Ausmumof3 Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 The world is apparently going to cross the threshold to a population of 8 billion people at some point in the next 24 hours. Crazy! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 Wow, I knew it was around the corner but hadn't given it much thought. Right now, it just feels sad because of how many children are experiencing food insecurity, malnutrition, and starvation. It really hits me when I see the stats on babies and children. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanier.1765 Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 It really is crazy, isn't it? Honestly, hard to fathom. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Tiggywinkle Again Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 I literally know three people who have had a baby in the last 24 hours, so it’s kind of ironic to me. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 I don’t know why I looked, but it was 4.2ish when I was born. Under 6 when I had my firstborn and under 7 with my last. Kind of jarring. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 25 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said: I don’t know why I looked, but it was 4.2ish when I was born. Under 6 when I had my firstborn and under 7 with my last. Kind of jarring. It was only 3.3 billion when I was born, which was already way higher than it had ever been - and it's now more than doubled that in a bit over a half century. The population only hit ONE billion around 1800 - and for the rest of human history was far below that. And lately there are crazy people saying we're in a crisis because the population is finally not growing so fast? This is not remotely sustainable. We're locusts. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 (edited) 6 minutes ago, Matryoshka said: It was only 3.3 billion when I was born, which was already way higher than it had ever been - and it's now more than doubled that in a bit over a half century. The population only hit ONE billion around 1800 - and for the rest of human history was far below that. And lately there are crazy people saying we're in a crisis because the population is finally not growing so fast? This is not remotely sustainable. We're locusts. Well, population decline IS a crisis. Just a different one from overpopulation. (and I know I’m not using the right term from Human Geography) Edited November 14, 2022 by Carrie12345 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted November 14, 2022 Author Share Posted November 14, 2022 39 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said: I don’t know why I looked, but it was 4.2ish when I was born. Under 6 when I had my firstborn and under 7 with my last. Kind of jarring. I remember passing 6 being a big deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted November 14, 2022 Author Share Posted November 14, 2022 1 minute ago, Carrie12345 said: Well, population decline IS a crisis. Just a different one from overpopulation. My feeling is at least with non human things they are two sides of the same coin. Good conditions leads to population explosion leads to poor conditions, hunger, disease, conflict and population collapse. Technology and medicine gives us the ability to control both population increase and disease and hunger to some degree if we use it well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 15 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said: Well, population decline IS a crisis. Just a different one from overpopulation. (and I know I’m not using the right term from Human Geography) Yeah, but world population isn't remotely declining yet, not worldwide. Some countries, yes, but worldwide it's still increasing. Or we wouldn't be hitting 8 billion for the very first time. We've added a BILLION people in just the last dozen or so years. (7 billion was hit around 2010-11) The number of every human existing on the planet in 1800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 35 minutes ago, Matryoshka said: Yeah, but world population isn't remotely declining yet, not worldwide. Some countries, yes, but worldwide it's still increasing. Or we wouldn't be hitting 8 billion for the very first time. We've added a BILLION people in just the last dozen or so years. (7 billion was hit around 2010-11) The number of every human existing on the planet in 1800. As I understand it, however, most population researchers believe we have reached peak children and may already be on a downturn. Because of lifespan and generational cohort specifics, population is expected to continue to increase for a few decades--but not because the number of children being born in a year/decade will be higher than now. I think gradual population decrease can be sustainable, but it will take significant adjustments in lifestyle and economic practices and expectations. Among other things, a forever-growing-economy is not a sustainable expectation if we do not have a forever -growing population. Oh, economic growth can continue as long as economic consumption grows (which can certainly happen without population growth) but at some point consumption-per-person has to approach a limit and growth slow down significantly. This is especially true if we don't want increasing per-person consumption to continue to equal increasing per-person environmental load/impact. We have a global wealth-accumulation-obsessed economic system. I'm surprised that I see very little discussion of how eventual population decreases are going to impact that and ideas to address those impacts. I think that economic systems and expectations will need to change significantly. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth S Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 Avoiding the discussion above . . . FYI = here's a Live Counter.https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted November 15, 2022 Author Share Posted November 15, 2022 7 hours ago, Beth S said: Avoiding the discussion above . . . FYI = here's a Live Counter.https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ Looks like it’s ticked over at some point in the last six hours. Kind of mind blowing to be honest. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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