Why the problem of overpopulation of the planet is relevant. Overpopulation of the planet
Periodically, the topic of overpopulation of the Earth pops up in the media: the number of mankind today has reached 7 billion and continues to grow, especially in Asia and developing countries Oh. It is argued that the growth of the world's population has very dangerous consequences for the whole world, such as: severe environmental degradation, lack of resources for everyone, poverty, hunger. At the same time, independent journalistic investigations appear, which say that the topic of overpopulation is highly mythologized. For example, in 2013, the screens released documentary Austrian Werner Booth "Overpopulation", substantiating the thesis that the development of the topic of overpopulation is beneficial to developed countries. What is your point of view on this matter?
The topic of overpopulation is quite clear to experts, and at the same time, it will reveal a lot of new things to the uninitiated. As a rule, it comes down to several aspects: 1) lack of space on the planet; 2) lack of resources; 3) lack of food; 4) global warming.
At the same time, it is overlooked that the demographic dynamics, in particular the birth rate, is downward. For the past six decades, there has been a decline in fertility around the world. And radical.
If we take the 10 most populous countries, which, as you know, include China, India, the USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and others, then none of them experienced a jump in fertility during this period. Moreover, in the two most densely populated countries - India and China - this collapse was catastrophic. If I am not mistaken, in China over the past four decades, the birth rate has decreased by 3 times, in India - by almost 2 times. As for Russia, we observe fluctuations in the birth rate, but in any case it remains below the generational replacement threshold. Currently, 60 percent of the world's population lives in the zone of the so-called explicit or latent depopulation. That is, the birth rate is below the notorious figure of 2.1 children, which is the minimum not even for growth, but for demographic stagnation. Thus, we are far from even stagnation.
Unfortunately, today the growth of the world's population (which really continues, this cannot be denied) is due to the created inertia. An apt analogy is the stopping distance: when we press the brake pedal at speed, it naturally takes some time to stop. This is what is happening now, and population growth is largely due to such a factor as the increase in life expectancy. The population is a little delayed on its way to inevitable depopulation due to the fact that people simply began to live longer. And everywhere. Now the average life expectancy in the world is 65 years.
This population growth on the planet is mainly due to 30 countries in Africa and Asia, but even there it is fading. I do not know of a single forecast, even for the medium term, that would promise an increase in the birth rate. Everywhere the birth rate continues to fall, unfortunately. In the most populous countries, this figure has reached historically unprecedented lows. I mean Macau and Hong Kong. Singapore is not far from them. Japan also has a very low birth rate.
Accordingly, there can be no concerns about overpopulation, the situation is reversed. However, this topic is unprofitable, because it takes away the geopolitical trump card from the developed countries, which are very afraid of the strengthening of geopolitical competitors. They are not worried about population growth as such, but about population growth outside of developed countries, and the whole discussion, in general, boils down to a discussion of population growth in developing countries. Incidentally, this also includes Russia, which has been in a state of depopulation for the 25th year.
And now let's analyze the arguments of the supporters of the thesis about the danger of overpopulation. As for the first argument about the lack of space, it is certainly false. There are calculations of the maximum population of the planet, owned by the Romanian physicist Viorel Badescu, according to which it is equal to 1.3 quadrillion people. This is more than the current figure by 200 thousand times. Similar calculations were made by the British scientist John Fremlin back in the 1960s, he gave a figure of 60 quadrillion people, that is, even higher.
For example, I will say that in order to gather all the people of the planet in one place and at one time, a circle with a radius of 80 kilometers will be enough. That is, it can be done, for example, within the Moscow region. If we consider the territory of a particular state, then a country like Australia (its territory does not exceed 5% of the world's land area) or one of the 50 US states, such as Texas, is enough for a completely comfortable stay. If we talk about Australia, then for each person there will be over 1000 square meters.
