I think all of us are living in a dazed reality, thinking that nothing is wrong with this planet and nothing is wrong with us. We have books filled with Alexander the Great taking armies across the World carrying swords and shields. There is something wrong with that picture. The first humans when started to use the metallurgy, made a destructive statement that we are going to mess with the core elements of this planet. This is a beautiful planet that can boast of something miraculous called life. But for the last couple of hundered years there is one species that is bent on killing the rest. Our planet is a middle age planet, half of its life is gone (5 Billion) and the other half is left. If this planet has to live and support life, it is in the dire need to get rid of the one species that is causing the most damage, and that one species is us. The humans, the smartest species that is making the dumbest decisions. It seems if we continue on this path we will consume and destroy everything. The question that we have to ask ourselves is---can we do something or is it too late?
18 comments:
I don't think that we should not have ever evolved to the state we are at (I am a believer in fate), but rather, we should have (and still can) learn to live WITH the earth and nature instead of against it. The way I see it, we are pitting ourselves against the natural order of things, by stopping pandemics, killing off predators, and generally raping the land, and the land is against us, so to speak, in aspects such as global warming, and even so far as to say natural disasters: in more primitive times, people thought that tornados, earthquakes, and floods were the gods' revenge on them. We now know that the likelihood of these natural disasters are increased by higher temperatures, which is a result of global warming.
Really, though, I am still an advocate for the child restriction laws. Though it is an ugly prospect, there really is no bright and shiny way to solve the problem of our population, which is (yet again) the central issue here. I think that education would, for the most part, be ignored by the people you are meaning to teach, unless you make it mandatory. But then, if it were mandatory, would that be that far off from forced child restriction? I'm not saying that more than 2 children and you need to have an abortion, but rather in the form of tax cuts for those with 2 children, and then increases from there on. Sure, it sounds biased and unfair, which it kind of is, but there is a solution: don't be stupid and don't get pregnant and have 20129 kids.
Another thing worth noting, I think, is the prospect of colonization of extraterrestrial worlds. Yes, there is concern that if we colonize these places, that we will just mess them up as we have the earth, but I think it is really up to the government to step up and make stringent laws regarding the use of clean energy, if it isn't the only alternative by then. Requirements such as only solar power being used would ensure that the environment of these ambitious projects was not thrown into caution, and it would also be an interesting "experiment" in a sort of utopian-esque society, energy wise.
These solutions alone would not eradicate the problems we have with the earth. I still don't think that we should NOT be around on the earth, but I think that we should realize that we share it with millions of other organisms. I think that there is a way (whether it is possible for us to achieve it this late in the game remains to be seen) for us as human beings to be more nature friendly (today I was talking/joking to Demi about building gigantic treehouse cities and living in them).
And, as always...underwater cities the size of continents. Seriously, contain them in reinforced plastic shells, and that is an entire new area we could inhabit. We should be careful that we don't displace any species' habitat in the process, and for energy, we could use floating solar energy farms attached to the city by tubes. Plus, you'd get to say you live in an underwater city...how freaking sweet would that be?!
I am the type that prefers to put the blame on countries such as China, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and Brazil. These countries have huge, exploding populations. Developed countries do not face this problem nearly as much, however, poor, uneducated, minority groups in the US are actually encouraged to produce more children because by doing so they receive more free money with their welfare checks. I believe such practices are wrong and should be repealed.
This can be tied in with the theory of natural selection by Darwin. We are unnaturally going against survival of the fittest. We go out of our way to ensure the survival of the nonproductive, those who can't compete in the world today. And more often than not, it is these people that produce the most children. And truly, that is the dilemma. Dumb people have more kids, smart people have less kids. The correlation can not be denied. How to solve it? I don't think it's possible by any moral means.
Trevor, you rant. Clear, concise messages connect better. Sorry for being off-topic.
