What's the best way to solve a global population crisis?

[MrTomnus]

I'm bored so I thought I might just start a discussion on this. Let's try to keep everything friendly - and most importantly respect others' opinions on this subject.

 

As you may know the Earth's human population is increasing exponentially. In a short space of time (compared to the time the human race has been around) we will run out of resources necessary to sustain every human on the planet. This is going to cause a lot of problems for everyone. Nobody is sure whether we will be able to move some of the population to a different planet that is capable of sustaining us in that time, due to limitations of space technology.

 

So for argument's sake, let's say that in 100 years from now there is no space travel technology that can put some of the population on another planet. The population has to be controlled somehow. How do you do it? You can use any means necessary to control the population, but obviously the issue at hand is ethics.

 

EDIT: I should also note that the population is already too high to comfortably sustain, and something needs to be done about it.

 

Here is my input on this. I don't think I have a very popular opinion, and I myself don't particularly like it either, but I feel like it's the only way right now to actively do something about a population crisis.

 

Every year, billions are spent on producing medication and health supplies for sick and terminally ill patients. These are used to treat viruses and infections, as well as genetic diseases such as cancer. But what if medication stopped being produced?

 

We would be in a scenario where, to a certain extent, natural selection will begin to effect again. Besides ourselves, the only major predator to the human race is disease. Lots of people die due to illnesses, and the healthcare industry spends a lot of money to treat them. If there was no medication, unfortunately, some of these people will die, but the people that are strong enough to survive will get better, and by natural selection, have a higher chance of surviving. People who develop cancer will unfortunately not be treated, but their deaths will lead to fewer people in the future being diagnosed with cancer, again by natural selection. But the population will stop growing at the rate that it is. It might take 20 years or so to take effect, but it would work. Physical injuries can still be treated, such as a person who is involved in a car accident, but should the population come to a point where there are far to many people, this could be considered being removed too.

 

In the future, this will dramatically reduce the amount of money that would need to be spent on healthcare as well, as more people will be healthy. This could be put to better use within the global economy, such as infrastructure, and producing new technologies. While it does mean jobs will be lost in the healthcare industry, more may be created from the new sectors that emerge due to increased funding. Hopefully this would give the human race enough time to come up with a better solution to a population problem, and maybe develop that space travel technology.

 

I know it's a cruel way to deal with it, because for the most part, people don't get to decide if they are ill or not - but that's the unfortunate beauty of this method - nobody is purposefully singled out or discriminated against. Everyone has a chance to be affected.

[iNothing]

Use condoms.

 

Give the gift of condoms to people in need.

[SAV1OUR]

i know im going to get allot of hate for this BUT make abortion legal  

[Volbet]

One word: Education

The main reason why population growth in the western world is so low, compared to the Middle East and Africa, is the level of education. Especially the level of female education play an important role.

If we could just get people educated (preferably with some good sexual education aswell) it would break the population growth drastically.

 

And giving people easy access to contraceptives would also help a lot. 

[SAV1OUR]

One word: Education

The main reason why population growth in the western world is so low, compared to the Middle East and Africa, is the level of education. Especially the level of female education play an important role.

If we could just get people educated (preferably with some good sexual education aswell) it would break the population growth drastically.

and for how many years have there been "education" programs going through africa? so far we have yet to see any solid results proving that what we have done has done anything at all, honestly having more hospitals or something like that in africa would be more effective 

[Volbet]

and for how many years have there been "education" programs going through africa? so far we have yet to see any solid results proving that what we have done has done anything at all, honestly having more hospitals or something like that in africa would be more effective 

While there are school systems in most African countries, there isn't easy access to higher education. When I say "education", I don't just mean 4 years of school.

One of the problems aswell, is that girls in most Africans countries don't go to school, becuase they have to help at home.

[crazydog2580]

i agree with your solution. its actually something i have said to all my friends its not popular..

 

i also think that once you get above a certain age. you should stop reviving medical treatments and just die already. i have no intentions of living past 60  

[SAV1OUR]

While there is school systems in most African countries, there isn't easy access to higher education. When I say "education", I don't just mean 4 years of school.

One of the problems aswell, is that girls in most Africans countries don't go to school, becuase they have to help at home.

well with hospitals and such they could roll out medical programs that could go villages to educate people on risks rather then expecting them to go to the schools 

[MrTomnus]

Use condoms.

 

Give the gift of condoms to people in need.

 

 

i know im going to get allot of hate for this BUT make abortion legal  

 

 

One word: Education

The main reason why population growth in the western world is so low, compared to the Middle East and Africa, is the level of education. Especially the level of female education play an important role.

If we could just get people educated (preferably with some good sexual education aswell) it would break the population growth drastically.

