Overpopulation. Resources running out. What do we do about these things?

[spartandude]

Spawn more overlords.

I actually LOLed

 

[Soveru]

World war III. Problem solved

 

[Sampler]

GM Crops - they grow in hardier conditions than regular crops, can be used to re-green desserts and prevent deforestation (the majority of rainforest hack'n'slash is locals trying to find arable land).

They also subjected to over a hundred different tests to ensure they're safe for human consumption. Regular crops (esp organic) are subject to just seven. One of those being "Yeah, it looks like a tomato". I know which I'd prefer to eat.

(if the Spanish cucumbers that're causing problems in Germany right now were GM the testing done wouldn't spotted the e.coli and saved lives)

Food for all.

Hydrogen Power - a perfect replacement for petrol powered cars, yes it's not "efficient" as directly electrically powered cars but they don't need the batteries which are mined & parts built all over the world before coming together plus they allow three very good side effects.

Currently 60% of the cost of petrol in the UK is tax, where's this income going to come from when folk drive electrical cars? If it's shifted onto electricity then you're paying more to use your computer, watch tv or get a shower. Having hydrogen power means these taxes can stay on the fuel.

Nuclear power is needed to power the addition demand the increased population, green alternatives don't cut it - wind power for instance is highly variable and in December of last year the combined output of the South East wind farms was less than it's draw (turbines draw power for start-up and to defrost), as a point December is a month when power is needed most for heating so demand is up - and anyone who knows the great British weather will know solar power isn't going to cover it in the winter months. Problem with Nuclear power is it doesn't "ramp" very well, that is attenuate to the decrease and increase in demand and normally gas powered stations are used as an interim until the nuclear power stations can get up to speed (more gas powered stations would be required to back up wind farms too to cover the peaks and troughs in output from them) and high-ramping gas stations aren't very ecological.

Diverting power to hydrogen facilities in times of low use and then back to the grid in times of high will help smooth out the ramping issues.

Another side benefit of hydrogen power stations is they can be used to desalinate and "clean" water ensuring there's enough clean water for everyone (water security being a crucial issue in the coming years as privatised corporations have made poor plans for the increase in demand in order to satisfy shareholders in the near terms by not spending the money needed for the long game).

So we have fuel, power, food & water for all the additional people. Taking back dessert space with GM farming will also offer new, green, areas for people to live and accommodate their living space needs.

The solution is easily within our grasp, it's just there's a lot of people in positions of authority that fear losing that position or are financially incentivised to ignore the solutions and breed fear amongst the people - that'll keep you in line.

 

[Nerfherder17]

See the problem lies in their being too many babies being born. But on the other hand, you can't use a one kid per family rule, because then you have to enforce it, which means more surveillance, and less privacy, and lets face it, the government suck and have no right to know what the fuck i'm up to.
Anyway, religion has demonized the concept of abortion, which is bad because its really useful when dealing with overpopulation, same goes for contraception, but the truth is, both of these may just save our planet.

So for the sake of our future, try sodomy, and kill your babies.

 

[quantumsoul]

The birth rate needs to go down too. I think making the whole population temporarily sterile would work. Like a implant that releases birth control hormones over time. When someone wants a child, they apply for a license and then the implant is temporarily removed.

Depending on the criteria for such a license. I think it's probably the least unethical solution.

 

[Rems]

Compulsorary one child policy for every family. The acceptance and legality of voluntary euthanasia. No more cemetareis- waste of space, crematoriums or recycling instead.

Grow meat via science rather than traditional farming. This frees up space and food spent on them illions of cows, sheep pigs, chickens etc out there. Think of meat versions of greenhouses. it will take a bit of development but i'm sure it can be done, at the very least some form of protein replacement should be possible.

Go for density rather than sprawl in cities, build upwards. This also has the advantage of being close to law enforcement, emergency services etc. Apartments are the future.

