"Our teeming population is the strongest evidence our numbers are burdensome to the world, which can hardly support us from its natural elements. Our wants grow more and more keen and our complaints more bitter in all mouths, while nature fails in affording us our usual sustenance. In every deed, pestilence and famine and wars have to be regarded as a remedy for nations as the means of pruning the luxuriance of the human race."
-Tertullian (a Carthaginian priest in 210 AD when the world population was 250 million)
Can we improve the ways in which we utilize the resources on our plant? Definitely, but human beings can't be measured solely by consumption, but by their ingenuity and creativity, which help us to develop new resources, find new ways to deal with challenges, and discover new ways to protect the environment.
while i suspect you are passing this on a a whimsical reference to an apparently-ridiculous cassandra from the past, ancient peoples did not have modern technologies for processing and preserving food and energy. one mean season or prolonged drought could have serious consequences for large swaths of the population. look throughout history and you'll see starvation and food shortages even when the natural capacity of the biosphere would normally support much larger populations
tertullian was likely responding to the inability of the near italian countryside to support the booming roman population when conditions weren't optimal...not all ancient people were idiots
Of course, Carthage was teeming with about half a million citizens when he wrote that, and was completely destroyed by Muslim invaders four hundred years later.
Minor point: Tertullian was an ethnic Roman born in Roman-rebuilt Carthage.
31-10-11 is no different than what yesterday was or tomorrow will be.
A successful childbirth is ALWAYS a Happy Occasion !
It might be a reminder but nothing more than that. it's not the child's fault he/she was born this day .
notice that ~ 2/3 of the world population is south asia. Dear god. Nigeria and Pakistan combined have the same population as the US. Europe is a statistical error number wise compared to everything else.
"Figures for the population of Europe vary according to which definition of European boundaries is used. The population within the standard physical geographical boundaries was 731 million in 2005 according to the United Nations[1]. In 2010 the population is 857 million, using a definition which includes the whole of the transcontinental countries of Russia[citation needed]. Population growth is comparatively slow, and median age comparatively high in relation to the world's other continents"
Death by warfare is on the decline, poverty globally is decreasing, affluence is increasing, technology is rapidly improving, communications are knitting together all cultures and regions of the world in ways we can't fully appreciate even while it's happening. Compared to even two decades ago there are millions upon millions of people who are no longer in poverty. There are countries who have become part of the developed, 1st world. And there are more countries on the way. "Developing" isn't just a euphemism for 3rd world shit-hole, a lot of countries are on their way towards the same level of affluence and development as the G8/G20.
Certainly there are a lot of problems in the world, some of them unprecedented problems. But there's little cause to bemoan the increasing population of the Earth. Human civilization is becoming more and more capable of dealing with problems like poverty, famine, environmental degradation, and even global climate change, even as it adds more and more members to its family.
you better hope the world doesn't advance to g8 levels of consumption, because if they do, the amount of co2 they will deposit into the atmosphere will dramatically alter the biosphere, and not for the better
we all understand that green technology may address pollution, but you won't find much of it in the developing world...they're the ones buying american coal
In response to the deleted post below: I don't think it's fair, let alone possible, to try to prevent the developing world from becoming developed merely out of a fear for the possibility of "bad things" happening due to excess CO2 in the atmosphere. Moreover, we are already more or less past the stage where we will have to deal with the consequences of high CO2 levels, whatever they are. I think a wealthier, more developed world is far, far more likely to be able to do that.
Additionally, if it's possible for the developed world to switch to "green" energy sources economically then it ought to be possible for the developing world to do so as well.
the guy from the video is excited to see that third world countries have a young population, but we better watch these stats along with life expectancy and poverty/famine rate.
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[ 62.6 ms ] story [ 111 ms ] thread-Tertullian (a Carthaginian priest in 210 AD when the world population was 250 million)
Can we improve the ways in which we utilize the resources on our plant? Definitely, but human beings can't be measured solely by consumption, but by their ingenuity and creativity, which help us to develop new resources, find new ways to deal with challenges, and discover new ways to protect the environment.
tertullian was likely responding to the inability of the near italian countryside to support the booming roman population when conditions weren't optimal...not all ancient people were idiots
Minor point: Tertullian was an ethnic Roman born in Roman-rebuilt Carthage.
"Figures for the population of Europe vary according to which definition of European boundaries is used. The population within the standard physical geographical boundaries was 731 million in 2005 according to the United Nations[1]. In 2010 the population is 857 million, using a definition which includes the whole of the transcontinental countries of Russia[citation needed]. Population growth is comparatively slow, and median age comparatively high in relation to the world's other continents"
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Europe
Certainly there are a lot of problems in the world, some of them unprecedented problems. But there's little cause to bemoan the increasing population of the Earth. Human civilization is becoming more and more capable of dealing with problems like poverty, famine, environmental degradation, and even global climate change, even as it adds more and more members to its family.
we all understand that green technology may address pollution, but you won't find much of it in the developing world...they're the ones buying american coal
Additionally, if it's possible for the developed world to switch to "green" energy sources economically then it ought to be possible for the developing world to do so as well.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3154913
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/Wor...
Two out of three models predict decline of population after 2050.