||Over-Population||A Dangerous Myth or Benevolent Mass Suicide? Why Population Growth Is Wonderful News! A Short Thought Exercise.
After reading this, you may no longer feel guilty about your secret (evil) desire to parent 3 children! I once believed that human population growth was one of the greatest threats to our species (and others') survival. I now believe the exact opposite!
The Facts of Population Growth
As we see here the growth rate is declining. We went through a period of intense growth and we are starting to reach maturity. In fact this pattern is extremely common in our natural world. It is one of the most common patterns all of us humans have personally experienced. The growth pattern of a baby...
The Meta-Human
As we see these charts are nearly identical to the charts we see for population growth rates and overall size.
I discuss the idea of all of humanity birthing into a meta-human (as in a higher/second order human, formed by a merging of potential of all of humanity), if this interests you I go into more detail here.. Given my premises, and if we continue to follow these same trends; I believe we will be creating the "birth" of the meta-human around 2040-2060 (or possibly sooner)!
So, this assumes humanity should soon find homeostasis around 11-12 billion people.
"Isn't 12 billion people too much?!? 7 Billion is already too much!" - Thoughts
We Don't Have A Population Problem!
I propose in Our NeighbourGood a society where every family would have 1 hectare (2.4 acres) of land.
I received a comment:
"I don't think that over 7 billion people can be dispersed at that kind of population density."
I responded with something to this effect (this is also an inspiration for this post):
We are developing methods to reverse desertification. If we re-green many of our earths deserts we would be able to claim these lands for our living as well! Many of our deserts today were once lush tropical paradises until humans mistreated the landscape (often cutting down whole forests to build navies that end up at the bottom of the ocean). If we are able to create the desert, we are able to create the forest again! Just for fun, how humans created the Sahara desert!
So, let's imagine we are able to do that in its entirety and bring earth into a majestic paradise. There is a total of 51 billion hectares of land available on earth for human habitat (if we are creative enough).
I outlined in the proposal 1 hectare of land per family unit (roughly 1-5 people). So, this proposal could theoretically accommodate a maximum of 50-250 Billion people and could with today's usable land accommodate 12-60 billion people. Even if I'm being completely outrageous in my figures, it's still a far cry from the paltry 7 Billion we see today. We just have extremely ineffective and wasteful land-use practices at present. Just think of how much land is unused with our inefficient 'commercial' and 'residential' buildings where effectively they are unoccupied over half the day...
Each hectare of land would be heavily designed and manicured. (This proposal designates that roughly 1/2 to 3/4 of the land per hectare is meant to cultivate a mature forest). Just 1/2 of one acre (~1/5 of a hectare) of land has been demonstrated (with our still limited knowledge of effective land use) to entirely provide a family with its needs.. So, offering 2.4 acres per family would certainly fulfill this requirement and then some! Further, these homesteads are able to produce excess to support any city-dwellers with the highest quality produce available.
This proposal would not only create forests covering half the land mass 25 Billion acres, but also be able to accommodate 200-250 billion people if seen to it's maximum potential (this doesn't accommodate other life, so I would never propose this population growth, just demonstrating the potential to support life on our planet). At this point however, we would have learned the process to cultivate other planets as well. So, a creation for another time...
The Problem Is The Solution
- How do we replant our deserts into forests?
- How do we clean up all the plastic and pollution littering the landscape?
- How do we create majestic paradise gardens covering our planet?
We give land to people to make a paradise on. To do this, we're going to need people, billions and billions of people! If every inch of our planet had a ecologically-minded steward focused on increasing diversity, growing abundance and creating more beauty. Our world would within a few short years be transformed into a global paradise!
With a myopic perspective we can view population growth as a problem, and if we continue our consumption and destructive habits it will be.
Similar to the growth and consumption patterns of a growing baby, if the patterns didn't change the baby would die, taking its mother along. Fortunately, the patterns do evolve, and a birth occurs. This evolution is happening! Millions of people are beginning to realize that our present system has played out its role and is in need of a transition. That is what Our NeighbourGood is about, transitioning us into the new paradigm!
So, population growth isn't a problem to our ecological crisis. Population growth is a solution, as long as we implement it correctly!
