World Population Increase

[hampus_dh]

Too bad we're not intelligent beings with problem solving capability like bacteria.

And what to do when bacteria becomes resistant?
It´s happening as we speak.

http://www.worldometers.info/
16 hrs to go. It will be a 7 billion people planet.

My bet is we have already surpassed 7 billion a while ago.
I think last year China estimated to have counted wrong by 300 million people.

Then imagine all the places where you don´t get a birth certificate etc.

 

[Famine]

And what to do when bacteria becomes resistant?
It´s happening as we speak.

Errr.... what?

Keef commented that bacteria don't have problem solving skills, but people do. What do antibiotic-resistant bacteria have to do with this?

My bet is we have already surpassed 7 billion a while ago.

I'm curious. Do you believe a population counter is instantaneously updated as every new person is born and every person dies, or is it just slightly possible that it's based on a single source like the CIA World Fact Book, with population estimates for each country (and globally) and population growth rates for each country (and globally) inputted at the start and left to run with occasionally census updates and a confidence factor of a few percent either way?

Only it strikes me as stating the extreme obvious that we won't hit 7 billion people exactly as the counter hits 7 billion, to the point of being unnecessary.


It's just an estimate. There is no such thing as the 7 billionth person due to the innate logistical impossibility of determining the simultaneity of events on an 11,000 mile wide ball of rock.

 

[slims]

With that qualification, I'll multiply one prediction by another and guess that there will be problems with adequate amounts of fresh, clean water.

I agree. I try not to underestimate human ingenuity and the ability of our species to adapt to situations but considering how there are already 1 billion people without access to clean water today I only see that number increasing as the population increases.

Then of course comes the question of other resources such as oil. As the population grows and and also as countries develop more oil gets used up. Yeah there are renewable energy options and many countries are already investing in this tech. I just wonder if they're investing fast enough.

In a way we have started to adapt. I think I read somewhere that the world is becoming more urbanized as more and more people are pursuing life in cities rather than living in suburbs.

- On food in general, our current livestock breeding is apparently unsustainable in terms of space and energy use, which will begin to cause problems. One possible solution - and one that some people may like more than others - is that we're currently not making best use of a species that is utterly abundant on our planet and incredibly easy to breed in vast numbers - insects. 50, 100 years into the future there's a very real possibility that unless better options are found, the most sustainable meat product on supermarket shelves will be something that buzzes or crawls.

Insects? That's an interesting thought and one which may end up happening. I was thinking that if the space to raise livestock becomes limited as there needs to be more space to grow crops for humans that maybe we would end up being forced to switch to a more plant based diet and meat would become a luxury. Just a thought.

 

[ExigeEvan]

"The problem is that 97.5 percent of it is salty and ... of the 2.5 percent that's fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen. So there's not a lot of fresh water to deal with in the world."[/I]

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

Except countries like Australia lead the way in converting high mineral content water into drinking water.

And cities like London recycle water many, many times while other population centres still refuse to.

A few thoughts:

- On childbirth and population growth, the number of kids people are having is actually dropping these days. So some reckon the actual rate of increase will start slowing again, because the rapid increase earlier last century was due to people having four or five kids, now it's fewer than 3. I'm somewhat in support of limited child policies. In the modern world I see it as socially irresponsible to squeeze out loads of kids, for the above reasons of resources and overpopulation.

Except economically we need more children to support an ever increasing retired population. This will continue for every generation and worsen as medical technology prolongs human life.

On another level, people are increasingly moving towards large population centres and we're going to see an increase in "mega cities" with populations of 20 million or more. This is actually a good thing (not for traffic of course, but in general) because people are more likely to live close to where they work, resources and produce travel a shorter distance and more can make use of public rather than personal transport. Tokyo is a good example of a mega city at work.

Tokyo is an example of one of the few working mega cities, the rest have majority populations living in slums with few services and sanitation.

- On food in general, our current livestock breeding is apparently unsustainable in terms of space and energy use, which will begin to cause problems. One possible solution - and one that some people may like more than others - is that we're currently not making best use of a species that is utterly abundant on our planet and incredibly easy to breed in vast numbers - insects. 50, 100 years into the future there's a very real possibility that unless better options are found, the most sustainable meat product on supermarket shelves will be something that buzzes or crawls. Yum.

