The world's population is almost 6.5 billion

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

I remember not too long ago, (1999) that it reached 6 billion. Time to go hunting for Earth 2.

[Sigma_Orionis]

IIRC (it was a proyection made in the 70s) the expected population for the year 2000 was about 7000 Million (7 billion in English ;) )

[Candy]

Time to go hunting for Earth 2.
Tell me if you find it. I'm still of child bearing years, so I'm willing to go to Earth 2. I don't want babies, but if it helps alleviate the population on Earth 1, I suppose I can sacrifice for the sake of humanity. :P

[10stone5]

From 1 billion around 1800 to over 6 billion now.

So the question is - How many people have actually lived or existed in the last 200 years ?


I took a simple crack at it - assuming a net birth rate of about 1% a year and 'turnover' every 50 years - I came up with approximately 15 billion as the number of people who have actually existed in the past ~200 years.

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

Earth 2- 4th planet out 51 Pegasi

[Kullat Nunu]

* Year 0: People of Earth build a new spaceship and colonize a new planet (Earth 2)
* Year 1000: Earth and Earth 2 both build new spaceships and colonize new planets (Earths 3 and 4)
* Year 2000: Earths 1,2,3,4 colonize Earths 5,6,7,8
...time passes...
* Year 37,000: Every star system (presuming every star has planets) in the Milky Way galaxy has been populated by humans!

Well, that's impossibly fast. Let's say that colonization ships leave every 10,000 years. Now it takes 370,000 years to colonize the Milky Way. Not much difference!

Scary! :o

[Kullat Nunu]

From 1 billion around 1800 to over 6 billion now.

So the question is - How many people have actually lived or existed in the last 200 years ?


I took a simple crack at it - assuming a net birth rate of about 1% a year and 'turnover' every 50 years - I came up with approximately 15 billion as the number of people who have actually existed in the past ~200 years.

I'm remembering that the dead outnumber the living by a factor of 70.

[fossilnut2]

I'm glad this Pope is dead and gone.

'Put that condom away'

[Candy]

I'm glad this Pope is dead and gone.

'Put that condom away'
Me thinks someone needs to take a nap for a few hours. :wink:

[Jpax2003]

I'm glad this Pope is dead and gone.

'Put that condom away'Put that willy away. =;

[Candy]

I'm glad this Pope is dead and gone.

'Put that condom away'Put that willy away. =;
:-$ He's napping.

[Glom]

Let's not get into Malthusianism. That crackpot element of academia was proven to be bunk when half the population of America didn't starve during the '80s and half the species on Earth didn't become extinct by the end of the millenium.

We must take lessons from Planet X. The sky is always falling. If it doesn't fall on the day they say it will, the date gets changed and the Chicken Little's of the world continue to prophecise. As soon as the sky stops falling, these people would have to go out and get real jobs.

Fear is a powerful tool. Fear of terrorists, fear of greenhouse gases, it's all the same and there are those who will spread fear in the name of rightousness and persecution in the name of justice.

Always be sceptical of those who cry that the sky is falling, particularly those who want drastic action to correct it.

[Candy]

Let's not get into Malthusianism. That crackpot element of academia was proven to be bunk when half the population of America didn't starve during the '80s and half the species on Earth didn't become extinct by the end of the millenium.

We must take lessons from Planet X. The sky is always falling. If it doesn't fall on the day they say it will, the date gets changed and the Chicken Little's of the world continue to prophecise. As soon as the sky stops falling, these people would have to go out and get real jobs.

Fear is a powerful tool. Fear of terrorists, fear of greenhouse gases, it's all the same and there are those who will spread fear in the name of rightousness and persecution in the name of justice.

Always be sceptical of those who cry that the sky is falling, particularly those who want drastic action to correct it.
Is it just me, or does everyone find Glom simply adorable? :D

[Swift]

Let's not get into Malthusianism. That crackpot element of academia was proven to be bunk when half the population of America didn't starve during the '80s and half the species on Earth didn't become extinct by the end of the millenium.