What's This About Benevolent Suicide?
A crazy idea, I know! I hear far too often people talking about how terrible it is that there are so many people. But, who do they figure should be removed for their perceived balance to be restored? Well, many of these people are too kind at heart to commit murder, so I guess the only rational thing to do would be to... Read this post and realize that over-population is a myth. A dangerous myth that gives an 'ethical' backing for war, murder, and genocide. As people die others can sit back and consider it a benefit to humanity as a whole. As if we're trimming off the cancer cells... That is not the case, and this idea has to be replaced so that we can continue on our path to birthing a new paradigm!
Rieki
Word-Smithing New Societies
i totally agreee.. ITs only a problem because of the way we do things.. im SURE we've all looked out the aeroplane window and noticed that nearly everything is bare land!! There is plenty of space.. but we have to live in harmony with the planet and each other..
Absolutely :) :)!
Plus all this fear and 'apocalypse' thinking only further empowers that thought from becoming reality. When all I thought about sad how scared I was for the future (with all of my 'sound' logical conclusions) I didn't bother taking any action to create a better world. Those thoughts are paralyzing and are nothing more than self-fulfilling prophecies.
oh YEAH you said it!.. we become what we focus on the most.. I learned this very well with Louise Hay.. who i believe just passed on.. Loved her work and her message.. it is so important to have our thinking in harmony with our heart.. and when it's not its always an opportunity to heal our wounds.. usually the things we are most upset or fearful of in the world is a reflection of our own fears and deepest woundings.. when we heal ourselves, the world heals with us.. because the world is in our mind and the way we perceive it..
The laughing Buddha had a lot to teach!
"Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever loses his life shall preserve it." (Luke 17:33) Your post reminds me of the first city Socrates built in Plato's "Republic." Evey man/family shall have enough land to meet his needs . . . then Glaucon objects with 'I need my meat!'
As long as human society seeks to preserve its current socio-economic paradigm, we will fail to build our just society and settle for a world built on lies, division, and conquest. Once belief, or faith, is challenged and changed, reality will follow.
If Glaucon did in fact need meat he could utilize a silvopasture approach on part of his land which would be sufficient to supply his whole family with meat and an abundance of other food, while creating more diversity and healing the earth.
Imagine if our animal husbandry practices healed the earth and provided beauty opposed to pollution!
I assume you don't think as he, but figured I would say this anyway!
These proposals are designed to meet needs, not 'culturally-manipulated for the sake of gross profits and power of a few dictated'- 'wants'. Often these wants don't even meet our needs, leaving us wanting more left in a state of addiction and sin (our previous talk of sin being archery reference to missing the target).
Absolutely!!! Why else are we on steemit?!
Haha. Glaucon was complaining that he did not want to live in a society, in which he felt that the luxuries/comforts of civilization was not present. You are correct that we need to redefine the concept of luxuries away from idleness of the physical and mental state to reflecting upon true needs and desires of man in harmony with his environment.
Plato clearly recognized that without the fundamental change in social construct regarding the "benefits" of civilization, all we can do is create an unjust city, founded on a massive lie, that separates her citizens from the outside and within the social matrix.
Clear words my friend. As it stands I do not wield the words sufficient at transferring my vision of a future to others. So, fortunately/unfortunately I will just continue on the path of creating it, whereby demonstrating the luxuries present in a new model. Too many people advocate for sacrifice and reduction and loss when concerning our present problems. People never want to 'give things up. As long as a new model only talks about what people have to give up to save our species 'create a healthier world, it will never happen.
I have Plato's republic, in a beautiful leather bound cover, I never got around to reading it. I think I may do that here soon.
So that's where Hitler stole that from.
Lol! Plato's "Republic" has been the blueprint for every spectacular "social reformers" from Mao to Khomeni, so I would not be surprised if Adolf himself were an avid Platonist.
Huh, I don't know much about Hitlers actual philosophies. I do know that whoever wins a war, paints the loser as a diabolical villain, the likes of which have never been seen.
Regardless, this philosophy on it's own is amazing, and in a vacuum that philosophy vs the victors philosophy of some men owning all the land and many men owning none at all. Well, I'd have to say I'd be a Nazi! (Please use that sentence out of context for future discussions :) )
Don't you think posts like this make everyone less responsible and they say who cares cause some "Meta" power is taking care of this?