As for food, here the facts are even more interesting. Up to 1.5 billion tons of perfectly usable food is thrown away every year in the world. This is the cost of our planetary abundance. Another thing is that this does not happen everywhere, but mainly in Europe and the USA. Therefore, all calls to reduce consumption should be addressed only to the super-developed countries. The discussion about overpopulation in general is largely due to the fact that developed countries do not want to deny themselves the usual standard of living. And he, to be honest, is predatory in relation to the environment. George W. Bush even once said that the American way of life is sacred and unchanging, and no one is going to change it. Yes, it is wasteful, costly, energy-intensive, but these are achievements of civilization that the United States will not give up.
There are calculations by Indian economists who say that in order to feed the entire population of the Earth, India alone, its food resources and climatic capabilities would be enough.
The point is also that the hungry are mainly concentrated in countries where there are wars. The most starving continent, as you know, is Africa, but not because of overpopulation, but solely because of wars, chaos, dictatorial regimes. You will not find a single country where there is famine, including episodic, that is not at war. Either disaster or war.
Therefore, the accusations of people that there are too many of them, and because of this, hunger begins, are absolutely untenable. With modern technological resources, it is possible to feed everyone and even produce a surplus.
In parallel, there is another process that prevents the satisfaction of food needs - this is the aggressive policy of large food companies. For example, they sow fertile lands with monocultures. For industrial purposes, they grow corn, which has long been used in the production of bioethanol. For comparison, I will say that in order to fill one sports car with this type of fuel, it will take a ton of corn. This amount of corn is enough to feed one starving person for a year. In general, bioethanol consumption is growing, mainly at the expense of the United States, and if this misused food could be converted, about 300 million hungry people could be fed.
As for resources, there are also nuances. In the 1970s, the so-called Club of Rome in its reports frightened everyone with the depletion of world resources - oil, gas, tungsten, nickel, tin, etc. in some cases even less. However, these deadlines have passed, and during this time consumption has only increased, and the forecast for the use of these natural resources only got taller. Why? Because over the past decades, new reserves have been explored, there have been many cases of switching to alternative technologies, and thus the period for which depletion will occur has been pushed back by another 300 years. Moreover, this was largely due to the discovery of a single field in Poland. And we, for example, only assume what resources the Arctic has. So these frightening forecasts are rather conditional.
In addition, it is possible to abandon oil long ago and, in some cases, switch to alternative sources. But, again, this is unprofitable for transnational corporations. There is also an economic background here, but in general there is no challenge in this area, because the possibilities of the Earth are much greater than we imagine.
Here is a sketch for this story. One well-known American economist, Julian Simon, made a bet with another well-known American, Paul Ehrlich, an alarmist and author of the book The Population Bomb. They argued over the forecast of changes in the value of some of the most common metals over the next 10 years. Erlich and his associates argued that the price would rise significantly, while Simon, laughing, argued that there would be no increase. As a result, after 10 years, Simon triumphantly won the bet, because all the metals over which they entered into a dispute decreased significantly in price. This was, of course, a complete disgrace, and since then the supporters of population correction, the supporters of the position of demographic containment, have been arguing very carefully on these topics.
Another argument put forward in this controversy is the topic of global warming. However, as far as climate scientists can tell, global warming is a cyclical process. It has taken place in history and will take place in the future. It is indicative for me that back in the 70s, when panic moods were being whipped up, the leading American and British publications, including The Times, seriously published a warning that a new ice age was beginning on the planet. Quotes warning that we are all in danger of extinction due to freezing were published everywhere and with maniacal persistence. However, the same "Times" 30-40 years later publishes completely opposite statements.
In fact, the temperature on the planet has not risen and remains at the same level. One of the indirect evidence is a sensational story in 2009 called "Climategate", when hackers, presumably from Russia, hacked into the archive of the university's department of climatology East Anglia in Norwich, providing data for UN experts, containing emails on global warming. This correspondence was indicative of data falsification in an effort to make pseudo-studies fit pre-ordered results.
Undoubtedly, anthropogenic impact on the environment is present. But there are no serious grounds for the currently observed hysteria about global warming. This topic also has a commercial background, because new production standards are constantly being proposed under the sauce of global warming, and the transition to these standards brings instant high profits to one or another company serving this transition. And that's a lot of money.
