this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
35 points (92.7% liked)
Futurology
1855 readers
87 users here now
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I agree we should let our populations decline, but it still needs to be a managed process. That's how they should respond; manage the declining population in ways that minimize human suffering.
No management means millions dying from hunger or preventable disease, entire cities falling into dangerous disrepair and causing danger to remaining people or the animals that inhabit them when we leave, war, slavery, abandoned older gen nuclear sites melting down and probably 100 other calamities I can't imagine.
Nature doesn't "aim" for anything...including sustainability.
if 1.5 - 2 was the "natural" birthrate, the population wouldn't have ever increased to this level.
I already I agree that there are too many humans. But countries with decreasing populations also have aging populations, which won't be able to feed or care for those people without young workers. Meaning they either starve, start invading other countries with robot armies to capture slave laborers and resources, or...someone manages the decline through immigration policy, tearing down unneeded infrastructure and recycling those materials, etc.
Thinly veiled ad hominem attacks notwithstanding...
Here's a peer-reviewed published study detailing how 30 invasive species have led to the extension of 738 other species. They all continue to grow at unsustainable levels until the ecosystem collapses and a new equilibrium is left in the ruins. They aren't YouTube videos, but I'm confident you can read.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1602480113
In case you can't, here's another actual scientific article (I hope you'll look. This one has pictures!) detailing how declining populations are also aging populations and the problems that result.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9577145/#:~:text=Declining%20in%20the%20proportion%20of,increasing%20number%20of%20senior%20citizens
You're still speaking to me like you're a petulant child.
Decommissioning a nuclear plant is a 15 - 30 year process. If you don't safely shutdown the reactor and manage the spend fuel, you end up with a radioactive hellscape. I'm sorry, but thems the facts.
Humans are animals, and we act like animals. Just like any other species. There are very few nations that have zero population growth...the vast majority are either expanding or contracting. I like kurzgesagt, too, but by your own definition (and theirs), they are extremely simplified explanations of complex topics.
The only evidence I have that economic collapse leads to war is all of human history, but here's some research in that as well. https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-famines-and-epidemics-trigger-wars.
The original post was soliciting opinions about what we should do. Yours was "nothing", mine was "make it as painless as possible." Those are both opinions, and opinions are what was asked for. I based mine on scientific literature, and you based yours on some YouTube videos.
I hope you're as young as you're acting and you've still got time to grow up...otherwise you're gonna end up lonely or burying yourself in echo chambers because you can't handle discussions that don't validate your gut reaction.
I thought you wanted to avoid managing the process?
Upvoted for Kurtzgesagt. De-upvoted for the condescending tone of the comment.