Species don't normally go extinct due to fecundity.

Lots of individuals in the species might suffer greatly. But extinction? Not gonna happen. Except through total global nuclear annihilation.

Don't worry. Our exploding world population will eventually lead to extreme competition for resources, someone will start launching nukes, and most of humanity and over other species will be wiped out. Cheers!

ignatiusst
The US and China will be at each other's throats over oil long before the population explosion leads to food shortages.

By resources I don't just mean food.

And hopefully, the world will go out in a spectacular way, a way that completely underlines how we got to that point and how easy it was to avoid it.

The extinction of humanity does not a Sixth Great Extinction make. I don't see us doing as much damage as the K-T event on our way out, barring nuclear holocaust.

Climate change? COME ON. You think the flooding of coastal cities will wipe out 60% of the life on Earth?

Senescent Dawn: The extinction of humanity does not a Sixth Great Extinction make. I don't see us doing as much damage as the K-T event on our way out, barring nuclear holocaust.

Climate change? COME ON. You think the flooding of coastal cities will wipe out 60% of the life on Earth?

RTFA

You know what the problem is, there are too many of us. The herd is about to be thinned. Only the rich and lucky will survive.

tnpir: Extinction, I doubt. What we do need is a good, global pandemic that wipes out about 30-40% of the population.

The Illuminati prefers 83 percent.

Kirk's_Toupee
You know what the problem is, there are too many of us. The herd is about to be thinned. Only the rich and lucky will survive.

Eat the rich.

/nom nom nom

seventypercent: "Fecundity" has something to do with poop, right? Like we're going to somehow poop ourselves to death?

No, you're thinking of "facetious."

tnpir: Extinction, I doubt. What we do need is a good, global pandemic that wipes out about 30-40% of the population.

Try 99.99%. There are almost 7 billion of us. Removing a couple of zeros is our only hope.

seventypercent: D'oh, you're right. Though in my defense, I would think this is a rather common mistake.

A perfectly cromulent error. It embiggens us all.

Locavore? Is that someone who eats locomotives?

Willful ignorance and self-delusion are the trump cards.

I liked this better when it was by Malthus and published in 1798 when the population of the world was 1 billion.

Growth rate in population has been declining since 1963. As countries get richer, their birth rates drop. The UN low pop prediction has back down to 5 billion in 2100.

ignatiusst: patrick767: Don't worry. Our exploding world population will eventually lead to extreme competition for resources, someone will start launching nukes, and most of humanity and over other species will be wiped out. Cheers!

The US and China will be at each other's throats over oil long before the population explosion leads to food shortages.

Lack of oil will lead to food shortages. Oil is why we are able to support the population we have.

Reading the book The World Without Us (the TV show based on it is somewhat similar in scope) gives a small glimpse into one simple fact: The Earth can (to an extent) heal itself of any scars left by Man. Given enough time and the assault of the elements, concrete structures crack and disintegrate under the roots of newly grown trees and the weathering of rain. Iron rusts, other metals corrode and fall apart. Even if we turn this world into an irradiated rock, a long season of rest will hopefully return some of it to what it once was.

And it is truly amazing to see pictures of these cities that have been abandoned and see the lush greenery and return of nature that almost wipes out any footprint of the people who once lived there. I always like the analogy that takes a piece of letter-sized paper and says "imagine this paper representing the entire history of the Earth," and then tear off a tiny triangle of it in the corner and then indicate that the tiny piece is the whole of human impact on that history. Sort of like a Total Perspective Vortex without the bothersome trouble of making a Fairy Cake.

I had the same epiphany as I carefully placed my sorted recyclables at the curb and was pelted by a Popeye's Chicken box thrown out the window of a passing Lincoln Navigator.

/true story bro

Screw you subbs, fecundity, greed and willful ignorance got me through high school.

//So that's a dickfor.

No shiat? I've been saying it for years.

Is the sky still falling?

In short: You can take the Paleolithic savage out of the Paleolithic, but you can't take the Paleolithic out of the Paleolithic savage. It's human biology, stupid.

Super-volcanoes, asteroids, rising sea level, nuclear war, global pandemic, peak oil, return of the ice age ... that's gonna be some good TV right there.

And as always innovation in the face of necessity will serve to save humanity.

Breeding licenses would be the start to a bureaucratic solution, no?

Perhaps a tax break for the gays and infertile couples?

Why not tax parents with kids?

I can cook up one of 800 ways to solve this with our current money-hungry capitalistic system, and all of them infringe on the inalienable rights of straight people.

Gays everywhere will rejoice!

but aren't birthrates falling worldwide?

TheTeethoftheTiger: And as always innovation in the face of necessity will serve to save humanity.

canyoneer: TheTeethoftheTiger: And as always innovation in the face of necessity will serve to save humanity.

haha, nvm, our prayers have been answered.

How can I possibly take TFA seriously when it claims the earth is over 5 billion years old?

it's 4.5 biatches. get it right.


/sheesh

Between this, being sick, and reading Watchmen all the way through today... I'm in something of a negative mood. Even still, I find some of the predictions in the article and this thread a bit... too pessimistic.

But that's just me.

This article is trash, it simply encourages more wasteful activity, in fact, it gives permission to. Me environmental group "Earth Before You" or "EBY" (we call ourselves "E-Bees") just finished a Labor Day protest against fuel-inefficient vehicles at local gas stations by confronting gas-hogs that fill up and spraying the driver in the eyes with fox-urine and spreading informational leaflets. Sometimes, you have to make people feel the same sting they create against the Earth to make them stop a moment and realize the damage they are doing to our enviroment.

Yes, structurally, the Earth will continue but that doesn't mean we should destroy it, people need to wake up.

ignatiusst: The US and China will be at each other's throats over oil long before the population explosion leads to food shortages.

Nope. China will go toe to toe with Russia over resources long before they fight with the US over them.

When it comes to resource wars, the US will look north (and east) to Canada for metals, oil, and gas the same way China looks north to Siberia and south to the South China Sea.

By 2100 Canada will be part of the United States, and China will have been nuked silly by Russia but will have won the war for Siberia.