Is there any basis for asserting that the policy of developed countries is aimed at reducing the birth rate in developing countries? And if so, what specific steps are being taken to that end?
Of course, such a purposeful policy exists and has been implemented for a long time. There are many examples of this. Over the past 17 years alone, tens of billions of dollars have been spent to reduce the birth rate, including under the guise of providing social assistance through the United Nations Population Fund. These are official sources, what we can verify and confirm.
As for the unofficial ones, there were several striking episodes: for example, in Peru, during the presidency of the military dictator Alberto Fujimori, a mass sterilization campaign was carried out, in which hundreds of thousands of men and women became participants. In India, sterilization was on a crazy scale, that's a fact, and it's going on. True, with the advent of new authorities, the situation may change, because there are calls to the contrary. In Sri Lanka these days, women are taken to an unknown destination and under threat of medical care mass sterilized, and for all the time there were cases of deaths.
China is a textbook example. The number of abortions there has already exceeded 400 million, and many of them are done even on last term. Sterilization is very widespread in China. Some Western companies that place production there have introduced such a practice: they pay salaries to employees of the organization only after they pass a pregnancy test.
In China, due to the huge scale of selective abortion (most families want their only child to be a boy), there is already a huge gender imbalance. Not to mention the narcissism of children who grow up as the only ones in the family.
There were similar examples in Russia too. In the 90s, some deputies proposed the sterilization of women from dysfunctional families - a kind of eugenic practice.
In the United States, the name Margaret Sanger is well-known, she introduced this practice back in the 30s in relation to racial and national minorities, as well as people who, in her opinion, are not rich enough to reproduce. This idea comes from there. Although, on the other hand, there is one paradox. At home, the United States, at least until the Obama presidency, supported the policy of supporting the birth rate, and the concepts of demographic containment were sent for export.
It turns out that the countries that are the objects of such a policy do not have the resources to resist it - except in cases where the state intervenes?
Unfortunately not, although some do. Firstly, international law prevails over the national, that is, decisions made at the international level are a priority. Second, developing countries are often held hostage politically and economically. If you do not accept the policy of demographic containment, family planning, then we will arrange a revolution for you or turn off funding. Countries like Nigeria and Uganda have been made pariahs for this very reason.
In Hungary, it all started with the fact that right-wing patriots came to power - this happened partially in Austria, and in Switzerland, and in France - that is, in several European countries, but the peculiarity of Hungary was that the family was proclaimed at the constitutional level as the union of a man and a woman. And that's all, from that moment Hungary became a pariah, because it contradicts the policy of reducing the birth rate, a precedent is being created for other, non-European states. Hungary was immediately declared a bank boycott, there were many accusations of the dictatorial nature of power, and so on. But the reason was precisely in her resistance.
In general, the pressure at the political level is colossal. And now, when the UN Commissions on Population and Development meet, the delegations of many countries, including Arab States, consider it good manners to state that they adhere to the principles of this policy and strictly implement its decisions. Primarily, we are talking about the Cairo Population Conference in 1994. There were laid the rules for regulating the population: contraception, abortion and the so-called sex education. In this case, Russia compares favorably, because we announced that, for example, we will not have any sexual education that hurts demographic development. Belarus announced something similar at the last meeting. And so, in general, the UN has a certain ideological monopoly.
In order to influence the policy of individual countries, they do not disdain either blackmail or bribery. There is even a movie English language“Cultural imperialism” on Youtube, where former UN representatives who hold different positions talk about how they were exterminated from there. So, unfortunately, the possibilities for resistance in this case are limited.
And what about the population of developing countries? Do people resist values that are alien to them? Russia is a different story: 70 years of the Soviet state was destroyed most existing traditions. But, for example, in India there was no such cultural vacuum...
