Cut the population in half ?

[Myles]

If you could vote to cut the Earths population in half, would you?

The caveat is that the 7.5 billion people would be assigned a number and picked randomly.   So family or yourself would be in the mix.   

It would certainly help the planets environment sustainability.   

[XenoFish]

[+and-then]

NO.  That problem, and it IS a serious problem, will take care of itself soon enough.  Let's face it, even if we could snap our fingers and have half of the drain on resources just disappear today, we'd just replace them ASAP.  To my limited knowledge, China is the only nation in the modern era that has seriously tried to limit procreation and the unintended consequences have them in a bit of a pickle.  

[Doug1029]

The question is:  could we?

Not by mass murder.  The Nazis tried that and it didn't work.

The only game in town seems to be education of women and birth control.  If that doesn't work, deteriorating living conditions will put a lid on the population anyway.

Disease has always been the controlling factor on human populations.  Somewhere out there is a disease getting ready to attack.  Some variant of flu seems to be the most-likely candidate.  Sooner or later, one of these minor outbreaks is going to escape before it can be controlled.

Doug

[+ouija ouija]

26 minutes ago, Doug1o29 said:

The question is:  could we?

Not by mass murder.  The Nazis tried that and it didn't work.

The only game in town seems to be education of women and birth control.  If that doesn't work, deteriorating living conditions will put a lid on the population anyway.

Disease has always been the controlling factor on human populations.  Somewhere out there is a disease getting ready to attack.  Some variant of flu seems to be the most-likely candidate.  Sooner or later, one of these minor outbreaks is going to escape before it can be controlled.

Doug

[Dark_Grey]

23 minutes ago, Doug1o29 said:

Disease has always been the controlling factor on human populations.  Somewhere out there is a disease getting ready to attack.  Some variant of flu seems to be the most-likely candidate.  Sooner or later, one of these minor outbreaks is going to escape before it can be controlled.

Doug

Nature's answer to over population. More people living closer together while pathogens are carried all over the world as we freely travel to other countries. It's only a matter of time. If nature doesn't do it, some shady Scientist living under a dictator might release his engineered Frankenstein viruses instead. I worry about outbreaks far more than war or bombs.

[Dark_Grey]

1 hour ago, Myles said:

If you could vote to cut the Earths population in half, would you?

The caveat is that the 7.5 billion people would be assigned a number and picked randomly.   So family or yourself would be in the mix.   

It would certainly help the planets environment sustainability.   

Would it though? "Overpopulation" is a real thing but reality is more nuanced. Yes, we do have 7.5(?) billion people on the planet but the key thing to remember is "distribution":  3/4 of the world's population is concentrated in relatively small areas.

Most of the world's fresh water is found in the great lakes of Canada (by volume). How does the population of India affect the water resources in Canada? It doesn't. Despite the efforts of some Western governments to...."even out" the distribution of people across the world, it's going to be a long, long time before we need to worry about resources here in the Americas. There is a lot of fear mongering going on to fuel the climate change agenda and the myth of overpopulation is part of that. I don't worry about resources, I worry about resources for the people living in vastly overpopulated areas. Thankfully, where I live is not one of those places. Not even close. Canada is responsible for less than 2% of global emissions and we have a metric ton of water and food for every citizen here. Your question would get a much different response if asked in China, India or Africa. Hell, even in Africa, which is so big it's essentially another planet, the population is so concentrated along coastlines "over population" shouldn't even matter. Start spreading people evenly across the African plains and you could fit another 2 or 3 billion people with room to spare. I know it's not that simple but population density really needs to be accounted for when talking about over population. 

That's a long winded way to say "no, I don't think I would cut the population in half". Unless it would also clean up the pollution - in that case I would do it in a second. Clean up the existing air and water instead of culling the herd.

[Tatetopa]

Do people living in affluent societies also have fewer children?    Disease would certainly have an affect, but as andthen observes, the survivors would strive to reproduce to the level they thought was "normal"  that is pre-disease levels.

[seaturtlehorsesnake]

random is the wrong way to go, that's the mistake. if you want to do this, then the people affected by it should only be the ones who want it to actually happen

see how deep their beliefs really are

[+Desertrat56]

2 hours ago, Myles said:

If you could vote to cut the Earths population in half, would you?