Serious, serious investment into science on a global scale.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

I'm all for rapidly depopulating the world via massive wars. Reduce humanity enough to about a billion, implement zero population growth and one child only policies, and we can solve our energy problems with the corpses, and anyone defying these policies would have their child(ren) sterilized and the defiant(s) enslaved as well as sterilized. Instead of the dead being buried, they get sent to crematoriums to be used as a fuel.

All this off the top of my head.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

*Rolls eyes*

Okay, everyone who suggested war as a solution needs to just...stop. There are two outcomes to World War III:

A fairly negligible portion of the world's population is killed. In World War II, the bloodiest war in Human history, between sixty and seventy-two million people were killed. That's ONE PERCENT of the world population. And I hate to break it to you, but if you believe Overpopulation is really a big concern, then killing one percent, or five percent, or even twenty percent of the world population isn't going to make -that- much of a difference for very long. Now, the war might go the other way - apocalyptic war, with nuclear weapons or God knows what. But that wouldn't really help the world situation anyway. Next.

Culling wouldn't work. You try to cull the world population, you get mass uprisings. No one's going to stand there and wait to be shot. Next.

Plague? No. Plagues are uncontrollable. Any plague capable of wiping out a significant portion of the Human population is capable of annihilating humanity.

Child restrictions? No, try again. See also: China.

You want to fix the world situation? Here's what you do. You stop restricting sciences based on how you saw China Syndrome, or you remember Chernobyl. Nuclear power. Genetically engineered crops. No more of this Organic bullshit. Boom.

 

[ObsessiveSketch]

Cannibalism. Solves overpopulation and world hunger all at once.

 

[Tommeh Brownleh]

Overpopulation? Simple. KILL ALL HUMANS AND ESPECIALLY CHILDREN. HUMANS ARE IDIOTS, IDIOTS GIVE BIRTH TO IDIOTS.

 

[Savvz]

Stop sending food, TB medicine, anti-retrovirals and peacekeeper teams to Africa. Then, when the entire continent dies out we populate it.

That post appears awfully pompous.

We being whom? A superior race more deserving of the land than the people currently occupying it?

I'm not saying we deserve it more than the people currently destroying the continent. Just let them get on with it and in a hundred years when they're all dead from AIDS and bullets, everyone still alive can move in and run the place properly. Or at least a little better than the monkeys currently in charge.

 

[StormShaun]

Expand into Space and then the Space age (Mass Effect) starts, but dont crack planets for religious artifacts...please dont do that, or a law to only produce one kid, unfair but should be decent to help the world.

Or birth control that actually works (A better pill for men and woman) that does not snip your twizzler or the shut the pipe off...and no condoms that just makes it worse...

Or any other options that affect my morality...Im staying Lawful Good.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

The first thing that came to mind was killing the super old people who don't really contribute much to society as a whole. All they do is use up resources, and it would benefit us greatly in terms of practicality to kill them.
With that said, it would be incredibly doucehy and heartless.

It'd be like Logan's Run

I'm not sure exactly, although hopefully we have space travel by the time earth blows up or implodes.

 

[honestdiscussioner]

Food towers a.k.a. vertical farms.

 

[honestdiscussioner]

For those wanting to apply a 1 child rule, see what happens when you are old and you want to retire but there are too few workers to support you.

The other problem with the 1 Child rule is that everyone wants a boy.

Why isn't it a two child rule? That way it would be population stabilization and not decrease.

 

[Savvz]

Stop sending food, TB medicine, anti-retrovirals and peacekeeper teams to Africa. Then, when the entire continent dies out we populate it.

That post appears awfully pompous.

We being whom? A superior race more deserving of the land than the people currently occupying it?

I'm not saying we deserve it more than the people currently destroying the continent. Just let them get on with it and in a hundred years when they're all dead from AIDS and bullets, everyone still alive can move in and run the place properly. Or at least a little better than the monkeys currently in charge.

