The Human Footprint

Well, we're all screwed. I know that most of us realized that a long time ago. But our population is still growing I know, it's hard to believe. People are still having babies, maybe I'll have one someday. (rather, I may contribute in the concieving of one )

At this rate of growth it looks as though we may be in for some cramped situations.

The Wildlife Conservation Society has come out with a new map of the Human Footprint Just so we can see how far reaching human influence really is. Super. Now I have to move to northern Canada to get any peace and quiet. Yeah, it's cold up there.

So please, before you go out tonight to the bars and take home a lovely young lady or gentleman, use some protection We don't need anymore of you running around.

We don't need anymore of you running around.

Don't tell me, tell this fella (section 13).

Peter

We don't need anymore of you running around.

Not the kind of talk you'd expect from someone who runs a family restaurant.

People are still having babies, maybe I'll have one someday. (rather, I may contribute in the concieving of one )

Hey, that's fine! If you're concerned about it, just have one and tell everyone else to only have one, then we'll shrink the population a bit. Then when it's at a good level, we can all start having 2 and be normal.

Actually, the US is suprisingly stable in its population growth. The only thing increasing the population in our country is immigration. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, that's just how it is.

Now we just need to get birth control out to some of the more "productive" nations. Or do something else. I don't know what.

Or do something else.

Mr. Malthus will have his say in the long run, and short of a world-wide plague or global nuclear war, I really don't see any alternative.

tanstaafl.

Oh goody!

I've found a solution to our over-population.

Yipee!

Hehe, are they in the business of selling mice?

I was once given a not very convincing argument by a bible waving relation about why there, in fact, was no population problem. Mind you, it did come from his church in GA.
It goes like this...
If each married couple only has one child then the population will actually shrink, so every couple should have at least TWO kids.
Additionally, because some couples has no kids or only one, then others can have three or four. Come on he said, do the math.
Trying to explain life expectancy expansion, the fact that his kids, him and his siblings, his parents and thier siblings, grandparents etc etc where also living didn't seem to phase him.
Oh well...

Not to mention the fact that his argument really doesn't have anything to do with the Bible....

not being in the Bible didn't seem to affect the argument. His bottom line was, no matter how big the population gets, God will provide. Same thing for crude oil supplies, rain forest etc.
I mean no disrespect, but how many dumb/bad things have been attributed to that book when people can find no such reference in there.
Maybe after some reflection his viewpoint will change.

My personal view, is that God may well provide, and gives us the chance to help ourselves, not by fixing it for us. Ignoring it and continuing on blindly is not sensible.
It reminds me of the 'joke' about the priest in a flood, ignoring the boats going by offering rescue. When he drowns and goes to heaven he askes why he was drowned and God replies "but I sent you five boats".

You can only get so many hints!

If God provides you with food, you still have to pick it up and put it in your mouth.

Hey Doug!

I can see your house on here!

I can see your house on here!

No, that's my neighbor, Norman's house. My porch light has been burned out for months, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it.

tanstaafl.

"Oh I don't know how the billions will survive
but I'll believe in God when 1 and 1 are 5."
- Bad Religion, Suffer - track 13 - Do What You Want

"What Kind Of God Orchestrates Such A Thing?
10 In 2010
Ten Billion People All Suffering
10 In 2010
Truth Is Not An Issue Just Hungry Mouths To Feed
10 In 2010
Forget What You Want, Scrounge The Things You Need"
- Bad Religion, The Grey Race - track um... 2? - 10 in 2010

I take the apathetic approach. "Oh well, humankind has disrupted the balance of Nature and sent the Earth on a downward spiral from which it will never recover." So, it's just a matter of time.

The big question is, "do you want your kids to live in a world like that portrayed in 'Soilient Green?'" Ah, then you can consider, "Do WE CURRENTLY live in a world like that portrayed in 'Soilient Green?'" Worst of all, you can think, "If we live in the filth of a 'Soilient Green' world and don't even know it, will our children be in even worse conditions and not even realize it? Will this approach '1984' where the entire world is dead and nobody even saw it coming?"

(sorry folks, I just can't help myself with these population control issues. get's me all fired up. good thing I've finally chosen apathy. wasted too much energy on this subject to fight anymore.)

OK, let me know when you've changed it and I'll launch another high-altitude.spy satelite to take another one

Well, I for one admire the energy. Don't get disillusioned.

And WITHOUT trying to be picky, it's Soylent Green, the name coming from Soya-Lentil, supposedly a tank-grown basic protein flavoured and shaped ro taste. At least that's what the citizens are meant to believe....

I first read "Make Room! Make Room!" about 25 years ago and it really got to me at the time: I can still remember the impression it made on me and I remain to this day an anti-populationist. Looking at the images on this thread really emphasize how close/how far we are from running out of space....

I think the real problem with living in the world of Soylent Green would be having to put up with Chuck Heston's acting.

Hey! Despite the fact that he's a political lunatic, the man's a fine actor. He's no Edward G. Robinson or Joseph Cotton, though. He might not even be a Brock Peters. But he's definitely better than Chuck Connors.

You don't really think that man has the might to send the Earth into a downward spiral do you? We as a species look at everything as related to us. In our time frame in our views of what is hospitable and what is not. We are nothing, we are less than nothing. On a global scale and in geological terms we could set off every bomb on the planet and not even phase it. Would it create difficulties for homo sapiens, yes. Would it change the structure of life on the planet?, yes for a time. Would it change the weather? Yes for a time. Would it sterilize the planet?, no. Would life survive? Absolutely. What effect do you feel the detonation of all warheads on the planet (the maximum that we could do to it that I can think of) would have in a million years? How about 2 million or 10 million? My answer would be none as far as the planet is concerned. Maybe just a change as to who is king of the hill. My point is only that all of this talk of destroying the planet or destroying the ecology is crap. We may be altering it in ways that a determental to us, but to destroy it is impossible, we are simply not smart enough. Think about it.

Would it sterilize the planet?, no. Would life survive? Absolutely.

I'm more interested in the survival of "life as we know it".