Your contempt for human life is disturbing. When I was in Ethiopia last fall I never got the impression that everyone would be better off if half the people weren’t there. Furthermore, the “propaganda” I’m spewing wasn’t an argument about birth control, it was an argument about demographics supported by the UN’s own research.
I’m with pschearer, Malthus was wrong. And no, the comic didn’t prove him wrong - the issue is far more complex than it shows. More people means more innovation means more efficient usage of what we have. Furthermore, even if we don’t adjust, we won’t run out of oil or food or any other reasource all at once. It will get more and more expensive for a long time. So, driving will get harder and harder and people will adjust.
Malthus wrote in 1800, when the world’s population was 1 billion people. Since then the world’s population has doubled, doubled again, and nearly doubled a third time. Are we living awful, resource scarce lives?
It’s well known that population growth doesn’t increase consistently as people become more affluent. It follows an “s curve.” The most affluent countries, expecially european ones, have low birthrates. Expect this trend to continue as third world countries grow larger middle classes.
And finally, the basic premise of the cartoon is a lie. We aren’t on track to double in thirty years. The UN predicts the population will be 9.7 billion people in 2050, a 45% increase from today. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population)
Your contempt for human life is disturbing. When I was in Ethiopia last fall I never got the impression that everyone would be better off if half the people weren’t there. Furthermore, the “propaganda” I’m spewing wasn’t an argument about birth control, it was an argument about demographics supported by the UN’s own research.