Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Lioned]

Well you all know about 'peak oil' so spare a thought for 'peak food' whilst you snuggle up at home under your duvet sucking your tamiflu lollies.There are far more serious things to worry about than waking up in the morning coughing up curly tails.
The population of the world is set to treble in our lifetimes (assuming your not 80+ years old).
Now i dont really wish to be alarmist,but,as the population increases the amount of land available for farming decreases proportunately,due to over development to house the population and due to our industries spewing out poisonous polution.
So will we be able to feed all these people ? I dont think so.

[Nickbat]

Well you all know about 'peak oil' so spare a thought for 'peak food' whilst you snuggle up at home under your duvet sucking your tamiflu lollies.There are far more serious things to worry about than waking up in the morning coughing up curly tails.
The population of the world is set to treble in our lifetimes (assuming your not 80+ years old).
Now i dont really wish to be alarmist,but,as the population increases the amount of land available for farming decreases proportunately,due to over development to house the population and due to our industries spewing out poisonous polution.
So will we be able to feed all these people ? I dont think so.

Another bit of alarmism, I'm afraid. The birth rate is  declining, certainly in the West at least. Land for food production is generally under-utilised (note the EU set-aside scheme to pay farmers not to produce excess crops). The whole of the world's population could fit shoulder-to-shoulder on the Isle of Man. As for pollution, of course there's more we can always do, but i wouldn't swap today's London air with the smogs of the 1950s and 60s. Quit worrying and get some sleep.     

[Pete Elite]

Well you all know about 'peak oil' so spare a thought for 'peak food' whilst you snuggle up at home under your duvet sucking your tamiflu lollies.There are far more serious things to worry about than waking up in the morning coughing up curly tails.
The population of the world is set to treble in our lifetimes (assuming your not 80+ years old).
Now i dont really wish to be alarmist,but,as the population increases the amount of land available for farming decreases proportunately,due to over development to house the population and due to our industries spewing out poisonous polution.
So will we be able to feed all these people ? I dont think so.

    Yeah but according to those that know we'll all be rather up the Moon and Mars by then .

[bertiecbx550]

Damn and i thought this was thread for 1 of Amigovs curries......

[Varche]

Welcome back Mr Nickbat. Hope you had a good holiday! I have to say you are wrong on this one.

What is the maximum population that the earth can support using current farming and feeding practices and prices? 7, 8 billion, 9 billion, 20 billion. 

Something will have to change with one billion people starving and one billion obese. I did a posting a few days ago on the subject of meat production.

" So a farmer cuts down some forest in South America and plants a grain crop. He sells it and gets a good price from some English farmers who need grain feed for their beef herds.

The farmers sell the beef at rock bottom price barely covering their costs to a national supermarket chain (like Tesco) who package it and they put it on their shelves at a price that will make them a handsome profit.

Sadly it fails to get sold before its sell by date so gets sent back to the distribution centre on a returning lorry. There it is amalgamated with other returned meat and wait for it sent to an incinerator where they proudly declare that it produced electricity rather than going to a landfill site".

As far as the birth rate falling that is a red herring. Somebody is giving birth otherwise how come the population of the earth has tripled in David Attenboroughs lifetime and continues to increase. People are also living a lot longer in case you hadn't noticed. Those are FACTS not suppositions or sound bites.

So you read it here first . Want to make a fortune? Devise a nutritional bar of something flavoured with meat but made of grains/pulses etc. Flog it in poor countries and in rich countries like Britain that way there will be enough land available to produce slabs of meat which may or may not get eaten before their sell by date for the fortunate wealthy of tomorrow.

Now what about potable water or the lack of it!

El Gordo Varche

[waspy]

Well you all know about 'peak oil' so spare a thought for 'peak food' whilst you snuggle up at home under your duvet sucking your tamiflu lollies.There are far more serious things to worry about than waking up in the morning coughing up curly tails.
The population of the world is set to treble in our lifetimes (assuming your not 80+ years old).
Now i dont really wish to be alarmist,but,as the population increases the amount of land available for farming decreases proportunately,due to over development to house the population and due to our industries spewing out poisonous polution.
So will we be able to feed all these people ? I dont think so.

Another bit of alarmism, I'm afraid. The birth rate is  declining, certainly in the West at least. Land for food production is generally under-utilised (note the EU set-aside scheme to pay farmers not to produce excess crops). The whole of the world's population could fit shoulder-to-shoulder on the Isle of Man. As for pollution, of course there's more we can always do, but i wouldn't swap today's London air with the smogs of the 1950s and 60s. Quit worrying and get some sleep.     

Good. break off, because i want the whole world to myself

[Nickbat]

Welcome back Mr Nickbat. Hope you had a good holiday! I have to say you are wrong on this one.

