Is the world severely overpopulated or not? In my town of supposedly less than 29,000 people, we have the traffic of a major city like LA houston or san diego. Almost every little city to average sized city in middle america is over loaded with traffic and people. I honestly think the real population of the usa is probably 500 million. Worldwide its probably already at 9 billion or 10 billion. I mean they lie about absolutely everything to make things not seem as bad as they are. People absolutely fucked like rabbits and exploded the population from 88-2020 in my opinion. It also explains the supposed "housing shortage" which is really just a concealed "hidden population data statistics".
GrumpyFrog
Exhausted
- Aug 23, 2020
- 1,913
I don't think they're lying, I just think it might be hard to conceptualize high numbers of people, even tens of thousands, and especially billions. There might really be around 7 billion people on the planet - and that would still be severely overpopulated.
Some people claim that our planet isn't over-populated, but I believe that our society is, in my mind. Sure, we could probably fit more people into each country and have them stand within a square meter each, but people need to have somewhere to live, work or study, and if theren't enough living spaces, jobs or educational opportunities for each one, then I see no erason to keep reproducing.
makethepainstop
Visionary
- Sep 16, 2022
- 2,032
They lie about everything else, so I would not be surprised! Politicians, gotta love em!
hungry_ghost
جهاد
- Feb 21, 2022
- 517
CatLover
Member
- Jun 3, 2018
- 73
They can only estimate how many people there are, so you could be right, who knows? Either way, there's too damn many people, that's for sure. Humans seem to have no ability or wish to manage population to keep it at sustainable levels. When they do, like in China, they go about it with a blunt hammer instead of trying to educate people, provide easy access to contraception etc. I think it's what will finish us off.
whatevs
Mining for copium in the weirdest places.
- Jan 15, 2022
- 2,914
I don't know why so many humans spouse the unrealistic notion that we are easy to destroy. Cockroaches have nothing on us. We aren't going anywhere. Although... Mice Utopia? They all died.
odradek
Mage
- Sep 16, 2021
- 557
I think having traffic jams in small to middle sized cities is more a product of poor city planning rather than any conspiracy to hide true population numbers.
The housing shortage is due to the lingering effects of the housing market crash in 2008 imo.
CatLover
Member
- Jun 3, 2018
- 73
Apparently, there are enough empty homes to house everyone who needs one, at least here in the UK. So it's political will rather than lack of housing, really, as well as the fact that we allow some people to have multiple homes that they may use only a handful of days a year, or as airbnbs or just sitting empty, because property here earns more money than a working human and you can just let it sit and reliably cash in in five years time. They keep threatening there will be a house price crash but it never seems to happen, or if it does, for long. BUT you can't just look at homes, you need to look at the infrastructure as well. Are there enough schools? GPs? Hospitals? Jobs? Food? Clean water? Sewage facilities? All of those things also need to be increased if population does, and they just haven't here and are creaking under the weight. But it's STILL growing. People like to blame immigration but in reality it's 50/50 native population just having loads of kids and people coming from overseas. People from overseas will often work for a period of time and then leave as well. It's a small island with limited resources, at some point we're going to need to ... just STOP.
The mice experiment is so interesting and horrific. I sometimes wonder if we have not already reached that point where it is causing people irreparable harm. You have the hikkomori in Japan and 'shut ins' all over the world. I don't like crowds because of my anxiety and autism and it's just becoming harder and harder to avoid them. An example - I used to do my shopping in the middle of the night so I could have a 'quiet' experience, now more often than not there's a fair few people trudging round who have had the same idea. Some people like to bring their babies and young kids, which completely ruins the idea of it being quiet. Some supermarkets do try to offer 'quiet hours' where they turn the lights down a bit and ask people to STFU, the trouble is they can't legally enforce it and there always seems to be some arsehole who decides they don't want to be quiet. Getting a GP appointment is impossible, waiting lists at hospital have increased and increased etc - and as someone who is chronically ill it's really affecting my quality of life. Lots of people seem to have moved out of London down to the coast and it's increased the waiting times and crowding everywhere. They obviously have somewhere to live, but that's about it. The local services can't handle the increase.
More money could be given to the NHS, they could be managed better, they could trim the 'middle manager' fat and instead hire more frontline workers who actually do the work... you are right that there are all kinds of things that could help. But as I said before, we are a small island, with limited resources, it doesn't matter how well you manage things (although they definitely should be doing it better) at some point it's going to have too many people to be sustainable, the same as the planet. And no one has the will to address it :(
The mice experiment is so interesting and horrific. I sometimes wonder if we have not already reached that point where it is causing people irreparable harm. You have the hikkomori in Japan and 'shut ins' all over the world. I don't like crowds because of my anxiety and autism and it's just becoming harder and harder to avoid them. An example - I used to do my shopping in the middle of the night so I could have a 'quiet' experience, now more often than not there's a fair few people trudging round who have had the same idea. Some people like to bring their babies and young kids, which completely ruins the idea of it being quiet. Some supermarkets do try to offer 'quiet hours' where they turn the lights down a bit and ask people to STFU, the trouble is they can't legally enforce it and there always seems to be some arsehole who decides they don't want to be quiet. Getting a GP appointment is impossible, waiting lists at hospital have increased and increased etc - and as someone who is chronically ill it's really affecting my quality of life. Lots of people seem to have moved out of London down to the coast and it's increased the waiting times and crowding everywhere. They obviously have somewhere to live, but that's about it. The local services can't handle the increase.
