Do you think Earth is overpopulated?

Search
Joined
Dec 14, 2016
Messages
236
Tokens
0
Do you think the Earth is overpopulated? If not, can you give a number for what you consider to be overpopulated? It fascinates me that at one point this planet had less than 1 billion people on it 'not that long ago'
 

3,255

hacheman@therx.com
Staff member
Joined
Jan 2, 2002
Messages
139,254
Tokens
3,255
I think we're obviously headed in that direction, if not already there.

Sounds horrible but we're probably gonna need some type of plague to wipe at least half of us out eventually.

If myself & my family happen to be included in that percentage who's taken out, so be it...
 
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
31,987
Tokens
3,005
To answer both questions...

1. No, not overpopulated as living standards are rising around the globe rather than declining. The rate of global extreme poverty has been cut in half in about 20 years which is pretty amazing. There is really nothing that suggests we're at some type of critical mass where the earth can't support the population. The only thing you can maybe point to is the prices of commodities continuing to rise over the last few decades.

2. It would be hard to put a number on something like that, but a scenario where the earth could become overpopulated is if the developing world were to continue to develop at a rapid pace and the gains in agriculture, energy, materials, etc were not able to support it. Then you would have intense fights over resources, let's hope we never have to see what that looks like.

Doomsday population scenarios are nothing new, Paul Ehrlich had his book "The Population Bomb" in 1968. He makes a lot of good points in the book but the big variable he got wrong was that he underestimated human ingenuity and the developments that would arise over the next few decades.

And lastly, wtf is with the bold font man? You can't just come with the regular font like the rest of us? What you think you fancy or something?
 
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
31,987
Tokens
3,005
Since this is a gambling board, there was a bet in 1980 made between Ehrlich and business professor/libertarian think tank fellow Julian Simon. Ehrlich said the price of commodities would skyrocket because of population growth creating scarcity, Simon said this was just fear-mongering.

Simon won the bet pretty handily but it was only based on 1980-1990, if the bet were to continue to this day, Ehrlich actually won most 10 year periods. Cause for concern? Time will tell.

here is a little wiki writeup on the bet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon–Ehrlich_wager
 

0

New member
Joined
Mar 17, 2015
Messages
2,674
Tokens
0
Don't worry, Putin & Trump will depopulate it by several million.
 

0

New member
Joined
May 13, 2016
Messages
10,462
Tokens
0
I would have thought so, but there is ALOT of "unused" land around
 

Forum statistics

Threads
1,124,006
Messages
13,640,884
Members
101,759
Latest member
janampatri
The RX is the sports betting industry's leading information portal for bonuses, picks, and sportsbook reviews. Find the best deals offered by a sportsbook in your state and browse our free picks section.FacebookTwitterInstagramContact Usforum@therx.com
TheRX uses cookies to help us provide, protect & improve our services. See our Privacy Policy for more details.
Accept & Close