Hi,
I entirely agree with your method of thinking. This is exactly my opinion of the religious belief of a higher power coming to save us, so why bother doing it ourselves right?
I didn't go into much detail of the idea of a meta-human here. However, meta (in this case) refers to a 'higher order', not higher power, or higher being. In short, this is the idea that humanity will begin organizing and cooperating to such a high degree that we create another entity altogether. (not unlike our bodies that are a collaboration between billions of 'individual' cells).
My thoughts towards this (It would have been prudent to clarify in the post), is precisely that humanity needs to take action ourselves if we are able to birth into our meta form. It is exactly the opposite approach of waiting for some other being to save us.
Thanks. I made this type of calculations myself a while ago and I could not agree more.
Wow, this is a great post @rieki, when we think about the hugely inefficient use of land and the wasted resources in raising and slaughtering tens of billions of land animals per year it is in no way sustainable for the population figures you are suggesting.
Really interesting thought on reverse desertification too. This would indeed release huge swathes of land for human or animal habitats too. I would love to have a piece of land like you describe in order to become self sustainable too. I believe that we are pushed into todays model of living to sustain a corporate structure, we believe that it is the only way we can survive. But articles like this and the information contained within show a different way of doing things.
Delighted to have found your profile too BTW, you have a new follower. I would upvote this but its so old at this stage its no good to you.
Me too!
Glad to have you around! I've been away from Steemit for sometime creating a project. But, I'm just getting back into it and will be releasing a lot of transformation material! I'd love to see your thoughts on future discussions.
I am certainly looking forward to seeing more like this. I will be referencing it in an up coming article I am writing. Keep up the great work!! 😊😊
Awesome! What is the article about? Could I get a link to it when its ready?
It's about how veganism or at least plant based is the future...
https://steemit.com/vegan/@moonunit/reasons-why-veganism-or-at-least-plant-based-is-the-future
Please let me know your thoughts 😊
I have had so many people recently come to me in a panic about population growth and how it will be our demise so your post hits home and is really in good timing for me! This has been my response to their cries but you've done the research and laid it out much more eloquently. Thanks for putting in the time to submit this story ( ;
Perfect :) I'm glad this was able to help!! It's often nice to get some logical justification behind what we feel to be true. Why bother fretting about some apocalyptic future (whereby creating it), when we can just build a paradise together and stop worrying :)
Right on @rieki ... right on. ( :
Some info about desert greening in Algeria
http://www.desert-greening.com/images/stories/Presse/Brochure%20engdsrt%20neu.pdf
Excellent!! Thank you for sharing! I love seeing stories like this :)
Not unusual!
The first whole part of your post I'm not gonna reply to! It's a nice idea, but "this looks like that" is a bad argument!
The part that resembles your comment to me I like. I don't know if the powers that be have an interest in making that a reality though.
And the "clickbait" reveal at the end, I like! :P
Btw, in the discord channel, you should post these into deep-think-post-promotion, so they don't get neglected (less people read general-post-promotion).
Well thank you :)
The whole first part, is not an argument (so I guess it's okay that it's bad ;) )
It's simply pointing out patterns in nature. I have found that what happens on macro levels in our world happens on micro levels (fractals). Sure, this may be a simple matter of seeing patterns where there are none, but it's an idea that creates a powerful desire to create a beautiful world in me. So, it's an idea I like, and one I would like to propagate.
In short, I want to write a post about this too (you're my muse ;) ). But, it's goes with the phrase 'by their fruits ye shall know them'. Essentially, I have abandoned all the 'ideas' I once held that bore un-delightful fruit. Regardless of how, 'true' or 'objective' I once believed these ideas to be as I was just as capable of coming to an idea that rings much more true, and objective as I had abandoned the previous idea.
So, this is essentially the crux of all our discussions on ideas. What does that idea do for us, what is it's outcome? If I believed the world was going to end in an apocalyptic scenario (I once did), with a whole lot of 'empirical' evidence to support my claim, what was the outcome? I was depressed, unmotivated, irritable, and unwilling to create a future for myself (because there was no point, right?).