I suspect we'll eat Quorn before we eat bugs.

Can they make photo voltaic cells for wavelengths beyond the visible light spectrum?

Photons are photons to a PV cell, regardless of wavelength.

Wars over food and water will be coming - the world is already grossly overpopulated for natural resources... just like bacteria in a petrie dish multiplying and consuming until all that is left is their own waste to die in...

Grossly over populated how? I just cycled across Australia. There's plenty of areas where kangaroos far out number human population so the habitat is survivable. But the Aussie outback isn't very sell-able. Unless there's gold/coal.

 

[TankAss95]

I agree. I try not to underestimate human ingenuity and the ability of our species to adapt to situations but considering how there are already 1 billion people without access to clean water today I only see that number increasing as the population increases.

Then of course comes the question of other resources such as oil. As the population grows and and also as countries develop more oil gets used up. Yeah there are renewable energy options and many countries are already investing in this tech. I just wonder if they're investing fast enough.

In a way we have started to adapt. I think I read somewhere that the world is becoming more urbanized as more and more people are pursuing life in cities rather than living in suburbs.

Insects? That's an interesting thought and one which may end up happening. I was thinking that if the space to raise livestock becomes limited as there needs to be more space to grow crops for humans that maybe we would end up being forced to switch to a more plant based diet and meat would become a luxury. Just a thought.

Scientists are already synthetically producing meat sourced from common materials. It's expensive but it may very well be the way forward.
As mentioned before, conflict over resources will be inevitable when things go a bit dry. The severity of such fighting will have to be kept to a minimum, or the horror of more wars may occur.
One thing is certain though - countries are at their best at war. Technology advances are accelerated at massive proportions due to pressures, countries become very efficient to invest in the necessary to stay stable, people are determined to contribute in any way they can... maybe all of this could become beneficial in the long run?
It is often foolish to predict the future, and none of us can predict accurately what technology advances may occur. Trying to predict what might be available to solve such problems that we are discussing is probably a waste of time because of this. Many various outcomes could prevail if the population rises out of control. Although it may seem a bit dramatic, very dark days may lie ahead. Trying to prepare for such events may be a futile task.
Maybe I'm just over analysing. I kind of hope so.

 

[hampus_dh]

I'm curious. Do you believe a population counter is instantaneously updated as every new person is born and every person dies, or is it just slightly possible that it's based on a single source like the CIA World Fact Book, with population estimates for each country (and globally) and population growth rates for each country (and globally) inputted at the start and left to run with occasionally census updates and a confidence factor of a few percent either way?

Only it strikes me as stating the extreme obvious that we won't hit 7 billion people exactly as the counter hits 7 billion, to the point of being unnecessary.


It's just an estimate. There is no such thing as the 7 billionth person due to the innate logistical impossibility of determining the simultaneity of events on an 11,000 mile wide ball of rock.

Well first of all if you want any more answers you should write in a normal color and not fat letters, don´t even know why you do that, is it so people will notice you more?


Yes it´s just estimates, that´s why i said we probably already have passed 7 billion people on the planet a while back due to having "estimates" to count billions.

 

[Joel]

I see it as we'll adapt. Humankind is increidible at adapting when needed, electric cars really aren't very far off for example. Nuclear power seems to be the obvious choice for sustainable energy, and putting that into the grid to run electric cars seems like the inevitable future. I think it's probably only a matter of time before the only cars that run on gas are high performance or very expensive cars. With the technology we have now and are rapidly approaching, gas cars like my Corolla will cease to exist. If we have sustainable nuclear power there really is no reason to have econoboxes run on gas, it's just a waste. I think it's only a matter of time, we humans are pretty smart, and I think we can figure these things out.

Just imagine, nuclear power plants powering the world with clean, cheap, plentiful energy. Think about the millions and millions of cars, think about how many Toyota Camrys, Siennas, and Corollas there are, and then imagine 30 years from now when every single one of them will be an electric car. Think about the millions of cars commuting to work every day, wasting gas. One day they will all be electric. It's a really cool thing to think about, human ingenuity is just amazing.

