Human Overpopulation: Fact or Falsehood?

[Misiziri]

Now I happened to stumble upon something on the Internet mentioning this subject and thought I could put it here. Anyways, it's a topic a lot of people seem to argue about: is human overpopulation actually something to worry about right now or is this just BS? I won't state my opinion but it'd be interesting to see what you guys have to say, especially you debate-lovers out there (you know who you are x] )

[Regulus]

Well, the idea that every population has a limit is definitely not something that can be argued about, it is a fact. If there are more predators than prey, the prey population decreases, and some predators are forced to starve.

But, as humans, we have a few tricks up our sleeve to circumvent this. We 'create' our own food, by breeding animals and farming land. However, even this has it's limits. What happens when we don't have enough land to farm? We won't have enough food, and then the inevitable is going to happen.

Whether or not we are close to overpopulation, I am unsure of. However, I do know that our population as it is today has a negative effect on our environment, and that is a sure sign that our numbers are getting too high.

The thing is though, with some large-scale adjustments, this can be changed. We could build giant floating cities to live on, and use the land we have now exclusively for farming. Or, dare I say it, we could leave Earth behind and colonize other planets altogether. Keep in mind, though, that these are extreme measures. There are much smaller ways to boost the efficiency of land use, which can also help.

Basically, it's like global warming. Yes, it may not be a problem. But there is a chance it could be a problem, and there are measures we can take to prevent that.

[Tora]

[quote="Regulus"]Or, dare I say it, we could leave Earth behind and colonize other planets altogether.[/quote]
Honestly I think this is going to happen sooner or later. Maybe not in our life time, but I can still see it happening.

Honestly though I don't think we are anywhere near over populating the world yet. It really comes down to where you live I guess, but I don't really see it being a problem unless you are somewhere like China right now.

[Tabby]

Well.. I don't see where's the issue.

Nothing a good ol' war can't fix ^^

[Regulus]

Yes, it varies by region. China and India are the countries that are really suffering. Our population in America is fine.

Honestly, when we are running low on resources, a war is exactly what will happen.

[Tabby]

Lol I honestly don't think India and China will keep arms crossed, either some war will occur by srs or a huge ammount of migration waves, it will also lead some anti-inmigration politics around the world, also you can wait a huge economical deficit when these chinese people start to seek for democracy and bigger ambitions; the energy needed as to run those overpopulated cities and the construction of the large ammount of buildings to locate the increasing population is just really excesive right now, in some years i don't think the world will be able to hold them...

[Woeler]

so what kind of over population are we talking about? on worldscale? never gonna happen. on local scale it will happen but it won't last for long. here is why

the population of a country is bound to a thing called "the demographic transition model". This model devides the population growth in 5 phases. It also uses 3 indicators "birthrate", "deathrate" and "natural population growth". This model is not an estimate or a prediction, it is a fact for ALL countries.

the Phases work as followed
phase 1: deathrate and birthrate are steady, birthrate is slightly higher than deathrate.
phase 2: birthrate dramatically increases causing a huge population growth.
phase 3: birthrate keeps rising slowly and reaches its peak.
phase 4: birthrate starts decreasing and deathrate starts increasing, eventually deathrate will go above the birthrate causing a population decrease.
phase 5: (the most developed European countries have now entered this phase) deathrate keeps rising and birthrate steadies. Population keeps decreasing.

rapid growing countries like China and India are now in phases 2 and 3, which means they will sometime reach phase 4. Ultimately the populaion will restore itself on worldscale. The US is in phase 4, The Netherlands, Japan, Germany and scandinavia are entering phase 5. Most african countries are still in phase 1 and 2. Asia is in phase 2 and 3. Most latino countries are in phase 2-3 as well.

local overpopulation might be a problem but certainly not for the US or Europe. The intelligence of us (humans) has overruled the instinct to get as many kids as possible. This in combination with the DTM shows that global overpopulation will never happen. China an India might get local problems but they will only last for like 100 years. When Africa rises, the same will happen to them.

and IF it were possible for global overpopulation to happen, I don't see the poblem. The earth gets overpopulated, people die, the earth is not overpopulated anymore, the end.

and colonizing other planets will possibly happen in the distant future but never because of overpopulation. either because we destroyed our planet with pollution or because our fuels are running out.

[Regulus]

[quote="Woeler1"]and colonizing other planets will possibly happen in the distant future but never because of overpopulation. either because we destroyed our planet with pollution or because our fuels are running out.[/quote]

I consider that to be a result of overpopulation. In my opinion, it doesn't necessarily refer exclusively to food, but resources in general. Fuel, or any form of energy, for that matter, is our most limited resource in the developed world.

However, there is one thing I really disagree with. You say developed countries are in the final stages of overpopulation, meaning that we've gone through the same thing as China and India before. We haven't. The worldwide population rate is increasing rapidly, as a whole. I don't doubt that the problem will fix itself, but it's more than just a few countries.

[Woeler]

[quote="Regulus"][quote="Woeler1"]and colonizing other planets will possibly happen in the distant future but never because of overpopulation. either because we destroyed our planet with pollution or because our fuels are running out.[/quote]

I consider that to be a result of overpopulation.[/quote]

They will eventually run out, our planet is not overpopulated, the estimates still haven't changes.

[Azdgari]

I guess the real question is, what is the optimal population of the Earth?