It may well seem all too easy from behind the shallow glow of a computer screen. However, best one try not to guess as to the difficulty of living well in a world wherein your very life is as certain as the wind's direction. But I'm not sure you will understand that message, as the food in your stomach and the roof over your head do little to lend in my effort to open your metaphorical eyes to the difficulty of life for the majority beyond your window. Best I not wonder as to the effectiveness of a world built with such hateful hands and with such ignorance as to assume life in the burbs to be of adequate experience for such a endeavor - we'd all be sitting in the dirt while those of your opinion search for an electric socket, I'd hazard to imagine. Those of the mind to be born of the correct tone, I might add.

The only treatment for a gangrenous limb is to cut it off. It's time we cut off Africa as it serves no more purpose than a leg rotting to the bone.

 

[Savvz]

Stop sending food, TB medicine, anti-retrovirals and peacekeeper teams to Africa. Then, when the entire continent dies out we populate it.

That post appears awfully pompous.

We being whom? A superior race more deserving of the land than the people currently occupying it?

I'm not saying we deserve it more than the people currently destroying the continent. Just let them get on with it and in a hundred years when they're all dead from AIDS and bullets, everyone still alive can move in and run the place properly. Or at least a little better than the monkeys currently in charge.

It may well seem all too easy from behind the shallow glow of a computer screen. However, best one try not to guess as to the difficulty of living well in a world wherein your very life is as certain as the wind's direction. But I'm not sure you will understand that message, as the food in your stomach and the roof over your head do little to lend in my effort to open your metaphorical eyes to the difficulty of life for the majority beyond your window. Best I not wonder as to the effectiveness of a world built with such hateful hands and with such ignorance as to assume life in the burbs to be of adequate experience for such a endeavor - we'd all be sitting in the dirt while those of your opinion search for an electric socket, I'd hazard to imagine. Those of the mind to be born of the correct tone, I might add.

The only treatment for a gangrenous limb is to cut it off. It's time we cut off Africa as it serves no more purpose than a leg rotting to the bone.

Although I find it humors that the point was missed in its entirety, the way in which it was is perhaps not so amusing. I would seek to remind you that most of South Africa has a higher GDP than most of Asia - higher per capita than even China. That this was not known, despite the attempts made at informed debate (consisting entirely of opinion on your part, though it may have been) I find interesting, if not surprising.

I would again suggest ignorance and hate be the better target for such a pruning - being of lesser objective worth.

I was trying to have a discussion on the topic of populating Africa after all the natives kill each other and you go straight to the personal attack. I chose to ignore it.

And if South Africa can keep itself alive without outside help then good for them. We'll just take over the rest of the continent.

 

[Savvz]

Stop sending food, TB medicine, anti-retrovirals and peacekeeper teams to Africa. Then, when the entire continent dies out we populate it.

That post appears awfully pompous.

We being whom? A superior race more deserving of the land than the people currently occupying it?

I'm not saying we deserve it more than the people currently destroying the continent. Just let them get on with it and in a hundred years when they're all dead from AIDS and bullets, everyone still alive can move in and run the place properly. Or at least a little better than the monkeys currently in charge.

It may well seem all too easy from behind the shallow glow of a computer screen. However, best one try not to guess as to the difficulty of living well in a world wherein your very life is as certain as the wind's direction. But I'm not sure you will understand that message, as the food in your stomach and the roof over your head do little to lend in my effort to open your metaphorical eyes to the difficulty of life for the majority beyond your window. Best I not wonder as to the effectiveness of a world built with such hateful hands and with such ignorance as to assume life in the burbs to be of adequate experience for such a endeavor - we'd all be sitting in the dirt while those of your opinion search for an electric socket, I'd hazard to imagine. Those of the mind to be born of the correct tone, I might add.

The only treatment for a gangrenous limb is to cut it off. It's time we cut off Africa as it serves no more purpose than a leg rotting to the bone.

Although I find it humors that the point was missed in its entirety, the way in which it was is perhaps not so amusing. I would seek to remind you that most of South Africa has a higher GDP than most of Asia - higher per capita than even China. That this was not known, despite the attempts made at informed debate (consisting entirely of opinion on your part, though it may have been) I find interesting, if not surprising.

