Comments on: The elephant in the room: Overpopulation http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/ Learn it. Do it. Save it. Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:20:47 +0000 hourly 1 By: Barney http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-90 Barney Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:00:58 +0000 http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-90 This issue sure does seem to touch off a great deal of emotion in people. I feel that overpopulation and overconsumption of resources go hand in hand. I also feel that people get very defensive when they are told what to do. No one wants to be seen as a monster. I also believe that the more people are aware of their world and their environment and educate themselves, the better choices they can make. I think that people as a whole do not want to destroy their home (earth). I wish people would be willingly to see the world from different perspectives instead of their own limited view. Regardless of what people do or say this is the only home we have. This issue sure does seem to touch off a great deal of emotion in people. I feel that overpopulation and overconsumption of resources go hand in hand. I also feel that people get very defensive when they are told what to do. No one wants to be seen as a monster. I also believe that the more people are aware of their world and their environment and educate themselves, the better choices they can make. I think that people as a whole do not want to destroy their home (earth). I wish people would be willingly to see the world from different perspectives instead of their own limited view. Regardless of what people do or say this is the only home we have.

]]> By: Marc http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-66 Marc Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:46:11 +0000 http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-66 How do you who uses what percentage of the worlds resources. I'm sure each of us breathes approximately the same amount of air. The rate at which carbon dioxide can be converted to oxygen is dependent to a large extent by the number of trees. Trees must be cleared to make room for excessive populations, regardless of who builds what with the lumber. As the typical citizen of India does not eat beef, many of them replace that consumption with fish or eat a vegetarian diet. The worlds oceans can only produce so much fish, and the capability of the earth to produce crops is limited by the acreage available for farming. Again, when we stand shoulder to shoulder, on what land will we farm? How many people born in India now live in the united states, and do we count their consumption as being attributable to the US or to India. Regardless of lifestyle, the earth cannot continually support an ever growing population. How do you who uses what percentage of the worlds resources. I’m sure each of us breathes approximately the same amount of air. The rate at which carbon dioxide can be converted to oxygen is dependent to a large extent by the number of trees. Trees must be cleared to make room for excessive populations, regardless of who builds what with the lumber.

As the typical citizen of India does not eat beef, many of them replace that consumption with fish or eat a vegetarian diet. The worlds oceans can only produce so much fish, and the capability of the earth to produce crops is limited by the acreage available for farming. Again, when we stand shoulder to shoulder, on what land will we farm?

How many people born in India now live in the united states, and do we count their consumption as being attributable to the US or to India.

Regardless of lifestyle, the earth cannot continually support an ever growing population.

]]> By: Richard Bull http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-65 Richard Bull Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:13:32 +0000 http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-65 Hello Jane, I share your gut feeling, however Kiashu is right, or rather I agree with him or her. See: http://greenwithagun.blogspot.com/2007/12/its-not-how-big-it-is-its-what-you-do.html It is not the absolute numbers of people but how much they consume. Imagine a world with 1 billion Fiat Unos driving around and then imagine a world with 1 billion Hummers instead. Same number of vehicles, very different amount of CO2 generated. So in the same way, imagine a world with 6.6 billion Nepalis or 6 billion Americans - same number of people, very different results. Population _is_ an issue but campaigning to reduce the birthrate in Nepal or India or Africa is going to do next to nothing to ease global environmental problems. Total consumption is far and away the key issue. How many times do you hear on the news, especially during this recession time, about promoting economic growth. Economic growth means essentially digging more stuff up out of the ground and using more energy. You may also want to look up some UN figures published recently estimating that population will level off towards 9 billion by 2050 as health, wealth and education improve birth rates decline. I believe these figures will turn out to be true. Bartlett is correct about exponentials And if you haven't already seen, this is also worth looking into: http://www.medialens.org/ The authors discuss why there is a great discrepancy between what you should be hearing in the mainstream media, and what actually is there. At a very simple level, corporations 'own', or sponsor (to be generous) the media - they pay for the advertising. The message that we should be consuming less is the exact opposite of what the advertisers want. An unfavourable story = advertising pulled. So good on you for trying to promote solutions as people won't really find anything solutions in the mainstream media. Rich Hello Jane,
I share your gut feeling, however Kiashu is right, or rather I agree with him or her. See: http://greenwithagun.blogspot.com/2007/12/its-not-how-big-it-is-its-what-you-do.html

It is not the absolute numbers of people but how much they consume. Imagine a world with 1 billion Fiat Unos driving around and then imagine a world with 1 billion Hummers instead. Same number of vehicles, very different amount of CO2 generated. So in the same way, imagine a world with 6.6 billion Nepalis or 6 billion Americans – same number of people, very different results.

Population _is_ an issue but campaigning to reduce the birthrate in Nepal or India or Africa is going to do next to nothing to ease global environmental problems.

Total consumption is far and away the key issue. How many times do you hear on the news, especially during this recession time, about promoting economic growth. Economic growth means essentially digging more stuff up out of the ground and using more energy.

You may also want to look up some UN figures published recently estimating that population will level off towards 9 billion by 2050 as health, wealth and education improve birth rates decline. I believe these figures will turn out to be true. Bartlett is correct about exponentials

And if you haven’t already seen, this is also worth looking into:
http://www.medialens.org/
The authors discuss why there is a great discrepancy between what you should be hearing in the mainstream media, and what actually is there. At a very simple level, corporations ‘own’, or sponsor (to be generous) the media – they pay for the advertising. The message that we should be consuming less is the exact opposite of what the advertisers want. An unfavourable story = advertising pulled.

So good on you for trying to promote solutions as people won’t really find anything solutions in the mainstream media.

