[quote=davelj][quote=sdduuuude][quote=davelj]My solution to the world’s pollution and energy problems (for the billionth time): Stop procreating. Stop having kids.
Population shrinks while technology improves and – voila – both pollution and energy use decline.
It’s so simple. But too few are willing to make the sacrifice. (Personally I don’t consider it a sacrifice, but most do, so…)
I’ll let folks legislate what kind of car I can drive as soon as the same folks legislate away all procreation for the next century.
Pollution and energy constraints are a result of increasing population. Legislating increased mpg is only addressing a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself. Why don’t we address the root of the problem instead? Oh, I forgot… because THAT would be too inconvenient.[/quote]
Speaking objectively (with no judgment regarding the merits of the idea): This idea will never get off the ground. People with this inclination will be bred out of existence by natural selection.[/quote]
I agree. And I’ll take it a step further: I think humans will be forced out of existence because the principal trait that has suited them well for survival up to this point (a heavy bias toward procreation without any concept of consequences) is the very trait that will eventually doom them.
The rate of population growth has slowed markedly over the last many decades, but there appears to be a gap several decades out into the future between sources and uses of energy (and potential environmental consequences). I’m not worried about my lifetime, but beyond 50 years, absent some major technological breakthroughs, the population issue will become the major problem in the world. Dicking around with mpg for cars is just rearranging deck chairs and pretending to address the issue.[/quote]
I don’t think it will doom us. I go back to Jay Forrester’s world model that suggests the world’s population will peak, then drop to a lower steady-state level.
This makes more sense than the “doom” scenario because as population dies off, there is less to support and thus more resources for all that remain.