What is the maximum population that the earth can support using current farming and feeding practices and prices? 7, 8 billion, 9 billion, 20 billion. 

Something will have to change with one billion people starving and one billion obese. I did a posting a few days ago on the subject of meat production.

" So a farmer cuts down some forest in South America and plants a grain crop. He sells it and gets a good price from some English farmers who need grain feed for their beef herds.

The farmers sell the beef at rock bottom price barely covering their costs to a national supermarket chain (like Tesco) who package it and they put it on their shelves at a price that will make them a handsome profit.

Sadly it fails to get sold before its sell by date so gets sent back to the distribution centre on a returning lorry. There it is amalgamated with other returned meat and wait for it sent to an incinerator where they proudly declare that it produced electricity rather than going to a landfill site".

As far as the birth rate falling that is a red herring. Somebody is giving birth otherwise how come the population of the earth has tripled in David Attenboroughs lifetime and continues to increase. People are also living a lot longer in case you hadn't noticed. Those are FACTS not suppositions or sound bites.

So you read it here first . Want to make a fortune? Devise a nutritional bar of something flavoured with meat but made of grains/pulses etc. Flog it in poor countries and in rich countries like Britain that way there will be enough land available to produce slabs of meat which may or may not get eaten before their sell by date for the fortunate wealthy of tomorrow.

Now what about potable water or the lack of it!

El Gordo Varche

I am?

Human population growth is likely to come to an end in the foreseeable future. A new study suggest that the world's population may peak as soon as 2070, then start to decline.

There is an 85 percent chance that the population will stop growing before 2100, a research team led by Austria scientist Wolfgang Lutz reported in the British science journal Nature, published on Thursday.

Unlike most forecasts, it does not produce just one prediction, but a range of possible futures, each with a certain probability of occurring.

There is a 60 percent probability that the world's population will not exceed 10 billion before 2100, and around a 15 percent probability that the population at the end of the century will be lower than it is today.

 
http://english.people.com.cn/english/200108/03/eng20010803_76408.html



Birth rates in the European Union are falling fast.
In the first of a series about motherhood and the role of the state in encouraging couples to have more children, the BBC News website's Clare Murphy asks why governments are so concerned about the size of their populations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4768644.stm


Continuing a 12-year decline, the U.S. birth rate has dropped to the lowest level since national data have been available, according to statistics just released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The rate of births among teenagers also fell to a new record low, continuing a decline that began in 1991.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aabirthrate.htm


These are FACTS not suppositions or sound bites.


The mechanics of food production is another issue. There is an abundance of agricultural land, but economics and politics will always interfere.

[Banjax]

here's an interesting site for numbers
http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf

welcome back Nickbat sir 

[waspy]

Nickbat. No one can predict the future. I don't believe anything until i see it for myself I still say there is too many of us anyway. We're are not good for the planet, we take far too much away & give nothing back

[Nickbat]

Nickbat. No one can predict the future. I don't believe anything until i see it for myself I still say there is too many of us anyway. We're are not good for the planet, we take far too much away & give nothing back

Yep, but it doesn't stop them trying. Listen and laugh at the twaddle these doom-mongers spouted back in 1970.

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/earth-day-predictions-of-1970-the-reason-you-should-not-believe-earth-day-predictions-of-2009

 

[waspy]

Nickbat. No one can predict the future. I don't believe anything until i see it for myself I still say there is too many of us anyway. We're are not good for the planet, we take far too much away & give nothing back

Yep, but it doesn't stop them trying. Listen and laugh at the twaddle these doom-mongers spouted back in 1970.

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/earth-day-predictions-of-1970-the-reason-you-should-not-believe-earth-day-predictions-of-2009

 

Yup exactly what i said

[Lioned]

I dont worry too much about these things usually,and for sure i dont believe a word that our 'chiselling' mp's tell us nor would i take too much notice of the yanks or the who (world health people) and their spokes people.But when the Chinease start population controls,as they have for some while now,i would put some credence in what they do.

[cem_devecioglu]

Welcome back Nickbat

dont worry about west..

worry about east..they populate in numbers like rabbits

[Dishevelled Den]

Welcome back Nickbat

dont worry about west..

worry about east..they populate in numbers like rabbits

...sage words as ever from cem

[Lioned]

The 'birth rate' in the western world may well be under control,or at least controllable if the neccesity arose.
People are living longer,and judging by the group of saga guests who arrived for an overnighter at my holiday hotel the other week they do eat more (like a bunch of locusts they were at breakfast).
It is the East and Africas that may cause the ultimate problem.
China has recognised the problem,not sure if India has,and they have the second largest population in the world,i think ?

I do believe it is the biggest challenge that faces mankind in the immediate future.