Global Population Could Hit 10.9 Billion

[fender62]

sounds like a coming disaster that could be avoided if the will was there, maybe nature will intervene somehow, but i will not hold my breath waiting..
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7150867/Earths-population-hit-10-9-BILLION-end-century-predicts.html#comments

[Old_Geezer]

Natural disaster is inevitable when a species fails to control it's population. At our level it'd like cause most other species problems too. But it's something ignored for decades, for generations. And some still deny a problem and actually support population growth. Claims it's needed to support the existing population, can you believe.

[jourdain2]

Could be avoided if everyone was willing to limit the number of children. It's like global warming - if other countries are breeding away, having loads of kids and then demanding aid, then there's not much point in ourselves limiting ourselves to 1 or 2 kids. Eventually there will be too few donors from the Western countries and then famines will rage unchecked in Africa etc.. Family Planning is urgent - but tell that to some countries!

[nailit]

//Family Planning is urgent - but tell that to some countries!//
Or to some religions!

[mushroom25]

//Claims it's needed to support the existing population //

since national pension schemes are the worlds biggest ponzie, that’s probably true enough....

[jim360]

It's a shame that the Daily Mail Headline doesn't include the other aspect of this figure -- although it is mentioned later -- which is that this should also be a peak. There's lot of work to be done to keep it that way, but it is perhaps more of a comfort to learn that the growth rate is expected to slow down and even stop.

[fender62]

jim360, /expected to slow down and even stop//
i wonder if they said the same thing 50yrs ago, i dont think it will
in fact i think it's underestimated, doom and gloom perhaps.
i think religion and third worlders are to blame, the poor want an insurance policy for old age, and religion says it's gods will, go forth and multiply...to abandon without consequence, god allah will provide.

[jim360]

It depends on what you do with the pessimism. But it's also pretty clear that the current growth rate is unsustainable, and it's equally clear that as healthcare access continues to improve then birth rates will drop.

[Zacs-Master]

The flip-side of that, Jim, is an ageing population.

[jim360]

Yes, true. A lot of tough questions coming up.

[vetuste_ennemi]

"Unsustainable", Jim?

Plenty of room for them all in Europe, isn't there? This (largely African) population increase will present obvious social and economic opportunities for Europe's declining indigenous societies and its moribund culture.

[david small]

Enforced sterilisation will occur eventually. Maybe delivered by aircraft from high in the atmosphere. Governments would deny any culpability much as several countries do now when caught blatantly transgressing international law. Necessity recognises no law. A flight of fancy? Or, a prediction?

[Theland]

There are wars, massacres and corruption in every African country, and the EUSSR is bringing in the overflow in droves.
Look at Douglas Murrays book, "The Strange Death Of Europe."
The disaster is unavoidable.

[Old_Geezer]

An aging population is an issue but I suspect one more worried about than it warrants. There is always something to spend public money on, it's a question of creating enough wealth from those in work to cover our costs (which we do now anyway, except we presently have too many unemployed at working age) and budgeting that wealth wisely.

As for the suggestion that there's not much point in limiting ourselves to 1 or 2 kids, that is clearly incorrect for any nation sensible enough to control it's borders and who is allowed to come and go. One can't unilaterally control the world and make it act wisely, but one can set a good example and also not take in the consequences of other nations' overbreeding.

And peak population, well it's good to be optimistic, but I don't see the 'carry on it'll be fine' strategy being advocated for other global issues; for example climate change.

[vetuste_ennemi]

All this gloom about population increase. Single point where Jim and Malthusian pessimist New Judge agree.

Got to stop worrying about these things. See the positives.

Population of Africa 1900 same as population of Europe. Only overtook it quite late last century, and now with its continued high birth rates (4 or 5) in many countriesno longer capped by high infant mortality rates due to advances in shaman science has already achieved a population twice that of Europe. Given that Africa can on the whole still not feed itself, and that Europeans don't have many children there are obviously mutual benefits, and no clear down-sides, to be gained by importing Africa's surplus population to Europe.

[Old_Geezer]

We're running out of resources and space. No clear downsides ? It's all downsides.

[jno]

it's all obviously somebody else's fault

[vetuste_ennemi]

We're not running out of either resources or space, OG. What was the world's population when Malthus was casting the runes? One billion - just?

[douglas9401]

Of the downtrodden are getting all the Harry they get to eat the bug cake as well.
I'll content myself with abstaining and chowing down on steak and chicken.
Fair's fair.

[Old_Geezer]

Clearly we are running out and crmped, for example we in the UK lack housing today, and urban sprawl is encouching on other species' habitat, and we're having issues coping with waste. Starvation abroad is only as low as it is due to creation of more resilient crops with higher yeilds which has just delayed any crunch. It's been estimated that for all to have a decent European standard of life we need multiple planets.

[ToraToraTora]

Don,t wet your knickers fender, we've reached peak baby already, fewer people will be born going forward...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/08/reached-peak-baby-consequences-will-monumental/
the population will grow now mainly because of longevity. The first 200 year old person has probably already been born.