Page added on October 29, 2014
Not even a third world war or a lethal pandemic, leave alone a one child policy globally, will be able to slow down the planet’s rocketing population rise, scientists say.
New multi-scenario modeling of world human population has concluded that even stringent fertility restrictions or a catastrophic mass mortality would not bring about large enough change this century to solve issues of global sustainability.
Scientists concluded that even a world-wide one-child policy like China’s, implemented over the coming century would still likely result in 5-10 billion people by 2100.
There are currently about 7.1 billion people on earth, and demographers estimate that this number could rise to about 9 billion by 2050.
Professor Corey Bradshaw and Professor Barry Brook from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute said that the locked-in population growth means the world must focus on policies and technologies that reverse rising consumption of natural resources and enhance recycling.
Fertility reduction efforts, however, through increased family-planning assistance and education, should still be pursued, as this will lead to hundreds of millions fewer people to feed by mid-century.
23 Comments on "Population explosion is unstoppable"
Makati1 on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 12:56 am
Eliminate the Western countries and you have ~40% more to share with the other 6 billion.
antiwarforever on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 4:30 am
Eliminate the other 6 billion, and you have an incredible wealth to share between the 1 billion who live in reasonably wealthy, democratic and sustainable societies, mainly in the West.
herrmeier on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 6:05 am
That’s good idea Makati. And since the 3rd world has shown restraint in reproduction we’re all sure they will stay at 6 B equally sharing the world wealth among each other.
Makati1 on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 7:32 am
herrmeier, perhaps it is their turn to live a reasonable life without the plundering and murdering by the West? After all, history shows who has the slaves and who are the slaves, doesn’t it? Turn around is fair play…
ghung on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 8:13 am
Sure, Mak, they are, after all, a different species on a different planet with different behavior patterns than those in the west, eh?
Davy on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 8:47 am
Thanks G-man for reminding the Makster that westerners are human too.
JuanP on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 9:41 am
In all of World War II, sixty million people died over six years. In WWI, less than 40 million people died in over four years. The 1918 Spanish Flu killed 50-100 million over three years.
The global population grows by 80 million people per year. If we had WWI, WWII, and the Spanish Flu at the same time, it would only slow population GROWTH by half, still allowing for an annual increase of around 40 million.
People have no inkling how bad what is coming is going to ned to be just to stop population growth, forget bringing it down. It will be much, much worse than anything that ever happened in human existence with the possible population bottleneck of 75,000 years ago when we almost went extinct. We are talking orders of magnitude different from the World Wars.
Davy on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 9:51 am
Juan, you are making a profound statement. There is no modern equivalent to a 7BIL reduction to 1BIL in a generation. There is nothing but the scary abstract writing and paintings of the apocalypse in the bible and renaissance art. I think reality will not be apocalyptic like the stories but the effect will be the same. Destruction is a simple and plain term. There is no sugar coating it.
Donal on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 11:25 am
Recalling Albert Bartlett’s explanation of the exponential function, small rates of decline can also lead exponentially to a significant reduction in the population.
Kenz300 on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 11:49 am
The rise of China’s population from abject poverty can be partly attributed to their slowing birth rate.
An ever growing population makes makes the problems of poverty, suffering and despair harder to solve.
Davy on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 11:59 am
Kenny Boy, China is an end game for humanity regardless of slowing population or slowing consumption. The damage has been done and the shear size of the monster created overwhelming.
Your AltE optimism has no happy ending. AltE is a mitigation strategy nothing more.
Davy on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 12:01 pm
Donny, it would be refreshing to see exponential functions work in a positive way. It seems currently all exponential functions are negative.
Northwest Resident on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 12:40 pm
China needs 7.5% (or so) economic growth to provide jobs/work for those millions of kids finishing school and “entering the workforce” on an annual basis. If China can’t keep up their economic growth rate to match their population growth rate, they’ll end up with a lot of unemployed youth on the streets — same as we have in Europe and America.
I read today (but can’t find the article) that only about one third of China’s population is subjected to the one-child only rules, and even that 1/3 of the population finds ways to get around it. One routine practice is, if the first born is a girl, then the girl is sold into slavery — about 100,000 young girls per year I read — in order to keep that “one child” slot open for a boy.
Excessive population is the source and the cause of so much evil in the world today.
Long, long ago in the very beginning, bacteria growing in the primordial ocean waters multiplied until their numbers exceeded the amount of resources available. On the verge of complete die-off, a few of those bacteria managed to survive by adapting their behavior to eat other bacteria. And THOSE bacteria lived to reproduce and pass their traits on while the others died.
