one facility in the Ozarks, the quantity of materials being offloaded required the construction of a railroad spur!!!! The chosen few will arrive via ultra-high speed underground magnetic levitation rail. The 25 foot thick steel and titanium blast doors are closed automatically and self-sealing.
Davy on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 7:32 pm
Where in the Ozarks der hund? I will pay it a visit and verify it for you.
DerHundistlos on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 9:05 pm
The sites are well known and verified:
https://vimeo.com/54786793
You forget that I am from Missouri having grown-up on a farm in Franklin County (proud birthplace of Dick Gephardt and extended family as the Gephardt’s are well known and respected dairy farmers).
Davy on Tue, 11th Jul 2017 4:44 am
“You forget that I am from Missouri having grown-up on a farm in Franklin County”
Der hund, I am not doubting you. If I rag you it is because I have problems with the group you support. I want to go see the place you referenced because I am a doomer and prepper. I would like to see what they are up to.
I do not forget where anyone on this board is from. I am a geographic nut and have a large collection of maps. BTW, my family was a big supporter of Dick. Now they are conservatards. I am neither. I am a doomer.
Davy on Tue, 11th Jul 2017 4:49 am
Der Hund, I checked out the link. Pretty lame, do you have anything better?
deadlykillerbeaz on Tue, 11th Jul 2017 6:00 am
Julian Simon, the doomslayer:
“Resources come out of people’s minds more than out of the ground or air,” says Simon. “Minds matter economically as much as or more than hands or mouths. Human beings create more than they use, on average. It had to be so, or we would be an extinct species.”
https://www.wired.com/1997/02/the-doomslayer-2/
As long as those minds can remain sane, there is really nothing to worry about.
Davy on Tue, 11th Jul 2017 6:45 am
The real resource is wisdom. It is man’s ability to choose rationally in humility to his planetary scale. It is the ability to say no and accept less. It is not exceptionalism. There are small groups and individuals who have been awakened to man’s true existential reality. Science is telling us many rational things. Science is also being used irrationally to promote exceptionalism of techno development. This is now systematic and self-organizing. It will take an existential crisis of survival to change that hijacking and when that happens it will be too late.
In the state of overshoot man is in today on “EVERY” level proper risk management takes multiple years and significant investment to mitigate. There must be unity of purpose and direction. Our current unity of purpose and direction is more consumption and techno development. We are doing more of what got us to the brink. We are tasked with making life easier and more comfortable. This has been taken to the extreme. We are seeking out knowledge without restraint and opening doors that should not be opened. We are trampling on nature for our own ends.
This is true of the lying fake greens as well as the deplorable science deniers. Man is corrupted and this corruption is with the planet itself. Forget about the human sphere. The human sphere no longer has meaning in our relativistic civilization. It is the planet that matters. In this state the individual must chose insanity over normality. In this modern age right is wrong and wrong is right. We are living in a paradox within an existential catch 22. You can’t check out except in your heart. If you expose your feelings too much you are considered a nutter.
If you believe in wisdom and meaning that leads to the truth you will turn away from normality. If the truth is what gives you a force of existence then you must bravely face this almost impossible task of embracing a reality that is covered by false myths. You must reject multiple human narratives of hate, blame, and baseless faith. You must journey into the valley of death and live among the corpses. These corpses are truth and natural beauty. They are the shattered remains of human beauty.
What we humans represent today is death and yet we fill our days with normality and the pursuit of happiness as if we are an image of the divine. If you want meaning reject all narratives at their foundation. No don’t reject everything just start with a clean slate as your foundation and build upon that with life. Things are what they are. This craziness is a natural cycle. There is no crazy in nature. What is wrong for us individuals is the starting point for our wisdom not the reality of a destroyed species and planet. Nature has done this through us. We are only Nature’s handmaiden.
DerHundistlos on Tue, 11th Jul 2017 4:56 pm
” my family was a big supporter of Dick.”
I knew there was a reason I liked you!!!!!!