Rich

]]> By: Luis Zardo http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-63 Luis Zardo Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:15:48 +0000 http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-63 I think, using the CO2 emmission as an argument always rise a lot of skepticism from people, even people concerned with the environment... One trying to create awareness of the overpopulation problem (and I really think it´s THE problem) should point more evident effects of it, such as deforestation, pollution, animal species extinction, criminality, dwindling quality of life on crowded cities... Also, it´s impossible to separate the overcomsunption from overpopulation, the first world must really change it´s habits, otherwise, everything you write about will not be well received. I think, using the CO2 emmission as an argument always rise a lot of skepticism from people, even people concerned with the environment…

One trying to create awareness of the overpopulation problem (and I really think it´s THE problem) should point more evident effects of it, such as deforestation, pollution, animal species extinction, criminality, dwindling quality of life on crowded cities…

Also, it´s impossible to separate the overcomsunption from overpopulation, the first world must really change it´s habits, otherwise, everything you write about will not be well received.

]]> By: Hoang http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-31 Hoang Tue, 13 May 2008 17:04:53 +0000 http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-31 Hello Jane, Just like you, I'm doing a live-the-solution project at my site and I do like your e-book a lot! That's really cool thing you did for all of us. I'm going to translate your e-book into Vietnamese and hopefully I can pass the e-book across 84 millions Vietnamese people :) I want to ask for your permission about that idea, and would you give me some advices as well? Hello Jane,
Just like you, I’m doing a live-the-solution project at my site and I do like your e-book a lot! That’s really cool thing you did for all of us. I’m going to translate your e-book into Vietnamese and hopefully I can pass the e-book across 84 millions Vietnamese people :)
I want to ask for your permission about that idea, and would you give me some advices as well?

]]> By: Sandy http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-29 Sandy Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:38:30 +0000 http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-29 Wonder when the average American is going to get this message? Wonder when the average American is going to get this message?

]]> By: Kiashu http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-28 Kiashu Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:32:13 +0000 http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-28 So if I anonymously say "2 + 2 = 4" you'll doubt it? Words are true or false regardless of who's saying them. I realise that in your field of marketing there's an idea of "branding", of things having a "name" which has a good or bad perception attached to it, but I don't really give a damn about that, because I'm not selling anything or trying to change the world. I'm just expressing myself, exchanging ideas with people, and trying to change myself. But when I want advice on selling stuff, I'll be sure to ask you. So if I anonymously say “2 + 2 = 4″ you’ll doubt it?

Words are true or false regardless of who’s saying them. I realise that in your field of marketing there’s an idea of “branding”, of things having a “name” which has a good or bad perception attached to it, but I don’t really give a damn about that, because I’m not selling anything or trying to change the world. I’m just expressing myself, exchanging ideas with people, and trying to change myself.

But when I want advice on selling stuff, I’ll be sure to ask you.

]]> By: Glenn http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-27 Glenn Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:21:25 +0000 http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-27 Jane, the Chinese translation is a really positive development, hope other translations follow. Kiashu, a suggestion, be upfront about who you are rather than trying to be anonymous. Why should anyone believe anything you say when you aren't prepared to put your name to it? Jane, the Chinese translation is a really positive development, hope other translations follow.

Kiashu, a suggestion, be upfront about who you are rather than trying to be anonymous. Why should anyone believe anything you say when you aren’t prepared to put your name to it?

]]> By: Kiashu http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-26 Kiashu Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:20:39 +0000 http://live-the-solution.com/blog/the-elephant-in-the-room-overpopulation/#comment-26 Man, this silly topic never seems to die. India has 17% of the world's population and uses 8% of its resources. The USA has 4.5% of the world's population and uses 25% of the world's resources. Thus, the world could handle about 15 billion Indians, but could only handle 1.2 billion Americans. Put another way, taken from <a href="http://greenwithagun.blogspot.com/2007/12/its-not-how-big-it-is-its-what-you-do.html" rel="nofollow">my recent discussion of the issue</a>, just the US and Australia together make up 23.4% of all greenhouse gas emissions; this is more than more than enough to cause "catastrophic" climate change - more than 2C eventual warming. <b>5% of the world's population could cause catastrophic climate change all by themselves</b>. So is the problem really population, or is it really lifestyle? Amazingly, Westerners - the ones living the high-consumption, high-waste lifestyles - say that the problem is population. Or you could consider that the average Westerner can <a href="http://greenwithagun.blogspot.com/2007/12/inconvenient-sacrifice-of-not-polluting.html" rel="nofollow">drop by 70% their personal contribution to climate change</a> <i>tomorrow</i>, which would be 35% of all emissions; we cannot reduce population by 35% tomorrow without nuclear weapons. The elephant in the room is a fat Westerner. Man, this silly topic never seems to die.

India has 17% of the world’s population and uses 8% of its resources. The USA has 4.5% of the world’s population and uses 25% of the world’s resources.

Thus, the world could handle about 15 billion Indians, but could only handle 1.2 billion Americans.

Put another way, taken from my recent discussion of the issue, just the US and Australia together make up 23.4% of all greenhouse gas emissions; this is more than more than enough to cause “catastrophic” climate change – more than 2C eventual warming.

5% of the world’s population could cause catastrophic climate change all by themselves.

So is the problem really population, or is it really lifestyle? Amazingly, Westerners – the ones living the high-consumption, high-waste lifestyles – say that the problem is population.

Or you could consider that the average Westerner can drop by 70% their personal contribution to climate change tomorrow, which would be 35% of all emissions; we cannot reduce population by 35% tomorrow without nuclear weapons.

The elephant in the room is a fat Westerner.

]]>