Okay and one more thing is that even having two kids as replacements does not maintain current population levels. We have to realize that people are living longer and longer and generation gaps are closing, meaning that we will still have to sustain greater populations even if we have less kids due to technological advancements, especially medical research fighting viruses and cancer.
There is nothing we can do to stop the exponential rate of birth on this planet to decrease. If there is a solution, it would usually be rejected by the people. We cannot kill humans or tell them that they can't reproduce; they'll go crazy and revolt. One solution to this problem could be education, but even education can't stop people from having sexual relations. Even in the US, a country were mostly everyone is educated and are aware of STD's, people continue to have sex carefree. If we try to educate other 3rd world countries regarding population increase, they would simply not care. Their lives are bad as it is, and they would not care about other nations that have citizens where the poorest people living in them would be the richest in their countries. There is no solution, and if there is what is the point of trying to find it Dr. Singh. The chances of you or any of us finding the solution are astronomically low. Let's just live life happily and let the real scientist do the thinking for us. There are scientists out there that specialize in this area only. I am sure that our class brainstorming would only increase our understanding of this topic, but, realistically, it won't do much good. Sorry. Humanity as you put it, will eventually fall if we continue to live the way do. We saddly cannot do anything about this.
Kyle, The comment about dumb people having more kids and smart people having less is so offensive and ignorant at so many different levels. If you go to slums all over the World, it does not mean people living in there are dumb. I means people who live there were born in that enviorment and got stuck in the muck. Some of those people may have way higher IQ than YOU, but they will have to live the life they born in.
I'll weigh in and say more knowledgable people have less children...but even then it really isn't the inhabitants' fault. They don't have access to this kind of information; it isn't like they have computers to look it up on the internet.
and yeah, my first message wasn't really concise....but I was also pretty tired. At nine. Damn We The People.
i agree with kyle, but i dont think it is because the people that live in developing countries are dumb, they are simply do not have the resources to become educated like we do in the US. Therefore, they do not have the technology we do to prevent pregnancies. Or the education. So I think we should, instead of using so much money in wars like the one in Iraq, use money to educate people in developing countries and provide them with contraceptives so they will have less children.
(and this can happen when I become president.... hahaha)
I am still against the child restriction laws, because even with using protection, surprises happen. And especially in countries where they do have these laws, these children are abandoned and put in orphanages, where most of them die. So I think there are better ways to handle the human population issue than child restriction laws.
i had to giggle when dana said "surprises happen."
child restriction laws do seem like a sad situation, but at this point i'm almost glad for them. i can't imagine what china's population would look like without them. perhaps there will come a time when we don't need them anymore.
for now i think the best possible solution for combating the problem is educating those who need it most.
Education is a vital key to improving the exponentially growing population. With education would come employment opportunities and empowerment for women, which would drastically change the situation seen in some many developing countries today. We cannot go to a developing society and try to change the way they are modeled or their actions. However, we can try to educate them to the best of our ability so that they will know the problems our planet is facing population wise, at least.
Also, education around the world will enlighten many people to the problem of environmental degradation to our planet. Many people do not care because they do not stop to think or they just don't know how enormous the problem is. Through education we can hope to provide everyone with the opportunities to make environmentally-consciuos decisions.
I really do not have any new information to bring to this subject so I will just reiterate some of the ideas previously mentioned. I have to agree with my good friend Big Nate Coleman when it comes to the best strategy regarding population control. Education is the key to the world's survival. Even though what Kyle said was pretty offensive, :) it was not necessarily false. It is true that people in undeveloped countries are more likely to have more than 3 or 4 children. But lets think about this, if we were put in the situation and lifestyles that these people go through everyday, and the only way we knew how to make things momentarily better was sex, we would probably all do it to.
I also have the same missionistic attitude towards the world as Dana. The populations in these undeveloped countries are so high because the simply lack the knowledge and understanding that we have and take for granted in the most powerful nation in the world. They are not stupid people just uniformed and unaware. This is why it is so important for us to not give up in educating the masses of the world about disease, birth control, and "family planning" as our book would call it.