We must take lessons from Planet X. The sky is always falling. If it doesn't fall on the day they say it will, the date gets changed and the Chicken Little's of the world continue to prophecise. As soon as the sky stops falling, these people would have to go out and get real jobs.

Fear is a powerful tool. Fear of terrorists, fear of greenhouse gases, it's all the same and there are those who will spread fear in the name of rightousness and persecution in the name of justice.

Always be sceptical of those who cry that the sky is falling, particularly those who want drastic action to correct it.
True, but one should not go too far the other way. Just because some doom-sayers are wrong or just plain nuts (Planet X), doesn't mean that all bad predictions are wrong (terrorists really have killed thousands of people and continue to do so).

Yes, we are not all starving to death at 6.5 billion people. Yes, half the species didn't go extinct by 2000 (reference for those claims?). But starvation and species extinction are global problems.
Worldwide, 840 million people live with chronic hunger and 8.8 million people die of hunger-related causes each year. Only 10% of these deaths can be attributed to emergencies such as war or catastrophic weather.
reference (http://www.globalhunger.net/)

According to the World Conservation Union (WCU, formerly the IUCN), 784 extinctions have been recorded since the year 1500 (the arbitrary date selected to define "modern" extinctions), with many more likely to have gone unnoticed. Most of these modern extinctions can be attributed directly or indirectly to human effects.
reference (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction)

Don't dismiss the problems of human overpopulation too lightly either.

[Humphrey]

I remember not too long ago, (1999) that it reached 6 billion. Time to go hunting for Earth 2.

Ok but damed if im taking stupid solar powered behicles and making friend with the damn earth burying aliens. Its nuclear powered and big guns for me.

[Glom]

No-one is dismissing any problems, just the crys that disaster is always around the corner. Despite all these scares of evil commies, nuclear winter, global warming, we're not dead yet and in fact we're doing better than ever.

[farmerjumperdon]

I'd say we are doing better than ever, and have the potential to be magnitudes better yet. An excellent example is the food supply. Plenty of food on the planet to feed everyone. The problem is the financial incentives (or disincentives) and politics that are obstacles to getting the food where it needs to go.

One of my Econ professors once said that the challenges of the world are all processes. A starving person is an event in a long chain of events (at the end of the chain from the starving person's perspective). It is not a static thing that just happened by chance.

The world as a whole is not starving, we just don't seem to be able to hook up the supply with the demand.

[Grey]

Me thinks someone needs to take a nap for a few hours. :wink:
Ah, a nap. Is that what we're calling it these days? :D

[Krevel]

Go, Breeders!! We're Number One! We're Number One! The planet is ours!!

Keep pumping out those kids, and someday (soon) we'll find out just how many people this 'ol Earth will hold!!

G-o-o-o-o-o-O HUMANS!!!

[Candy]

Me thinks someone needs to take a nap for a few hours. :wink:
Ah, a nap. Is that what we're calling it these days? :D
When's the last time you took a nap? :P

[Grey]

When's the last time you took a nap? :P
Not since the weekend. No wonder it's seemed like such a long week! :wink:

[Candy]

When's the last time you took a nap? :P
Not since the weekend. No wonder it's seemed like such a long week! :wink:
Mental note: Spend more time in Michigan during the week. :D

[snowcelt]

And Candy kills an other thread.

[Nicolas]

In how many countries is the population rising? In how many the same? Descending?

Can this expressed in % of the population? Something like "30% of the world population is increasing the world population".

I'm just curious.
I thought the Belgian population stayed about the same considering childbirth and death,but with a small growth due to immigration.

[snowcelt]

Check out the CIA Fact book. This is a very good source for basic info as too which country is doing what. One can see that poor nations have more children than rich ones. Interestingly, we can see that some very wealthy countries have a higher birth rate than others because of their religious faith.

Many ex Eastern Block nations have a negative growth. Many Western nations as well. Even China has a minimal growth rate.