I would again suggest ignorance and hate be the better target for such a pruning - being of lesser objective worth.

I was trying to have a discussion on the topic of populating Africa after all the natives kill each other and you go straight to the personal attack. I chose to ignore it.

And if South Africa can keep itself alive without outside help then good for them. We'll just take over the rest of the continent.

I'm sorry you find myself shining a light on your beliefs to be that of an attack. I simply seek to illuminate the absurdity of your claims in the face of zero evidence or objective, learned reason to support them.

Who, by the way, might this 'we' be?

I think I covered the "we" in my first reply. I meant everyone still alive who needs a new place to live once the more stable countries are full. We're going to need somewhere to live and why not use the giant empty continent full of fertile land, valuable minerals and oil?

You seem to believe I'm a hateful person who advocates the genocide of all Africans. I simply propose we let them deal with their own problems for a while and see how it goes. It isn't like the world's current policy concerning the place is working any.

 

[Anjel]

Stop sending food, TB medicine, anti-retrovirals and peacekeeper teams to Africa. Then, when the entire continent dies out we populate it.

Really? But the people there, they need the support of the developed world. After all, are we not all human?

Just let them get on with it and in a hundred years when they're all dead from AIDS and bullets, everyone still alive can move in and run the place properly. Or at least a little better than the monkeys currently in charge.

Wow, just... wow! Your lack of concern for your fellow man... it's just so wrong, in my opinion. I agree with you that anyone can run it better than the current administration for some African countries but I question your choice of the word monkey as appropriate for this thread given your previous comments... and your avatar.

The only treatment for a gangrenous limb is to cut it off. It's time we cut off Africa as it serves no more purpose than a leg rotting to the bone.

Are you referring to it's people or it's land? The land is almost useless, right now, which is why so many countries are struggling. The people are still human beings though Savvz, I think it is an extremely nasty thing to say if you were referring to it's people. What if something causes your country to become uninhabitable though? Would you appreciate the land and help of it's people then?

And if South Africa can keep itself alive without outside help then good for them. We'll just take over the rest of the continent.

What on earth are you talking about? Invading Africa? Show me an administration that would consider this and I'll show you an administration who are worse than "the monkeys" you mentioned earlier.

You seem to believe I'm a hateful person who advocates the genocide of all Africans.

Well, yeah, to be honest that is how I was reading it as well.

I simply propose we let them deal with their own problems for a while and see how it goes. It isn't like the world's current policy concerning the place is working any.

Whether an individual person, or a continent like Africa, nobody manages on their own. Sometimes people/countries need help to sort their problems out - when you're ill, you can take painkillers, but if it's real bad you rely on a doctor. African countries can probably manage with a lot of their shit, but they probably have so much of it that they need a bit of a hand. It's unfortunate that they need so much help, I get that, but just remember that your life on this planet is a blip on the timeline, and thousands of years from now Africa could be back on their feet and it could be your country that is in the shit and relying on their help.

Yeah, sorry. I wasn't thinking right, I was up all night at a White Power Rally. We lynched a few blacks, burned some crosses and one guy brought a trailer full of kegs. It was awesome. Tonight I think I'm gonna beat my girl a little and spray paint a giant swastika on my Mexican neighbour's house.

Good times.

I read this as a joke, but I expect that it will endure mod wrath anyway - especially considering your previous posts.

I think you maybe need to broaden your scope on topics such as this - you seem very set in your ways so I don't think that me posting this is going to change your stance - but reading what you have wrote, it would have been less offensive if you had just typed the word n***er.

 

[Savvz]

I think you maybe need to broaden your scope on topics such as this - you seem very set in your ways so I don't think that me posting this is going to change your stance - but reading what you have wrote, it would have been less offensive if you had just typed the word n***er.

If Dulcinea had started off with a reasonable discussion I would have reciprocated. Instead he went straight to calling me an ignorant asshole. You raise good points and I can appreciate that. Thank you for helping me see the light.

And yeah, I'm probably gonna get banned for my last post. I don't really mind, it's not like this is the only forum on the internet.