First I heard of the 'problem' was in 1968
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until then I'd heard that it was a feature not a bug
A Stanford Professor wrote the Population Bomb in which
- It warned of mass starvation of humans in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals, and advocated immediate action to limit population growth.
Yeah...those were horrible horrible times....
Oh wait...It didn't happen.
Years later the same Standford Professor, who field was Entomology by the way...he studied bugs. Perfectly rational to assume that people would do exactly what bugs do. Not a problem with that.
Years later he debated a real scientist....Julian Simon ..the doomslayer....Julian beat him like a red headed step child. The Press praised............the Standford Professor for being brave and raising awareness. It was as if Julian Simon was being mean. All those facts and things. NOT fair.
The silly Standford Professor...perhaps in an attempt to save face...made a FOOLISH bet with Julian Simon.
- Simon challenged Ehrlich to put his money where his mouth was. In response to Ehrlich's published claim that "If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000"—a proposition Simon regarded as too silly to bother with—Simon countered with "a public offer to stake US$10,000 ... on my belief that the cost of non-government-controlled raw materials (including grain and oil) will not rise in the long run."
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Simon challenged Ehrlich to choose any raw material he wanted and a date more than a year away, and he would wager on the inflation-adjusted prices decreasing as opposed to increasing. Ehrlich chose copper, chromium, nickel, tin, and tungsten. The bet was formalized on September 29, 1980, with September 29, 1990 as the payoff date. Ehrlich lost the bet, as all five commodities that were bet on declined in price from 1980 through 1990, the wager period.[1]
(note...wikepedia...a very liberal publications...covers for and apologizes for Ehrlich...'but if'.)
Undeterred the environmentalists pushed on. It got SO silly, but a LOT of people found a way to make money on it...and got the government involved. Facts no longer mattered. The Science was settled...
We saw charts such as.
image credit
and SO many others....
I'm surprised that they weren't printed on cereal boxes..
(did they? No...tell me they didn't)
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One MINOR problem.
The End Is Near... Depopulation Is Out Of Control
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in which there are some pretty revealing charts...
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The current situation with a global population of Seven Billion..
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even so...80% of the planetary surface is effectively unpopulated, because it's covered with water..and snow.
hmmm...I heard of these things called boats..
perhaps they could be redesigned and
made bigger?image credit
It would seem that the fears of overpopulation are unfounded.
The Population Bomb.
Isn't.