Fletcher500
Guru
Hippocampus, interesting thread and discussion. I like how you think, and hope you stick around and keep contributing to the forum.
So take it back a step.
Due to petrochemical dependent factory farming less than 2% of the population raises food and there’s still enough to be exported. That permits survival of an increase in population. Although we are now 28th in quality of life measures we still educate the engineers, physicians and scientists allowing a increasingly positive biologic quotient (survival long enough to be able to procreate). You are right more and more destruction of the environment. But think about why more people are possible. Even in third world countries it comes back to petrochemicals at present.
As mentioned previously, boat stores have vanished from the Annapolis waterfront where I lived 30 years ago, because of cost of real estate, availability of online products at lower cost, choice selection of online products, and the ridiculous parking problems of anywhere in Annapolis. While I do try to buy from the boatyard I patronize, it's only to help support them (friends). The closest I come to an auto parts store is to buy oil at Walmart.
Global climate change isn't a problem. It's a symptom of an excessive human population. Other symptoms would include depletion of the ocean's natural fish stocks, shortages of clean safe drinking water, and clearing of forests and filling of wetlands for agriculture and housing.
Until the earth's human population starts to decline and other species start to return to more normal levels, the human population will continue heading for a massive crash.
Ted
With many if not most religions opposed to birth control and abortion and many if not most cultures lauding large families, how do we do this?
There are the old favorites: War, Famine and Pestilence, but is that the route you propose? It would be better to lower births, but I don’t see how that can be mandated worldwide. That leaves only controlling population on the back end: killing those already born.
Will trawlers disappear? They still make bi-planes.
I'm not convinced the hand wringing over population growth is justified. It as been shown that as countries develop birth rates drop. The last projections I've seen suggest that global population will peak around 2050 then start to decline. We already have seen this in Japan, Europe is next to have a declining population. US immigration offsets this trend. Without immigration US population would remain relatively flat at ~330MM and start declining after 2050.
Be careful what you wish for. A declining population creates significant problems for a society. Social welfare system depend on a flow of young workers to support the cost of retirees. This is why the Europeans are quickly pushing up retirement ages, they simply can't afford to have people retiring at age 65 without their systems collapsing.
Obviously eventually we will have to adapt since by the end of this century global population is likely to be declining. ...Not sure what any of this has to do with trawlers.
Will trawlers disappear? They still make bi-planes.
...If fossil fuels were taxed to cover environmental damage done, changes would be rapid as well.
Exxon was aware of climate change, as early as 1977, 11 years before it became a public issue, according to a recent investigation from InsideClimate News. This knowledge did not prevent the company (now ExxonMobil and the world’s largest oil and gas company) from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation—an approach many have likened to the lies spread by the tobacco industry regarding the health risks of smoking. Both industries were conscious that their products wouldn’t stay profitable once the world understood the risks, so much so that they used the same consultants to develop strategies on how to communicate with the public.
Count the number of square riggers in your harbor
Has anybody mentioned to just buy a sailboat? Solar for battery charging and battery powered propulsion for on and off the dock.