More money could be given to the NHS, they could be managed better, they could trim the 'middle manager' fat and instead hire more frontline workers who actually do the work... you are right that there are all kinds of things that could help. But as I said before, we are a small island, with limited resources, it doesn't matter how well you manage things (although they definitely should be doing it better) at some point it's going to have too many people to be sustainable, the same as the planet. And no one has the will to address it :(
Lily (Osako)
Everything all at once
- Jul 30, 2022
- 381
I don't think the world is overpopulated, but that certain areas are extremely densely populated, which makes it appear that the whole world is overpopulated.
If you've ever driven cross country, you'll see so much land that is pretty empty.
I think what we see, where we live, skews our perception.
Of course I could be completely wrong.
If you've ever driven cross country, you'll see so much land that is pretty empty.
I think what we see, where we live, skews our perception.
Of course I could be completely wrong.
makethepainstop
Visionary
- Sep 16, 2022
- 2,032
Governments and their agencies have lied about everything else, why would they report true numbers?
actual_fox
Arcanist
- Sep 15, 2022
- 469
I think we are in decaying society and we are now in process of runaway craziness- Everything accelerates in some weird crazy feedback loop and world is weirder and weirder with every week.
Imo: world is terribly overcrowded, and we overconsoome but now I could not get used to lower consumption then before.
Also to the OP @darkcirclesunder : They probably lie or over/underestaminate to push some agendas. Even google lies. Type anything in google and see how many search results you get (should be in millions) then go to next page and last page. After this the search result number should be much much lower. Makes you think If internet is really that big. Lets think now: If internet is not that huge as they say It is and majority of users are bots; then how could we know real size of the human population?
If somebody told me world is 700 million people - I would believe It. It might be much more then they tell us too. But then there would be a problem with hiding already existing people. It is much easier to create fake people.
theboy
Illuminated
- Jul 15, 2022
- 3,006
Overuse of resources really has VERY LITTLE to do with population growth - countries with lower population densities and lower birth rates (US and Europe) are consuming FAR MORE scarce, limited, and polluting resources than countries with more crowding or higher birth rates.
Likewise, ECONOMIC DEGROWTH (a thing we urgently need!) is not directly tied to "lowering the population."
(That said, with full autonomy - gender-equitable education, contraceptive and abortion access, independent income, no-fault divorce, and the ability to leave relationships without coercion - people do seem ON AVERAGE to stop often having many more than two kids apiece, but that's really just a side note / side effect.)
Likewise, ECONOMIC DEGROWTH (a thing we urgently need!) is not directly tied to "lowering the population."
(That said, with full autonomy - gender-equitable education, contraceptive and abortion access, independent income, no-fault divorce, and the ability to leave relationships without coercion - people do seem ON AVERAGE to stop often having many more than two kids apiece, but that's really just a side note / side effect.)
LesbianCarpetPython
Smell lord
- Sep 24, 2022
- 151
"I remember an "environmental" presentation staged by the Museum of Natural History in New York during the 1970s in which the public was exposed to a long series of exhibits, each depicting examples of pollution and ecological disruption.
The exhibit which closed the presentation carried a startling sign, "The Most Dangerous Animal on Earth." It consisted simply of a huge mirror which reflected back the person who stood in front of it.
I remember a black child standing in front of that mirror while a white school teacher tried to explain the message which this arrogant exhibit tried to convey. Mind you, there was no exhibit of corporate boards of directors planning to deforest a mountainside or of government officials acting in collusion with them."
- Murray Bookchin
A short video (one minute!) by organizer Maia Williams explaining this:
More on degrowth:
climateandcapitalism.com
The exhibit which closed the presentation carried a startling sign, "The Most Dangerous Animal on Earth." It consisted simply of a huge mirror which reflected back the person who stood in front of it.
I remember a black child standing in front of that mirror while a white school teacher tried to explain the message which this arrogant exhibit tried to convey. Mind you, there was no exhibit of corporate boards of directors planning to deforest a mountainside or of government officials acting in collusion with them."
- Murray Bookchin
A short video (one minute!) by organizer Maia Williams explaining this:
More on degrowth:
Degrowth considered | Climate & Capitalism
The ecological insights of degrowth theory are undermined by blindspots about renewability, agriculture, unalienated labor, and the power of our enemies…
climateandcapitalism.com