Growth rate is proportional to wealth. The poorer one is, the more you can afford a child. If one has wealth, one has to pay for that child's education. If one has no prospects beyond replacement, the child becomes your social assistance in latter years. Paradox illy, only the poor can afford children;.

[Nicolas]

In China it has much to do with the birth limitation I assume.

[snowcelt]

Without a doubt! The One Child Policy has been around for many years. Does this mean that this has been followed faithfully? No! The official population is stated at 1.2 billion. Reality puts that figure closer to 1.4 billion. Some say that the number of boys to girls ratio may be as much as 10 to 9. This means that there will be a lot of dissatisfied men 20 years from now. Revolution? You bet.

[Nicolas]

Without a doubt! The One Child Policy has been around for many years. Does this mean that this has been followed faithfully? No! The official population is stated at 1.2 billion. Reality puts that figure closer to 1.4 billion. Some say that the number of boys to girls ratio may be as much as 10 to 9. This means that there will be a lot of dissatisfied men 20 years from now. Revolution? You bet.

I see one alternative for revolution happening 20 years from now :D (well, one non-violent :wink: )

[Fram]

Without a doubt! The One Child Policy has been around for many years. Does this mean that this has been followed faithfully? No! The official population is stated at 1.2 billion. Reality puts that figure closer to 1.4 billion. Some say that the number of boys to girls ratio may be as much as 10 to 9. This means that there will be a lot of dissatisfied men 20 years from now. Revolution? You bet.

I see one alternative for revolution happening 20 years from now :D (well, one non-violent :wink: )

Statefunded promotion of homosexuality (males only)?
Allowing polygamy (one woman, many men)?
Mass emigration of the men to other countries?

Hey, that's at least three alternatives!

[Nicolas]

I was thinking of #1. :)

10 men for one women. Seems not nice. Not for the men and women. I live in Delft (Technical University). I know what 10:1 men:women means :D.

[Fram]

I was thinking of #1. :)

10 men for one women. Seems not nice. Not for the men and women. I live in Delft (Technical University). I know what 10:1 men:women means :D.

Well, he said ten men to 9 women, not 10 to 1. Still not perfect, but at least a lot better. And you have to choose your studies carefully. Mine was 3 women - 1 men, so I was quite happy with that...

[snowcelt]

I understand you Belgians are having fun :D However. I do not think that you see the crisis. Imagine that China has a hidden population in which the number of extra boys is larger than the population of Belgium. If I am not mistaken, Belgium managed to take over a third of Africa. Every year there is this potential being born in China without an outlet.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

[Fram]

I understand you Belgians are having fun :D However. I do not think that you see the crisis. Imagine that China has a hidden population in which the number of extra boys is larger than the population of Belgium. If I am not mistaken, Belgium managed to take over a third of Africa. Every year there is this potential being born in China without an outlet.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Umm, I don't think the rule: boy doesn't find girl -> boy goes to war is very correct. If China wants to start a war, they have enough men already. The surplus will not make that much of a difference. There is just as much or even more chance of those men starting a revolution against their own government, which may in the long run be a good thing (a revolution is rarely a good thing for those involved, but in retrospect it sometimes gives good results).
And they can always fight against the surplus of Indians, where the same problem (or phenomenon) exists.

[Nicolas]

Snowcelt, that post is rather biased (though I think you weren't being too serious :)).

It's not because we're joking that we don't see the problem of overpopulation, and the problem of unequal man/women numbers in the complete country (not just one city like Delft, which really forms problems already).

And It's not because one person (who happened to be king of Belgium as well) thought he could own Congo, that Belgium "took over a third of Africa".

No offense :).

[Candy]

Allowing polygamy (one woman, many men)?
I like this idea. :P

[snowcelt]

I am not being facetious. An over population of boys will lead to unrest. Think about it. Millions of boys/men with no outlet. Boys/men in a country in ascension. This is not trivial. This is very scary. Where do they vent their frustration? In country? Sure! Ex-Country...You bet. Balance India? This is 50 years down the road. The reality is all of the worlds burden---now!