As far as food production goes, I'd imagine it's only a matter of time before we have electric tractors as well, electric vehicles really will be the way of the future I'd imagine.

 

[PHCharls]

When you were born, you were the:
5,859,450,124th
person alive on Earth
81,271,613,448th

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515
Well interesting.

 

[Famine]

Well first of all if you want any more answers you should write in a normal color and not fat letters, don´t even know why you do that, is it so people will notice you more?

Oh, dear Xenu...

Yes it´s just estimates, that´s why i said we probably already have passed 7 billion people on the planet a while back due to having "estimates" to count billions.

Stating. The. Obvious. Unnecessarily so.

Only it strikes me as stating the extreme obvious that we won't hit 7 billion people exactly as the counter hits 7 billion, to the point of being unnecessary.

 

[PHCharls]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j9dD1OsfajvkYG_3SGJQuIGhEg-Q?docId=CNG.c985efcfab53ba89f922bddeac7ead11.3a1

The 7 Billionth baby came from the Philippines which is quite ironic to say.

 

[Bigbazz]

Don't dump all the blame on china and india, we in the western world consume and waste a lot more rescources per person than they do.

 

[Dennisch]

Clickie

85% of the people live in Africa and Asia.

 

[TankAss95]

Don't dump all the blame on china and india, we in the western world consume and waste a lot more rescources per person than they do.

The human race could be considered as bacteria. It consumes all the resources of a particular place, then moves on to another. We have improved, and become more efficient, but we have still much to advance to become less dependable in limited resources. Hopefully we can achieve much before it becomes a massive problem.

 

[noisiaturismo]

http://www.worldometers.info/

18:50 GMT, i'll watch!

 

[alexleighton]

http://www.worldometers.info/

18:49, i'll watch!

Another hour or so, of course, it's not exact.

This site is interesting, the amount of people without safe drinking water is steadily going down?

Also, I think this is a really good read: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/31/opinion/turner-7-billion/index.html..

Then scroll down to the comments and see why we have so many problems.

 

[homeforsummer]

http://www.worldometers.info/

18:50 GMT, i'll watch!

Worth pointing out that there are several counters for this sort of thing, and all of them are different. http://www.breathingearth.net/ reckons there's still over 52 million people to go, and other sites claim we're already over 7bn - so don't get too excited when that counter notches up...

Except economically we need more children to support an ever increasing retired population. This will continue for every generation and worsen as medical technology prolongs human life.

Agreed, though it doesn't stop current population growth from being unsustainable. Just requires a little more ingenuity. Or people pulling towards a common goal for the good of our species, but that'll never happen.

Tokyo is an example of one of the few working mega cities, the rest have majority populations living in slums with few services and sanitation.

Also agreed, though hopefully technology will allow future megacities to become more like Tokyo, rather than somewhere like Mumbai.

I suspect we'll eat Quorn before we eat bugs.

Now where's the fun in that?

I'm not actually adverse to the idea of eating bugs. As long as they're well prepared and well cooked (and tasted at least half-decent, of course) I'd be quite happy to eat insects. I don't really see it being any weirder than eating something like prawns out of the shell, and it's only really cultural reasons that we don't eat them already, since plenty of countries already do.

 

[Famine]

If you like, we can officially recognise MiniFamine2, born tomorrow, as the 7 billionth current human.

Also, having eaten Quorn, I'd rather eat centipedes, raccoon vomit, my own bogeys or Soylent Brown before going near Quorn again.

 

[homeforsummer]

Soylent Brown

I'd heard of that before but never investigated. I think its colloquial name actually sounds more appealing than "Soylent Brown".

 

[DK]

If you like, we can officially recognise MiniFamine2, born tomorrow, as the 7 billionth current human.

That doesn't sound like a bad idea to me...

 

[Rykon Zero]

If you like, we can officially recognise MiniFamine2, born tomorrow, as the 7 billionth current human.

Dawg I chill wit dat.

Yep, MiniFamine2 is the 7 billionth human.

 

[noisiaturismo]

Congratulations Earth.

I saw a video about the 6th billionth person on the planet, and he has quite a bad life... Poor MiniFamine2

 

[noisiaturismo]

-

 

[ExigeEvan]

Now where's the fun in that?

