[ryanjshaw]

5) He hasn't offered a sensible and complete policy - what counts as saving lives? Cancer treatment? What about transplant surgery? What about amputations? What about medicines that prevent many conditions from becoming serious? Or lets make things really fun - what about mental illness? How about a person who's solving overpopulation in some way who suddenly contracts cancer? Where does one draw the line and who gets to draw it?

This is a slippery slope and the only solution is not to go down it.

[theknown99]

There is no solution I can see, and that's worrying. While we're all running around curing diseases, solving global warming etc, the thing that will kill off our species is our own "success".

[saalweachter]

6. You're expressing yesterday's fear. Population growth in the first world is stable, low, or even negative. We currently have no reason to believe that the third world's population growth won't do the same. Current projections for peak world population are "a little bit larger than now" instead of "trillions and trillions", and the problems of providing for them indefinitely "surmountable".

[theknown99]

* Population growth in the first world is stable, low, or even negative.

A quick google search shows that whilst population was pretty stable in UK in the 80s, since then it's been steadily rising. Growth is now 0.75% a year.

But that growth rate is deceptive. Look at

https://www.google.co.uk/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9...

But that growth rate is deceptive - it "looks" low. But if you check the absolute numbers:

In the UK, population has grown by around 10% in the last 20 years, and it's on an increasingly upward trend.

https://www.google.co.uk/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9...

Just anecdotally, if you live in the UK, you'll know how many new homes they're building all over the countryside.

World population: https://www.google.co.uk/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9...

I'm glad you can see that graph levelling off, but I can't see it...

[saalweachter]

The fertility rate in the UK is below 2.0.

The US has a similar story, fertility rate below 2.0 plus migration from the third world results in net population growth, even though the population of the US is no longer "exploding".