DU Poll on World Population

[hunter]

42. The world is not a single unit? Really???

Surely it is.

For example global warming is caused by greenhouse gases which are spewed into the atmosphere and spread worldwide causing certain places to become uninhabitable. Heck, let's imagine, although it cannot be proven, that climate change is major contributor to problems in Syria and the rest of the Middle East. Surprise! Refugees from those climate catastrophes start showing up on your border. So now it is EVERYBODY'S problem.

Even an island nation like Australia has a refugee problem. Some nations are large enough, and diverse enough, that they have their own internal refugee problems. (The U.S.A. is not going to be a fun place when we start turning against one another, more than we already have. Dust Bowl refugees were not welcomed into California, people flooded out in Florida and other shallow U.S. coastal areas will not be welcomed to higher ground...)

In any case, unless you are a sociopath living in a genocidal society that's willing to exterminate unpermitted immigrants trying to cross your boarders or landing on your shores, then overpopulation in other places DOES concern you. People move around, walking great distances, sailing in dangerous boats, or selling themselves to human traffickers.

The one thing that seems to reduce population growth is improvements in the social status of women, usually by some surprisingly minimal levels of nutrition, education, and medical care which includes easy access to birth control and instruction how to use it. Generally this is not something that can be imposed on other nations or cultures, it has to be built up from within, but it's an easy thing to support for any wealthier nation that's not run by racist, nationalistic, war-mongering, fundamentalist hypocrites.

Beyond human politics, the greatest evidence of human overpopulation is the accelerating extinction rate of other species. On natural timescales (which are vast) that's a self-correcting problem. Exponential growth of an innovative species such as ours always ends catastrophically. We shall become extinct as a species, or (if you are fond of people) our descendants will be subtly different than us and able to live in a sustainable way. Eventually new species will evolve to fill in the holes 20th and 21st century civilization blasted out of the natural environment. In a few hundred thousand years this mighty civilization will be forgotten, a curious layer of garbage in the geologic record.