I worked diligently on Gephardt’s 1988 campaign when he came ever so close to winning the nomination. You may be interested in some history I will share with you later this evening so please stay tuned, Davy!!!!!!!
DerHundistlos on Tue, 11th Jul 2017 5:05 pm
Davy-
In response to your criticism, there is plenty of evidence if you take the time to investigate. Further, you asked for locations so start there.
Dr. Richard Sauder has spent years investigating this topic. Here is one of the interviews conducted with Dr. Sauder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDoyMhVZbBE
I am not trying to convince you or anyone else of an agenda. My only interest is in the underground facilities themselves.
Sissyfuss on Tue, 11th Jul 2017 7:01 pm
You almost had it Derhund. The population problem is because ” my dick was a big supporter of family.”
DerHundistlos on Wed, 12th Jul 2017 12:48 am
Davy- if you are interested, here’s my Gephardt story. I took some time to write this so please no snarky Gephardt remarks.
In 1988, a good friend who was an officer with the Boilermakers Union of Southern Illinois and I volunteered for Gephardt’s presidential campaign. While Gephardt did not have the zillions of dollars of Dukakis, he had a very large, diverse, and dedicated group of volunteers. We called ourselves, “Geps Reps” and we all had a terrific time. Dick and Jane Gephardt along with Mrs. Gephardt (Mr. Gephardt passed away a few years before) and their children were always polite, sincere, and kind people- we all felt like members of the family. God, how times have changed in just 30 years time.
As you know, the first presidential contest is the Iowa caucuses, and at that time, much more so then now, it was a huge boost to win Iowa. In that Missouri borders Iowa, we expected to do well, but nothing was taken for granted. Senator Paul Simon of Illinois was running as well. It was possible that he could split the vote with us.
The campaign paired a friend of mine and me with two cute girls who were seniors as John Burroughs two important precincts in Cedar Rapids. We rented a van to help our disabled and senior supporters make it to the caucus due to cold and snowy weather. The girls worked the inside. We were all equipped with walkie talkies so the girls could communicate with us in the event we needed more bodies. And we needed two more people to win these two large caucus sites so we cut a deal with two ladies that in exchange for shoveling their driveway and walk way, they would be attend. So we shoveled furiously and we got our supporters inside before the doors closed and we won!!!!!
Gephardt won Iowa, but unfortunately Pat Robertson won the Republican caucus and this was huge news. Consequently, we did not get the publicity we hoped. Nonetheless, the next contest was the South Dakota caucus. Since Gephardt did well with farmers and blue collar workers, he won the second contest by a landslide. We were on a roll. From South Dakota the campaign moved to New Hampshire. Given Dukakis’ proximity, he was expected to win. If we could come in with a strong second place finish, we would retain our frontrunner status. For a third time we won. Then the Dukakis, Gore, and Simon campaigns pooled their funds to eliminate Gephardt on Super Tuesday. They spent millions and millions on the most nasty campaign you can imagine, and they succeeded, Dukakis became the nominee and G. W. Bush cleaned Dukakis’s clock on election day.
In 2004 the conventional wisdom was that Kerry would select Gephardt as VP. Even the New York Post ran the headline, “Gephardt from Missouri to Run as Kerry VEEP”. Instead, the genius Kerry selected John Edwards. Why remains a mystery since Edwards could not even win his home state of North Carolina for Kerry. After the campaign, we learned that Edwards fathered a child with some groupie while his wife was dying from breast cancer!!!! Further, Edwards illegally diverted campaign funds to pay this woman hush money during the campaign. The selfish Edwards failed to disclose this information to the Kerry campaign. Can you imagine the scandal if Kerry won?
DerHundistlos on Wed, 12th Jul 2017 12:53 am
Siss-
You’re right. I really stepped in it!!!!!!!
Davy on Wed, 12th Jul 2017 4:32 am
Great Story Der Hund, I can see why you are into politics. You grew up with it. I was never political. My family supported Gephardt because of my grandfather. My grandfather was a democrat from the depression era and knew Gephardt well from his beginnings. My dad turn to the conservatards. I am not sure why but maybe it was part of the Reagan thing.