Thread: 7 Billion... Is there enough food for that many?

Let alone healthcare and other basic necessities. I fear that earth just isn't enough for this many people, and to make things worse, we'll reach 9 billion even faster. I can't think of a single country that isn't falling apart, crushed under its own weight. It seems like recession will be the least of our problems in the near future.

It's sad, considering I still have a life long left to go, but it seems we are reaching a point where collapse will be inevitable, and I don't think there is anywhere where we can run and hide from it.

What do you guys think? Will there be enough make-up for women? Toys for kids? Beer for baseball fans? Gadgets for geeks? Are we already running out?

No one seems to take population seriously. Instead, we fret about the supply of oil, and the effects of pollution, and about the violence in our cities and around the globe, all without discussing the root cause of the problems -- population. Poverty is a direct result of overpopulation, and, as our population centers grow our food producing land shrinks. More people drink more water, water needed to grow food.

This rock we live on is only so big. When the food gets scarce will we turn to Soylent Green?

This is one of my current projects. My answer is that we are looking over the edge and into the abyss. View's nice from the top...till you fall off.

Canada has sufficient food-space and potable water to sustain our own needs for decades-to-centuries, depending on how we treat the water.

Our bigger problem will be having the rest of the world come knocking when we're the only ones with resources. I doubt hungry, thirsty Americans will be willing to pay premium prices for long before the military is called in.

Sometimes I think it would be better if a giant asteroid crashed into the earth and we could just get it over with at once, rather than descend into anarchy and chaos, with mass starvation, disease and famine and so on. I may not be here, but my kids might be. I guess we should have thought ahead on that one. Oh well.

Originally Posted by JosephB

Sometimes I think it would be better if a giant asteroid crashed into the earth and we could just get it over with at once, rather than descend into anarchy and chaos, with mass starvation, disease and famine and so on. I may not be here, but my kids might be. I guess we should have thought ahead on that one. Oh well.

I'm not sure if I'll want to have children under this kind of situation. Although I want a daughter badly, I wouldn't want to bring her into a world of mass starvation and disease

We've known two couples who said they were never going to "bring a child into a world like this" -- and they both have kids now. I guess the desire to have kids overrides any concerns about impending calamity. They are pretty cute.

Originally Posted by JosephB

We've known two couples who said they were never going to "bring a child into a world like this" -- and they both have kids now. I guess the desire to have kids overrides any concerns about impending calamity. They are pretty cute.

Cute little creatures are hard to resist!

This subject's been covered many times, I've even started a thread myself on it. I'm glad it's gone in the clean-up now as I was being very argumentative.

Anyway, my suggestion would be along the lines of putting financial pressure on countries to lower their populations. Every country. Money talks. I can't see any other hope. In a democratic country like the UK it's difficult. We need more young people to work to pay for the pensions of our elderly. In the next few years our elderly are going to have an increasingly huge block-vote. Our politicians normally are like windsocks, depending on the votes.


As was mentioned on another thread recently, I recently had some train journeys from the south of England to the north of Scotland and was shocked at the amount of new housing estates I saw out the train window.

Originally Posted by elite

I'm not sure if I'll want to have children under this kind of situation. Although I want a daughter badly, I wouldn't want to bring her into a world of mass starvation and disease

I agree with the quote above and I think spider8 has a point. Our natural animal instincts drive us to procreate and want kids- and the fact that we and our children are all living longer in general just compounds the problem.

However, money is also a powerful motivator, so perhaps financial incentives could help people to reconsider adoption as a way to fulfill their parental urges, solving more than one problem at a time. We have thousands of orphans in our country whose parents have passed away from AIDS or just left them.

It saddens and angers me when I hear about people spending fortunes getting fertility treatment to have their 'own' child. Your genes are not the holy grail and being a good parent has very little to do with biology.

In the meantime, I'm still content to look after my (adopted) cats as children.

I forgot to answer the question Is there enough food for that many?

It partly doesn't matter. Because if there is enough food now, there won't be when the population hits 10 billion. If there's enough food for 10 billion, there won't be enough for 14 billion, etc.

Sooner or later mother-nature will sort it out, via war or plague or starvation - if we don't try to do it ourselves.

All of you – stop worrying about it.

Back towards the end of the 19^th Century, the experts calculated that within a finite number of years London would be three feet deep in horse manure.

Then the motor-car was invented.

Okay, fast-forward a few years. This time, before Earth metaphorically splits apart, space-travel and time-travel will have been conquered and we’ll be colonising some other galaxy.

Trust me.

I hope not. Those poor, unsuspecting aliens wont know what hit em.

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

All of you – stop worrying about it.

Back towards the end of the 19^th Century, the experts calculated that within a finite number of years London would be three feet deep in horse manure.

Then the motor-car was invented.

Okay, fast-forward a few years. This time, before Earth metaphorically splits apart, space-travel and time-travel will have been conquered and we’ll be colonising some other galaxy.

Trust me.

I understand there's plenty of room in Australia...hmmm.

Originally Posted by spider8

I understand there's plenty of room in Australia...hmmm.

Keep your cotton-pickin’ eyes off Australia. Three-quarters of Australia is desert. There’s no culture in Australia. The sheilas all have hairy legs. Pubs close at 10 p.m.