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Permalink Reply by phoenician on October 4, 2009 at 3:19am

In reply to your question,

NO I dont think there needs to be a huge reduction of the worlds population, however I do agree that perhaps it should be controlled and some kind of workable plan created to this end, If there was to be agreement for an immediate reduction, whose going to volunteer first? or who is going to be given the job of choosing who should go first, arent we all entitled to life even the lowly and criminals we are all humans, we all have rights, isnt it just legalised murder to do something like this?

God said go forth and multiply, He didnt say go forth and multiply for so long then stop, if a childs conceived then I believe its meant to be born and meant to be here. I agree some nations do need educating about birth control, but we can still sustain everyone on the planet, we may need to be less wasteful, so that there can be enough for all but it could be done, but will it be ? no theyll take the easy option and kill us off.

Perhaps the rest of the world could do as china do and limit couples to just having one child each, thats surely much fairer than killing us off. There is no ideal solution because some will complain about any and everything, but Im sure most would opt for doing it the Chinese way as opposed to culling humans.

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Permalink Reply by Lugh on October 4, 2009 at 4:34am

I dont think God said go forth and multiply, the authors of the bible said that back when man power directly related to a country's power. I dont agree with mass killing. I think the better option would be honesty and education.
I do think at the moment there are too many people for our current world to handle. People should not have children unless there in a position to have one, and I dont think there should be more children than there is available adults to take care of , and educate them i.e a single mum looking after 3 children would not be able to devote the appropriate time and attention to each child. Especially the way the world is now, where both parents have to work just to survive, its no wonder we have the social problems that we do.
With the increase of people, many of which have a incomplete upbringing, we are going to have countries turning into police states, and our rights being removed.

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Permalink Reply by mad cowboy on October 4, 2009 at 5:07am

I think striving for zero population growth , would be far more humane, and if we figured out a better way of living the earth might be able to accommodate us.
something i thought of as funny , ask anyone for population reduction if their willing to start with themselves.

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Permalink Reply by Chrissy on October 4, 2009 at 9:18am

Countries like the UK should limit child benefit and generally be less supportive of large families.
In particular we need to get rid of the ridiculous child trust fund. Not that it is encouraging people to have kids but we would be better paying people NOT to have kids. It's money we can ill afford now and by the time the child is allowed access, it will only be worth peanuts anyway,
We need to look at why large families are popular in certain cultures and try to find incentives to reverse the trend.
I would rather not go down the route of China's one child policy, which has had some draconian aspects.
Whatever - don't take the blue pill...

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Permalink Reply by phoenician on October 4, 2009 at 10:53am

Perhaps if our Governments were to tell us the real truth about whats going on in our world and how the population is growing too fast for them to keep up with, then maybe us humans would actually be more willing to agree to something to contain things, and also if say in the UK they started to punish or take action against under age sex which is I believe a crime when those in question are under 16.( therefore reducing teen parents) Maybe things could reach an amicable end, but whilst we are kept in the dark and "mushroomed" then nothing of this kind is going to get off the ground.

However in saying this I dont think anything will stop the population growth, apart from mass genocide, and thats what is going to become of us if more people dont stop thinking in terms of me, and begin to think in WE.

We cant keep on expecting the governments to find solutions even if they do mostly cause the problems perhaps its time humans started taking responsibility for themselves, and stopped passing the buck. JMO

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Permalink Reply by Lugh on October 4, 2009 at 12:12pm

I absolutely agree, this is a very difficult subject to approach and I think you got it spot on. The worlds population is getting out of hand, its trebled in 50 years. If we dont do something we will kill the world. Its time our leaders had the courage to be honest with us.

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Permalink Reply by Chrissy on October 4, 2009 at 10:39pm

Isn't there a move now to put young mothers into hostels rather than just hand them a house etc?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8283198.stm
This will probably curb some births but it's just dealing with the tip of the iceberg.
Some scary statistics here.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/2009/sep/02/world-populati...

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Permalink Reply by phoenician on October 6, 2009 at 4:40am

Surely putting the Mothers into hostels wont curb the underage parents,whereas enforcing the under age sex laws might, Many teen mothers get pregnant for the wrong reasons, most dont even realise they can get pregnant, or what this will mean to them in the long term, obviously theyre not mature enough in body or mind to deal with it.

The UK has the highest rate of teen Mothers, in the USA this isnt accepted and is considered statutory rape, and they prosecute, perhaps the UK should do the same, it wont solve the problem but surely it would help.

As the saying goes every little helps.

Regardless though something does need to be done and soon.

I agree the Chinese way of limiting couples to only one child each is somewhat draconian, but when people refuse to take responsibility for themselves and show a total disregard for the planet, then thats what they get. Its time to take Personal Responsibility.

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Permalink Reply by Lilitu on October 10, 2009 at 10:32pm

Q: Do you think, for the continuation of humanity, that there needs to be a serious reduction, or immediate control of the worlds population?
Well... yes and no.
On a global level, no I do not. However, on an individual or social level yes I do.