And so it began…
Dragon Oil on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 12:58 pm
The increasing population on this planet is all comming from uneducated people in the third world, not the west. Populations in the west are all shrinking such as Russia, Italy, France and others. Only western countries with unfettered immagration polocies have expanding populations. The vast majority of children are born to mothers between the ages of 16 and 35. Ten years of no kids in that group in the third world will shrink the world population a bunch. What’s more important is that the existing natural resources will become much better distributed than they are now. Who do we see about all that?
MSN Fanboy on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 3:59 pm
We just need to eat people 🙂
Davy on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 4:25 pm
Msn, I have notice over my many years females are quite tasty if that is what you mean.
MSN Fanboy on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 5:58 pm
LOL. I dont know i should laugh or cry. It echos in my mind.
But tis a good point no?
People will eat people… hunger will drive them.
Its abhorent, yes. In a collapse however to say out of 7 billion + nobody will resort to cannibalism is delusional.
I prep so i never have to face that choice. I prep so im not forced into desperation.
Makati1 on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 9:39 pm
Davy, are you so sure Westerners are human? After all, they are committing species suicide and taking the rest of the world with them, even if they really don’t want to go.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Fits the West perfectly today. Everything it touches turns to chaos and trash.
Fun to watch. Hope I get to see the final act. The curtain is going up.
Patrick on Wed, 29th Oct 2014 9:58 pm
Black Death: 30-60% of the population dead.
Davy on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 4:47 am
OH, Mak from Wack, sometimes I wonder if you are being funny or just your usual nastiness. Makster What about China? Overpopulation combined with overconsumption isn’t that species suicide. Since you are so big on links check out this link on china cement consumption. IMA cement is ranked up there with coal as an AGW agent. We all know about China and coal. I mention China because that is Mak’s bright horse:
“Various commentators have pointed to China’s cement industry as one indicator of a property bubble, noting that China has produced and used more cement in the last few years than the United States did over the entire 20th century. Data from US and Chinese government sources compiled by the historian Vaclav Smil – and publicized by the blog of Bill Gates – show that China consumed 6.6 billion tons of cement in 2011-2013, vs. 4.5 billion tons consumed by the United States from 1901-2000.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-27/chinese-soft-landing-will-inevitably-lead-very-brutal-hard-landing-pettis-warns
Makster, I know your grimy foot taste bad in your mouth.
OH, Mak, thought about you yesterday. I seen the Philippians made the top 10 list.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-change-a-threat-multiplier-for-farmingdependent-nations-report-20141030-11dyx5.html
Makati1 on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 7:51 am
Davy, I think China will survive quite well, It has for 2,000 years or so. It’s people are not that far away from farming and self-sufficiency. Oh, a few million Western type wannabees are going to die or adjust, but China will continue just fine. As will most of the Asian countries that ate not totally Westernized.
As for the Ps, same here. Most will do just fine without the ‘luxuries’ of the age of oil. Most still do. No problem. As for food, I think that too will be manageable here in the sub-tropics. And China will have Russia to help feed her millions. Cannot say the same for the West.
The US is already changing into a desert. Another few years of drought and California will not be able to grow decent cactus. What happens when the West Coast is not livable? When all of the food produced there is no longer available? When the US cannot import 20% of it’s food like it does today? When all the tens of millions who have non-productive ‘jobs’ no longer have them? When the government trough gets recycled into firewood?
If I were you, I would be more concerned with the police state dictatorship you will be/are living in than my situation across the world. What happens when all the social safety nets are gone? When the local groceries are forever empty? When the drug stores are closed, and deserted? When you need ‘papers’ to go from one town to the next? Etc.
BTW: Two articles from the Western MSM don’t mean much in reality. They are only wishing they are correct to make other areas seem worse than their own. More propaganda. I am quite aware of my situation here and I can say that it is much better than the one I would have in PA.
Davy on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 8:03 am
Mak where is your supporting analysis? We don’t care about your propaganda.
Northwest Resident on Thu, 30th Oct 2014 9:55 am
Mak don’t need no stinkin’ supporting analysis. Mak lives in his own fantasy world of death and destruction to America, where the rest of the world does just fine and sits in the bleachers watching and applauding as the Great Satan America butchers and cannibalizes itself into non-existence. Mak’s fantasy blood-lust is gruesome and sick, but he plasters it every day on this site like the mad man he is. Everything in Mak’s little fantasy world revolves around death, killing, evil, disease, nuclear holocaust, war and kill kill kill! Mak lives in a sordid fantasy world of his own making, and he doesn’t need supporting analysis for that.