The world's population

[waltzingparrot]

I have discovered the website below during lockdown and have been following the daily coronavirus statistics from around the world. But it also shows the global population, updating in real time (almost).

I always think the world's population is 7 billion, but it's actually 7.7 billion and you can work out that it won't take that long to get to 8 billion and then faster to get from 8 to 9 billion and on and on.

What number can the earth support? Realistically, what's to be done?

www.worldometers.com

Good question. Demographic time bomb, the more young people there are, the more the population has the potential to grow.

It is frightening, especially factoring in climate change projections. Don't have the article to hand but IIRC the New Scientist had an article suggesting that by mid-end this century some of the most densely populated parts of the globe will have summer conditions that aren't survivable.

I always think the world's population is 7 billion, but it's actually 7.7 billion and you can work out that it won't take that long to get to 8 billion and then faster to get from 8 to 9 billion and on and on.

It was less than 4 billion when I was born ...

Yet if you ever dare to mention that having half a dozen children should require thinking about then you get a load of shit.

I may be wrong but I think the numbers are something like 200,000 extra people (births minus deaths) a day. About the size of Aberdeen, joining the planet every day.

Education and empowerment for all women. That's about it really. When women have autonomy over their own lives and bodies the numbers will naturally slow. But of course we need infinite increases to sustain our economies...

I thought the issue was also older people living longer? Unfortunately many western economies have older populations & declining birth rates & shrinking income tax payers hence why we need immigration

Population growth is slowing though.

Generally increased wealth, improved access to medical care and resources and education and empowerment of women and girls results in a more sustainable birth rate.
When children have a greater chance of survival fewer children are born.

So it's not all bad news.

Not much we can do - it's mainly replacement and people living longer. If you want an optimist's view this is v easy read and interesting www.amazon.co.uk/Factfulness-Reasons-Wrong-Things-Better/dp/1473637465

DGRosetti nearly 4 billion in one person's lifetime!

I suppose it's another topic that people will only realise as the human race hurtles into the crisis point. 10 million, 12 million? At some point money/economy will have to lose or the human race will.

This afternoon, for your delectation , I have invented adult commune living, for companionship , but where there is a commitment to having no children but caring for each other till death. There would have to be a lot of these. The stuff of sci-fy and nightmares.

If I were the type to go for aluminium headgear, I'd wonder whatever happened to the works of the good Reverend Malthus that I learned about (in Geography of all places) in the late 70s. You'd have thought his name would be on everyones minds if not lips.

It's like he's been airbrushed from history

Could be a long running thread in it's own ... (unless I start it )

I read that the only areas where population growth was above replacement levels, were also areas with very low consumption compared to say britain so thete carbon footprint was far lower. Also people living longer is as much of an impact as new people being born. I dont like the solutions of war, famine and pestilence at all I am keener on womens autonomy over their own body and reducing carbon footprints

well, speaking purely from a population perspective, things like the corona virus knock out large chunks of population, mostly of the economically inactive.

My grandfather (who was born in 1899 and held some rather ....ummm... unusual views) used to say we shouldn't intervene in a famine, it is the earth trying to correct the balance!

Doesn’t this kind of thread usually involve someone saying all it will take is a pandemic to bring the numbers down. Oh wait .....

I worked with a few academics in the past who believed that we should stop breeding and die out and let the Earth claim itself back, as it were.

Bobbin the problem with that is that all the sensible people who care about the planet will stop reproducing, and all the idiots who don't care will continue, thus ensuring the human race gets worse not better, unless you do it through enforced sterilization!

Doesn’t this kind of thread usually involve someone saying all it will take is a pandemic to bring the numbers down. Oh wait ....

This pandemic is pretty tame, really. It could have been a lot worse. And the next one might be.

@steppemum yes, it's that Lucy Worsley thing about being educated out of reproduction. Not sure she put it the best way but I know what she meant. Education plays a big part; the higher a woman's level of qualification, the fewer children she has. Think that was a Manchester Uni study.

This afternoon, for your delectation , I have invented adult commune living, for companionship , but where there is a commitment to having no children but caring for each other till death. There would have to be a lot of these. The stuff of sci-fy and nightmares.

Sounds like what convents and monasteries have been doing for centuries.