Although I would personally hate to be told by a government as to how many children I am recommended and allowed to have in my lifetime, it is undeniable that the regulations on children are very effective. Ever since these regulations were made in China, there has been an incredible decrease in their birth rate. The real question isn't how can we stop our overwhelming population growth, the real question is are we willing to sacrifice a part of what we want and happiness to continue to live on this planet.
Speaking of living on this planet, there would not have to be such restrictions if we were able to colonize on either the moon or mars. And while this advancement may not be prevalent for the next 100 or even 1,000 thousand years, education is again the key to making this happen. The advancements we have made in just the 20th century alone are incredible,and the planet will not come to an end in 100 years by the world being so populated every square inch of it is covered with people and we are forced so slowly fall into the ocean; I don't care what dr. singh says, we will be here in 100 years. But imagine what we will have done by then.
Ok so everything has pretty much been said,but i want some extra credit so... I think that the whole child restriction law is kind of messed up in a way. Like having people tell you you can only have a certain amount of children or like doc was saying about India how they had to have those surgeries to not have more kids. I would not like that very much. But on the other hand we need these laws because without them what would china's population look like. And i believe that India needs something like this also, to help slow down there population growth. And the bottom line is they need more education.
Our planet is indeed beautiful as Dr. Singh said. However, we are abusing our planet daily by our actions. We do not recycle even though it is not that hard to do, we litter even though there are trashcans everywhere, we dump trash into the oceans even though it ruins the water quality and hurts the fish, most notably the dolphins. We are hurting out planet and it is getting to the point where it is too late to fix the problems that we have created for ourselves. With regards to human population, we can not limit the number of children a woman has it is feasible and will result in our country adopting China'a methods. Orphanages will become overcrowded and babies will not be taken care of properly like they could be. Some women have four children in America, some have two, and some have none.Usually it all ends up balancing out. I for one want more then one or two children, I love children and I know that I will love and care for each of my children to my fullest ability. Whereas, some people just aren't the type of people that are good with kids, and thats's fine...that is what will balance out the United States. With regards to the worldwide situation- we will have to educate. Education is key. We need to teach family planning and possibly even the horrors of what will happen if we overpopulate the earth. I would love to travel to different countries and teach the women and young girls that they can control the amount of children they have and they can keep diseases in check. The problem is that people arent willing to step outside their comfort zones and do the right thing. They think that because they do not live in China or India that it does not affect them but it does... it affects us all. The planet is home to everyone and we must do what we can to save it and preserve it for future generations.
Yup, we can definately do something about the earth.
1. stop using nonrenewable energy and RECYCLE!! (lowers our ecological footprint)
2. educate the world (helps control population)
3. protect the existing environments (duh)
Education is the key. We just need to help the developing countries out a little bit (you never know when the next african guy will invent a super solar panel). Give them the means to be educated and they will be exposed to all its benefits.
We have forced education and I think it works pretty well... we just need to stop polluting everything and dumping our trash everywhere.
Feed the masses, provide jobs for as many as I can, and bring hope and education to the poor. That is what I'm going to do to change the world.
I figured out the reason why India has such a high population rate. They dont think they need education. Doctor Singh took this belief with him to america. That is why he always plays that Pink Floyd song....
lala
lala
lala
"We don't need no education..."
Come on Doctor Singh... we DO need education!
I read the first comment by Ben and I was wondering who is this guy. Under all the hard exterior there is this sensitive enlightened human being! But then I read the second comment!!!!
On the contrary India has this vast population that values education. Microsft, Hewlett Packard are few of the comapanies that are settling down in India becasue India is the largest English speking country on the planet.
The Pink Floyd is a satire, not an acceptance!!
Yeah, the whole point of that Pink Floyd song is that education IS necessary and that only the ignorant don't think it is.
You have to read between the lines of every Pink Floyd song.
Nice reference though.
Dr. Singh, i was just kidding!!!!!
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