Saving the World with $100 billion.

[Frank Lee]

Read your chart again. The numbers are up. Draw a trend line.

OK, here's the USA:


Here's my lil spot:


Assume 12% growth every decade; that's pretty much a doubling every 50 years. That jibes with my observation of disappearing quietude and increasing congestion and "development".

Look at that- some regions double in LESS THAN 20 years.

Is the growth going to stop and reverse? Not for a hella long time... they think. Resource record: Statewide population projections and pyramids, 2013-2065

[Arragonis]

The rate is as important as the totals.



If the rate continues to fall eventually it will level off, or maybe even decline.

[Econoguru]

Lets hope it starts declining a bit earlier..growth rate in 1950 makes sense post war and all that....doesn't make much sense now though...

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

The rate is as important as the totals.
If the rate continues to fall eventually it will level off, or maybe even decline.

No, the totals are what causes more "development" and congestion and stress on resources. The totals are what clogs the roads. The totals are what causes sprawl. The totals cause farmland to get built over. The totals cause housing "developments" ever further away from work centers (ridiculous commutes) and hollowed out forests. The totals create more demands such that more pipelines, rail lines, trucking, power plants, transmission lines, etc. are demanded.

The totals are what caused U.S. motor fuel consumption to more than double since I was a kid.

Look at your chart. 40 years from now, do you see anywhere where the line is less than zero? I don't. What does that mean? Population GROWTH.

Did you look at the link in #61? They attempt to project out past 50 years from now. There is NO projected population decline.

I put "development" in quotes because I am quite sure that paving over a piece of land so breeders can tear around all over it does not represent an improvement from what it was. Ask any creature besides rats and breeders and they'll probably agree.

Let's say pop was tripling, then the rate reduces to doubling. Yay, but the pop is STILL DOUBLING. Yup. It's still going UP, and rapidly.

While it is wonderful that the rate is smaller than it was, it isn't small enough, soon enough, to keep the total from being AN EXPLOSION.

The "Greatest Generation"- pffft- evidently they were the greatest at *******.

And the gummint forces me to subsidize reproducing and "development" activities.

If the rate continues to fall eventually it will level off, or maybe even decline.

That's a pretty big "if". As soon as the economy shows a hint of recovery the breeders are going to unleash all sorts of pent-up demand for spawning. When do you think this levelling off or possible reversal might be, and what will the TOTAL be by that time?

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Read your chart again. The numbers are up. Draw a trend line....

There was growth to 1950 and then it remained the same or declined. The birth rate is adding to the total population but as a factor on it's own it is declining - Population growth in the US is partly new births and partly people moving to the US from other countries.

Total world population growth rate is driven by new births entirely (unless you think shape shifting lizards have moved on-planet...) and that rate is declining. It is still adding to the population but at a slower rate.

[Frank Lee]

Derp. Still growing.

I think a doubling in 50 years qualifies as an explosion.

50 years is but a blip on the timeline.

It clearly ISN'T SUSTAINABLE.

The angle on the totals line is still going up, STEEPER THAN EVER.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

If I'm allowed to extrapolate the line forward based on the last 20 years of it, it would be 2090 before it hits zero.

Can the planet take it?

[Frank Lee]

What would motivate a person to be a cheerleader for population growth?

Being a bidness leader hoping for more customers hence more dollars in his pocket?
Being a politician hoping to increase his base and fund his Ponzi schemes?
Being a religious leader hoping to achieve world dominance via having his group out-reproduce all others?
Being a military hungry for more cannon fodder?
Being an egomaniac that thinks more copies of themselves blesses the world?
Being a crazy egg-layer that won't be "fulfilled" until she fertilizes as many of her dumb eggs as possible?
Being a simpleton that buys into the rhetoric from ^?

There must be others too...

Oh yeah, being in the food aid industry that has found the line of work too lucrative to ever want to end.



P.S. Or being a freak that wants a "reality" tv show based on reproductive largess.

[Arragonis]

Frank, have you had the snip ?

[Frank Lee]

One kid and that's quite enough.

Now do try to stay focused.

Like answering some of my questions.

When do you think this levelling off or possible reversal might be, and what will the TOTAL be by that time?

Does a drop in the birth rate cause expansion, sprawl, population growth, and the like to stop?