There is a scene in the The Day The Earth Stood Still where a professor is conversing with the alien contact explaining that humanity sits still until there is a cataclysmic event, THEN and only then will we leap into action and show extraordinary feats of strength, compassion, and connectedness. As unfortunate as this is (for humanity) it's painfully true.

So whilst I don't think that we need to wipe out half the population to make it better for the remaining half, and the ones yet to come, I do believe that society as a whole will do nothing to better our existence until something radically catastrophic happens to jolt us out of our self absorbed misery.

I really don't know if I believe redistributing the wealth of the world fairly WOULD take hundreds of years. Humanity can pull together very quickly when it needs to. Aid is never far away when a crisis occurs. You've only got to look at the recent natural disasters and the aid that is sent out within 24 hours of the event. If a Global event were to occur, the wealth could get divvied up pretty quickly.

Just my 2c

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Permalink Reply by Jan Brown on October 11, 2009 at 7:04pm

Here are some of my thoughts. I'm interested to hear from others
If the population keeps increasing at the present rate, we are sure to encounter many problems. High density population will face increasing crimes, greater poverty, food and housing shortage, illness and probably much more. It as important, for the sake of our earth and humanity, to start curbing the population growth but how to go about doing that is another thing. Who is going to be responsible for implementing a depopulation scheme? Life is precious and I don't believe in mass killings such as war and germ warfare etc.nor do I think a one child policy is the way to go.
I believe that it is totally irresponsible for some countries to pay big money to women in order to bear more children.
that's the way it is here.

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Permalink Reply by F8 on January 2, 2010 at 1:06am

Do you think, for the continuation of humanity, that there needs to be a serious reduction, or immediate control of the worlds population?

No, but I do think the world needs to wise up. There is no shortage of food, just govn interference and lack of foresight to protect food sources. There is no lack of land, just misuse of it under the guise of "resource management corps" which are owned by banks and other unsavory characters. We have the ability to take care of EVERY single person on this planet, unfortunately, we also have the apathy and greed, not to.

If there is to be any population reduction, it needs to start at the so called top. Politicians, Money mongers, etc. Then we can talk about the rest.

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Permalink Reply by syfly on January 2, 2010 at 3:48am

i think that neither reduction nor control are needed or indeed workable, not in the long run, no policies of control have ever worked and i feel that they never will. because that involves accepting that something or someone else has more power and knowledge then you, and it involves absolving your own personal responsibilty.
ok, now obviously a fair few people don't at present feel like taking full responsibility for their own lives; giving power to DR's in the vain attempt that they'll heal them; giving power to policemen in the futile assumption that they'll protect them; giving power to politicians in the absurb practice that they'll make the correct decisions that will benefit them in the society they live in; giving power to priest's and guru's in the misguided idea that they'll save and offer guidance for their souls development.

i see education as one of the main drivers for change, we've seen this in Africa concerning family planning. the education of every person on this planet and not through religious or political doctrines.
i noticed a couple of comments here that concern a certain religious bias, now i'm not attacking these people but to state that every conceived child deserves to be born, is based on roman chatholic doctrine, one that i cannot uphold, not when we've witnessed in the states the actions of the anti-abortionists murder DR's that perform these operations in the name of a life loving god. a fundamentally flawed idealogy that doesnt respect a persons choices, abortion should be available to every woman that wants it, another part of the solution. also of relevance is the roman catholic churchs stance on the use of condoms and family planning, the devastating effects of which can be seen in Afica concerning the AIDS virus.

another post talks about the "problem" of teenage pregnancies in the UK, and how we should criminalise our teenage population, has any policy of this type ever worked. we at present are seeing the dehumanization and criminalisation of an entire generation here. so further efforts that go down this road will be doomed to failure, it takes no account of natural human nature.

right, towards solutions, apart from education for all, i see a complete and fundamental change in nearly every aspect of our civilisation. the capiltalist economies are now it seems outdated and i think in the final dying death throws. the political systems have been shown up for what they alsways have been, about control and our consumeristic lifestyles are it seems running headlong over the cliff of un-sustainability.
so can we collectively get our shit together for the benefit of everybody, yes i believe we do have that power and potential, though i can see that those that are not willing to change will be left behind and i think thats just fine in the cosmic order of things, we shouldn't ask anybody that isn't ready or willing to change, to change, thats ultimately up to them.

i dont expect to have a comfortable life at the expense of anyone else, i dont expect others to protect myself or go to war in my name, i dont hold onto any philosophy or idealogy of nationlism nor do i see any boundaries between people other then real physical ones, like seas and moutain ranges, not borders and countries. i dont expect others to do things that i'm not prepared to do.
we have resources we can recycle an use, we have lands to live in and use holistically, we have knowledge and understanding of our natural environment from our indigenious brothers to help heal us.
we do not need controling from an outside source, we need to be able to control ourselves from within

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