I'm not actually adverse to the idea of eating bugs. As long as they're well prepared and well cooked (and tasted at least half-decent, of course) I'd be quite happy to eat insects. I don't really see it being any weirder than eating something like prawns out of the shell, and it's only really cultural reasons that we don't eat them already, since plenty of countries already do.

I'm not adverse to eating bugs, I will in fact eat anything that is barely edible. But I believe Quorn is far more sell able to the general population than bugs. Though I guess you could counter with its relation to Athlete's Foot!

Also, having eaten Quorn, I'd rather eat centipedes, raccoon vomit, my own bogeys or Soylent Brown before going near Quorn again.

What exactly put you off it? I have several Veggie friends who have cooked me quorn products at their houses, all very agreeable. I also have a Pescetarian girlfriend at the moment and cook with it occasionally. Only Quorn bacon was a problem, as it was entirely pointless!

 

[Northstar]

The human race could be considered as bacteria. It consumes all the resources of a particular place, then moves on to another.

That would be a parasite, not a bacteria.

 

[PeterJB]

Bacteria consumes some of the resources, and is then killed by the remaining ones.

 

[Danoff]

The human race could be considered as bacteria. It consumes all the resources of a particular place, then moves on to another.

This is the behavior of basically any living thing - plant, animal, virus, bacteria, etc.

 

[homeforsummer]

I'm not adverse to eating bugs, I will in fact eat anything that is barely edible. But I believe Quorn is far more sell able to the general population than bugs. Though I guess you could counter with its relation to Athlete's Foot!

What exactly put you off it? I have several Veggie friends who have cooked me quorn products at their houses, all very agreeable. I also have a Pescetarian girlfriend at the moment and cook with it occasionally. Only Quorn bacon was a problem, as it was entirely pointless!

Quorn is better in some forms than it is in others. The sausages are passable (but not as good as actual meat ones), the mince is crap (burns to a frazzle within seconds of hitting the pan and it's very dry whatever you do with it), the chicken's main benefit is that its dead easy to cook (but doesn't taste as good as actual chicken) and I wouldn't touch the bacon with a barge pole.

Essentially, it's a poor substitute for whatever it replaces. And I'm speaking from experience - I used to eat loads of the stuff when I was living with my ex.

If I was vegetarian I'd also feel a bit hypocritical eating things that wouldn't exist were it not for the original meat versions.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Quorn is better in some forms than it is in others. The sausages are passable (but not as good as actual meat ones), the mince is crap (burns to a frazzle within seconds of hitting the pan and it's very dry whatever you do with it), the chicken's main benefit is that its dead easy to cook (but doesn't taste as good as actual chicken) and I wouldn't touch the bacon with a barge pole.

You're doing it wrong

The sausages go well with good cheese. You need to treat the mince differently to meat, it needs far less time even from frozen, and if putting in a sauce (like bolognese) you need to add more chopped tomatoes than you would usually as it does indeed suck up moisture. And the chicken is only good with lots of good sauce on it.

And yes it's a poor substitute like-for-like with meat, but so would be bugs! Quorn doesn't have to be seen as a meat replacement though, it's a good enough product in it's own right, but marketing means it would never sell as just a vegetarian protein source.

 

[TankAss95]

I'm curious how high our population can grow before nature is like

and sends a nasty plague our way. On thing is for sure, that as resources become more scarce, fighting over them will increase, and therefore more people will die trying to get what they need to live.

Sorry for reviving a thread.

Anyway in the book I've been reading (A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson) I was alarmed about how little we know about microorganisms and how to defend ourselves against them. This is bound to cause major problems in the future.

Should we maybe invest more money on making a new strand of antibiotics? We haven't replaced it since the 1970's...

Or even can we?

 

[ExigeEvan]

Sorry for reviving a thread.

Anyway in the book I've been reading (A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson) I was alarmed about how little we know about microorganisms and how to defend ourselves against them. This is bound to cause major problems in the future.

Should we maybe invest more money on making a new strand of antibiotics? We haven't replaced it since the 1970's...

Or even can we?

The thing with antibiotics is eventually they you will create immune strains.

Better management of antibiotics, not over-prescribing and making sure people take the full course will go along way in helping the issue.