Posted on 10/17/2011 3:55:27 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
As global population reaches 7 billion, Jeffrey Sachs says we must adopt sustainable technologies, achieve stable population.
Just 12 years after the arrival of the 6 billionth individual on the planet in 1999, humanity will greet the 7 billionth arrival this month. The world population continues its rapid ascent, with roughly 75 million more births than deaths each year. The consequences of a world crowded with 7 billion people are enormous. And unless the world population stabilizes during the 21st century, the consequences for humanity could be grim.
A rising population puts enormous pressures on a planet already plunging into environmental catastrophe. Providing food, clothing, shelter, and energy for 7 billion people is a task of startling complexity.
The world's agricultural systems are already dangerously overstretched. Rainforests are being cut down to make way for new farms; groundwater used for irrigation is being depleted; greenhouse gases emitted from agricultural activities are a major factor in global climate change; fertilizers are poisoning estuaries; and countless species are threatened with extinction as we grab their land and water and destroy their habitats.
The economic challenges are equally huge. Population is growing most rapidly in the world's poorest countries -- often the places with the most fragile ecological conditions. Poor people tend to have many more children, for several reasons. Many live on farms, where children can be engaged in farm chores.
Poor societies generally suffer from high rates of child mortality, leading parents to have more children as "insurance" against the possible deaths of children. Girls rarely make it to high school, and are often married at a very young age, leading to early childbearing. And modern methods of contraception may be unavailable or unaffordable.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I don’t have any kids, leave me out of this.
Dont worry the humanitarians posing as progressive globalists have a plan, agenda 21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzEEgtOFFlM
"Sustainable development" is a code phrase to advance the agenda of totalitarian worldwide government.
So many gratuitous assertions...so little time.
Population growth tends to decrease as incomes increase: http://socyberty.com/society/gdp-vs-birthrate-of-a-country/. Population issues will largely resolve themselves if left alone.
Though many developed countries presently struggle with low birthrates.
Go forth and multiple.
(And buy my tractors to feed them.)
Or the obvious solution, six and a half billion
need to go.
What will he do when it’s fourteen billion?
Soylent green?
Actually the problem is even bigger: within the next 100 years 7 billion people will DIE, unless the government does SOMETHIN!
Fortunately those who survived that period already had protective genes in place and those were passed on to us. Alas, those not living in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, China or Central Asia were never affected by the Black Plague. We don't know if they are immune or not, but they probably aren't.
If something interfered with tetracycline production and distribution around the world the Plague would kill billions in just a few years.
What? You won't do it? That's a ridiculous suggestion?
Well then, so is the rest of your cracked up hypothesis!
Tell it to the Muslims and Chinese.
Folks shouldn’t get so smug ~ at a minimum 4 billion people have no natural immunity to Yersinia pestis (Black Plague).
And it wasnt so long ago that the Spanish Flu knocked off a few millions
Nature has a way of keeping the worlds population regulated it seems.
These liberals make me laugh - its their duty to take God’s business into their own hands.
You first, fashion lady.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