The caveat is that the 7.5 billion people would be assigned a number and picked randomly.   So family or yourself would be in the mix.   

It would certainly help the planets environment sustainability.   

No

[+Desertrat56]

1 hour ago, Doug1o29 said:

The question is:  could we?

Not by mass murder.  The Nazis tried that and it didn't work.

The only game in town seems to be education of women and birth control.  If that doesn't work, deteriorating living conditions will put a lid on the population anyway.

Disease has always been the controlling factor on human populations.  Somewhere out there is a disease getting ready to attack.  Some variant of flu seems to be the most-likely candidate.  Sooner or later, one of these minor outbreaks is going to escape before it can be controlled.

Doug

Really, Doug, Only women??!  You don't think men need that same education?  Or is that men are not educable, or maybe men are incapable of the responsibility? 

[Myles]

38 minutes ago, Dark_Grey said:

Would it though? "Overpopulation" is a real thing but reality is more nuanced. Yes, we do have 7.5(?) billion people on the planet but the key thing to remember is "distribution":  3/4 of the world's population is concentrated in relatively small areas.

Most of the world's fresh water is found in the great lakes of Canada (by volume). How does the population of India affect the water resources in Canada? It doesn't. Despite the efforts of some Western governments to...."even out" the distribution of people across the world, it's going to be a long, long time before we need to worry about resources here in the Americas. There is a lot of fear mongering going on to fuel the climate change agenda and the myth of overpopulation is part of that. I don't worry about resources, I worry about resources for the people living in vastly overpopulated areas. Thankfully, where I live is not one of those places. Not even close. Canada is responsible for less than 2% of global emissions and we have a metric ton of water and food for every citizen here. Your question would get a much different response if asked in China, India or Africa. Hell, even in Africa, which is so big it's essentially another planet, the population is so concentrated along coastlines "over population" shouldn't even matter. Start spreading people evenly across the African plains and you could fit another 2 or 3 billion people with room to spare. I know it's not that simple but population density really needs to be accounted for when talking about over population. 

That's a long winded way to say "no, I don't think I would cut the population in half". Unless it would also clean up the pollution - in that case I would do it in a second. Clean up the existing air and water instead of culling the herd.

Better include the USA in that.    The North American Great Lakes contain 21% of the worlds freshwater.  Lake Baikal in Russia contains 20%. 

 

I also wouldn't vote yes, but I would argue that it would help the planet and quality of living for those who remained.   New house production would be almost completely stopped.   Cars on the roads would be cut by 1/4.   It would eventually get back to current levels, but that would take awhile.     

[Doug1029]

1 minute ago, Desertrat56 said:

Really, Doug, Only women??!  You don't think men need that same education?  Or is that men are not educable, or maybe men are incapable of the responsibility? 

OK.  Educate everybody.  Girls/women currently have less access to education.  That needs to change.

Sometimes I think that the most-fitting revenge anyone could take on ISIS is to offer women from the affected countries a free education in the US on the condition that they return to their home countries once things have settled down.

Doug

[zep73]

7.5 billions sound like a lot, but it really isn't. If every person on Earth got a square meter on the Greek island of Crete, there would still be plenty of room for more.

The problem is not the amount of people, but what each person demands from nature.

Edited May 22, 2019 by sci-nerd

[Eldorado]

No. I doubt I could live happy within myself with that many calous murders on my hands

Would the people who voted no but the no vote lost who then go on to lose their nearest and dearest suck it up and forget it?  I doubt it.  Would you?

[bivy]

Um, no.

[Space Commander Travis]

Excellent idea. I'm sure we can all think of loads of people to start with. 

[Doug1029]

1 hour ago, Dumbledore the Awesome said:

Excellent idea. I'm sure we can all think of loads of people to start with. 

Some on UM.

Doug

[Robotic Jew]

1 hour ago, Dumbledore the Awesome said:

Excellent idea. I'm sure we can all think of loads of people to start with. 

I volunteer as tribute.

[EnderOTD]

It’ll happen naturally, Mother Nature always wins out in the end.  Be it war, famine or disease, natural disaster or man made catastrophe, an act of god will be a great equalizer.  I could see a sizeable comet taking a decent chunk out if it were to land in one of the great oceans causing massive tsunamis.  Yes, I’m feeling a bit misanthropic today.