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With 7 billion on earth, a huge task before us
CNN ^ | Mon October 17, 2011 | Jeffrey D. Sachs

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: genocide; lifehate; malthusian; populationbomb; populationcontrol; propaganda; richleft; zpg
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To: MinorityRepublican

europe is declining in population. North america would be as well if it weren’t for illegal immigration. japan is declining, australia is declining, parts of the middle east are declining, and china will be declining as soon as they start feeling the effects from their “one child” policy...which should be sometime this decade.

so take your damn population bomb BS to india, indonesia, africa, central and south america and leave the rest of us alone.


21 posted on 10/17/2011 4:43:02 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: MinorityRepublican

End world hunger. Feed the obese to the starving.


22 posted on 10/17/2011 4:43:13 PM PDT by RichInOC (Sarah Palin is at war with the left. Most Freepers are just playing the video game.)
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To: muawiyah
It is not any different today than it was way back then.

Unless, of course, you take into account that Yersinia pestis is a bacteria that simple penicillin takes out.

23 posted on 10/17/2011 4:59:41 PM PDT by tx_eggman (Liberalism is only possible in that moment when a man chooses Barabas over Christ.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

I don’t think that anyone here can deny that our planet’s population is growing exponentially so the question that remains unanswered is how long can we sustain it............That’s a legitimate question


24 posted on 10/17/2011 4:59:48 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (ui)
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To: tx_eggman
I suggested that sucker could jump back fast if anything interfered with tetracyclene (the drug that works) production or distribtion.

You know, like in a GINORMOUS WAR!!!

25 posted on 10/17/2011 5:04:57 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: MinorityRepublican

bttt


26 posted on 10/17/2011 5:24:11 PM PDT by hattend (If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. - Cameron Connor)
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To: mamelukesabre
North america would be as well if it weren’t for illegal immigration.

More than twice as many immigrants enter the US legally (1.2 million a year) as illegally. Mexico has an annual population growth rate of 1.1% and a fertility rate of 2.29 children born/woman (2011 est.).

australia is declining,

Not so. Australia has an annual population growth rate of 1.15%, albeit due to immigration.

27 posted on 10/17/2011 5:28:24 PM PDT by kabar
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To: kabar

Mexico’s growth rate would be much higher if mexicans stopped coming to america.


28 posted on 10/17/2011 5:39:43 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: ronnie raygun

Agenda 21 is noted with positive emphases in records of majority Republican counties of the West. The pensioners of these areas will go to any lengths to prevent working class families and individuals from building on their own properties and moving in. The efforts against harvesting natural resources like gas and uranium are also quite bipartisan. The West is so pretty, the first settlers (as they see themselves) want to own it exclusively. They believe that they can do so by playing the games of political correctness.

Starve the beast. Encourage government to spend while refusing to buy. Buying generates revenues. Become more self-sufficient. Deprive them of the incomes that they rely on for having enough money and time for politics. It’s the only way.


29 posted on 10/17/2011 5:43:41 PM PDT by familyop ("Dry land is not just our destination, it is our destiny!" --Deacon character, "Waterworld")
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To: MinorityRepublican

The Problem is that people live longer not that they have more children, rates of infant mortality are still quite high in a lot of places.

It is just that as in the West,people who can live to 60 in the third world will usually go on to live to 80 if not more these days.

I kinda doubt an aging tired population is going to destroy the world.


30 posted on 10/17/2011 7:50:49 PM PDT by Del Rapier
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To: MinorityRepublican

CNN...now, let’s see...how many kids does Ted The Dumbass Turner have again? 7? You’re love fest called OWS says capitalist should eat the rich. Get to munchin’...


31 posted on 10/18/2011 6:34:16 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
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