 

And giving people easy access to contraceptives would also help a lot. 

 

While you guys all have nice answers, they are only going to slow the rate of population growth. The scenario I'm talking about is a world where the population is already too high to comfortably sustain, and something has to be done about it. Equalling the birth and death rate will not solve it easily. So in effect the population has to be reduced somehow.

[SAV1OUR]

i agree with your solution. its actually something i have said to all my friends its not popular..

 

i also think that once you get above a certain age. you should stop reviving medical treatments and just die already. i have no intentions of living past 60  

you know when you reach 60 you will be regretting saying that because death will come quicker and quicker and then you will feel like shit when you were trying to climb up mount everest and feel breaking your leg and no one helps you because your a 60 year old 

[Rorgash]

More wars but we got a 3rd World war coming i hope which will solve these issues for a while forward, also, we have a INSANE amount of space left on this planet, i think that if you take EVERY human being on the planet and have them stand next to each other they would just about cover a US city

[GuideMe002]

zombie apocalypse. 

[iNothing]

Urban Consolidation

Build up 

Apartments everywhere

[Volbet]

While you guys all have nice answers, they are only going to slow the rate of population growth. The scenario I'm talking about is a world where the population is already too high to comfortably sustain, and something has to be done about it. Equalling the birth and death rate will not solve it easily. So in effect the population has to be reduced somehow.

Yeah, I see I kinda misunderstood the problem at hand.

 

But say we were at a point where the Earth could no longer substain the human population, wouldn't the population growth flat out, due to there being to little food?

The problem would sort itself out by then. 

well with hospitals and such they could roll out medical programs that could go villages to educate people on risks rather then expecting them to go to the schools 

We already have seen the effect of this. Hospitals and medicin is the reason why the population growth in Africa is so high right now. Problem is that knowledge and education didn't follow the medicin.  

[P e r s e p h o n e]

Is space an option? I suppose in your scenario its similar to the controlled birth rates solution where it would only work for if it were done prior to the situation at hand. 

[MrTomnus]

Yeah, I see I kinda misunderstood the problem at hand.

 

But say we were at a point where the Earth could no longer substain the human population, wouldnøt the population growth flat out, due to there being to little food?

The problem would sort itself out by then. 

 

That is true, and you would end up with a population curve similar to something like rabbits being preyed on by foxes. But I can't imagine the wars that would break out due to competition of food between countires. Imports and exprots would likely stop and most of the world would be converted to agricultural land...

[crazydog2580]

you know when you reach 60 you will be regretting saying that because death will come quicker and quicker and then you will feel like shit when you were trying to climb up mount everest and feel breaking your leg and no one helps you because your a 60 year old 

but once im over 60 its ok to die im old and besides if i make it to 60 id be very surprised

[MrTomnus]

Is space an option? I suppose in your scenario its similar to the controlled birth rates solution where it would only work for if it were done prior to the situation at hand. 

 

In the original post, the idea of the scenario is that space technology can't take some of the population to another planet. Earth bound solutions are the only option.

[SAV1OUR]

but once im over 60 its ok to die im old and besides if i make it to 60 id be very surprised

the average life spans 80+ now...

[crazydog2580]

the average life spans 80+ now...

most male members of my family have died before 60 

my great pop i think 59

my pop 58

my dad 56 

my uncle 51

plus 2 other uncles have have had heart attacked in there early 50's

[Phllips]

i know im going to get allot of hate for this BUT make abortion legal  

Only Christians get angry at this and your on the internet.. so your somewhat safe  

[Phllips]

Take warning labels of things then let natural selection play its part. not only will this kill people it will kill dumb people

[Askew]

I expect there is already a contingency plan in place behind the scenes.

[chimmychunger]

i know im going to get allot of hate for this BUT make abortion legal  

it is legall isnt it

[D4RK]

....

what you are proposing here is running away from the problem and avoiding it, instead of solving it.

 

there is a solution to this problem, the minute humans start treating each other like another human instead of a stranger from another country/area, everything will be 100 times better, then we will be able to do the following:

• stop the funding for all the military organizations in the world, we are spending a lot of resources and human & mind power on making few people rich and killing others.
• use all of the earth resources efficiently, there are lots of green areas in 3rd world countries, instead of destroying them we could work together to provide food for them and every human on earth.
• provide fair and good education everywhere.
• stop giving power to idiots.

Here is something humans fails to get everyday every second of their life and they will regret it if they could understand how huge this is, every time a human dies, humanity just lost some one whom mind power maybe greater than any, whom maybe able to evolve the humanity in few years, of which without him/her they would take ages to reach.

 

Think about it every time you let some one die even if they are old, you might have let a new invention die with that person.