So, I abandoned that idea, I didn't have one to replace it for a while (i'm still developing it's replacement) but it was an idea that bore awful fruit.
Consider many philosophers who had 'brilliant' ideas. Many of these great men (I can think of several right off the top of my head) lived horrible (to my standard) lives. Often dealing with depression, misery, lack of loved ones, etc. So, as brilliant as their philosophies were (and I was once attached to many, Nietzsche to name one.) What was the outcome? How do people live who believe as he did?
That is where I find function in my philosophy. To first look at what the philosophy will do for me, what kind of life will it bring. With a focus on joy and love (as these are emotions I want to cultivate more of). So, did looking at the population as a crises bring me joy?
Nope, it brought resentment as I saw happy couples with kids, as I judged them for their lack of ethics as they didn't understand how 'over-populated' our world was! So, here I was, full of resentment and fear and there they were happy with their kids.
They say ignorance is bliss, but that is not the case. Bliss is bliss, ignorance is ignorance... Sometimes you can be ignorant and blissful and sometimes you can be ignorant and miserable. "ignorance is bliss" is merely a statement that creates a feeling of logical superiority to justify the feeling of misery for those who feel as though they are not ignorant.
That may have been one of my favorite statements in my past. As I needed a method to justify my unhappiness....
At any rate, I'm going to create a more thorough article with all these thoughts now. Thank you :)
Nietzsche had similar ideas, that the true is the life-affirming, whatever helps the organism thrive. And that was pre-Darwin. Freud once said he avoided reading Nietzsche because he got depressed when he found out all his ideas had been pre-thought by him!
That also resembles consequentialism: the idea that the ethical is whatever leads to good consequences. (Kant opposed this: he thought the intention matters.)
Interesting. I guess I'd have to say I'm in the "depressed" camp then! I mean, it would be total chaos if I just believed in whatever made me happy, or productive. I just can't think that way. I don't have many "irrational" beliefs, but I believe (or try to) that if something is objectively true, it will somehow lead to good results down the line. It's like scientists who spend billions on hadron colliders and what not, because they believe that science will always confer some practical benefit.
It's generally an ancient saying in philosophy, that it's better to be an unhappy Socrates than a happy pig. I've met and read many philosophers in my life, and I've come to believe they (we) share some psychological traits, and among these are 1. the quote i just gave and 2. their very intense need for certainty, which is what breeds their (often extreme) skepticism.
You sounded like a philosopher or scientist right there! .. I often say that statement too (that ignorance is bliss). I have no way of knowing whether it's true. It's more like a complaint than a belief, or maybe partly also what you said, about the reason you used to say it. But some studies do show that increased intelligence is associated with melancholy, and the ancients also said it: they associated being intelligent and artistic with black bile (melancholy), also in Latin, atrabilious (again, black bile) temperament. They also called them Saturnine, since they were ruled by the planet Saturn that rules Capricorn that again is associated with melancholy, etc.
well, I'm not sure that we actuall want to cover the earth with 1 family per 3.5 acres. We need deserts. We need Ice, ect. I appreciate the understanding that our population growth is declining....
however, it is concerning to me the idea of humans occupying all of the land. we need forests too. better to have mega cities and try to leave a few forests in tact (imo)
I'm curious, I have never heard anyone say that before. Why do you say we need deserts? Humans are the ones who created deserts after-all...
Couldn't agree more, and in my proposal of human stewarding the landscape, forests would actually grow in size and quality.
Look at the black earth of the amazon forests, areas of soil enrichment and diversity that was created by the humans stewarding that super-dense diverse forest. Humans can, could, and will again live in forests covering the globe.
As for ice, I wouldn't wish a life there for anyone. Nor is ice-covered land included in my calculations of livable landscapes as deserts are.
It is precisely because of the cities that our forests are disappearing and our world is being polluted and destroyed. When people are taken off of land for their survival that land is abused. More and more land is abused and used to supply these city-dwellers.
However, all is not bad. As over-abundance would be produced in these hectare plots capable of feeding and supplying those would-be-city dwellers with higher quality produce than we create for our cities today.
:)
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