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whiteflame55 said:
I guess I'll get this out of the way first: anyone who's taken basic ecology knows the concept of carrying capacity. It's a dotted line that crosses a graph of the population size as it changes over time, though that line stays at a consistent height, representing the population that the environment in which a diberikan organism (or set of organisms) resides can reach before exceeding resource limitations. In part, this line is faulty for human society. As we discover lebih resources, find ways to increase our resources, and change the ways we use them, that line can rise atau fall, so there are some concerns with setting a line and saying we've exceeded it. However, no matter how good our technology becomes, in the foreseeable future, we have no ways to create new resources, so that line can only go up so high. We can make our use of resources incredibly efficient and find ways to mass produce many of those resources, but there will always be limitations in that regard. And some of those limitations are coming to beruang now. The amount of arable land on the planet has decreased sharply. Many ecosystems are being torn apart oleh our impact on the planet, which has still untold effects on the secara keseluruhan, keseluruhan ecosystem of the planet. We may not know for certain what our planet's carrying capacity is (though I'm sure someone's done the math), but we do know that it is entirely possible to exceed it. And we likely have. We've stressed the planet's resources to the breaking point over the millennia as our population has grown, there's no pertanyaan in my mind about that. We're not just going to feel the effects in 20-40 years, we're feeling them now. Shortages of a number of resources are becoming a big problem in many parts of the world, and while that may have lebih to do with distribution, it's likely to only get worse as time goes on. Fresh water is fast becoming a scarce resource, helium is a big issue, platinum and other rare metals are becoming a cause for concern, and that's all not to mention most foods. So, how do we solve for it? That's not an easy pertanyaan to answer. We're nowhere near ready to colonize space, no matter what Newt Gingrich says. There are too many causes for concern and uncertainties. Enacting worldwide controls on the ways resources are used could at least push back the problem another few decades, but I doubt anyone would take to the idea. So I think we need to start implementing some measure of population control, drastic as that seems. I have a few ideas on how that would work, but I'm still struggling over the details.
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