You see, since the world has become global and the society is informational, Indians are consuming the same media products as we are. The Internet influences, the modernization of everything and everything (including moral norms) influences, an artificial fashion is created for behavioral models through opinion leaders. I mean famous politicians, stars, athletes. For example, Pele at one time publicly announced that he had undergone sterilization - and this was also no coincidence. Students from Asia en masse study at European and American universities, come to Western countries cultural exchange programs. If you want - come to study with us, we will teach you a new worldview. This is also one of the channels.
Everything is quite simple. Tradition is not a thing that does not change. In a few decades, it may turn out that we will talk about "traditions that arose at the dawn of the new millennium." The new norms will be called tradition. And there are practically no defense mechanisms against them today.
Interviewed by Anastasia Khramuticheva
V last years more and more often one hears about the so-called overpopulation problem. However, the majority of advanced honest scientists agree that this statement is nothing more than a myth and the Earth is able to feed a much larger number of people than our planet currently inhabits.
Who benefits from the introduction of these concepts into the public consciousness and, most importantly, for what purposes is this being done? To answer this question, it is enough to get acquainted with the information about all kinds of secret societies of "Freemasons", which is given in the book by Anastasia Novykh "Sensei-IV". On the assumption of overpopulation of our planet, as on a sandy foundation, theory of the "golden billion".
“But in the modern consumer world, instead of helping to solve the problems of the world's population, decisions are made to artificially reduce it. The hidden decisions of a handful of industrial and financial "elite of the world" are being intensively implemented by the hands of the most multi-billion population of the Earth. After all, as you know, the more people experience fear, the easier it is to control them. In particular, in conspiracy theories and analytical materials on world politics, such a concept as the “golden billion” (“new world order”) appears, which involves an artificial reduction in the population of the Earth to one billion. This theory could have been left unnoticed under the term “theory”, if it were not for the events of recent decades taking place in the world confirming its ideology…” More information about this information can be found in the report of ALLATRA SCIENCE scientists “”.
Having become acquainted with the above-mentioned book by Anastasia Novykh, knowing the principles of the activities of the secret societies of the Freemasons, it is easy to consider them in the formation of the myth of overpopulation of the planet. So back in 1798, an English priest and mathematician Thomas Malthus published a book "Essay on the Law of Population", wherein mathematical methods tried to prove that the population is increasing much faster than the livelihoods it creates. Malthus did not see any particular difficulty in this, for he considered wars and epidemics"natural mechanism" of self-regulation of the number of people on the planet. In the case of uncontrolled population growth, humanity, according to Malthus, will face food shortages. By the way, the term food crisis", is also often heard in modern media. But, as we can see, the preparation for playing this performance on the world stage "Freemasons" began back in late XVIII century...
Even after reading the biography this person, much becomes clear: on whose principles this ideology was built and whose interests it served. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) - a native of a noble family of England, as he is now presented, a priest, scientist, demographer, economist, member of the Royal Society of London. The father of the "scientist", Daniel Malthus, was a follower of David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, famous representatives of Masonic lodges with whom he was personally acquainted. The ideology of the secret societies of the Freemasons was absorbed by young Thomas from childhood. At 18, he enters Jesus College at University of Cambridge, with which and after graduation this institution was bound for the rest of his life. In order to better understand what it really is, educational institution, we again invite the reader to familiarize themselves with the mentioned book by Anastasia Novykh "Sensei-IV". In short, then Cambridge university in England, one of the best in Europe, at one time, unfortunately, due to the activities of certain circles of "Freemasons", became a hotbed for cultivating adherents of the ideology of secret societies (Masons, Rosicrucians, Illuminati, etc.) ..
And in fact, the planet is able to withstand 25 billion people , which is confirmed by the calculations of progressive scientists of the world. Moreover, modern technologies, developed on the basis of PRIMORDIAL ALLATRA PHYSICS, allow you to receive, in fact, free energy from an inexhaustible source, and therefore provide all people on Earth with food for free, drinking water and necessary conditions for life. From the report of ALLATRA SCIENCE scientists "".
That is, humanity, thanks to the latest developments of ALLATRA SCIENCE scientists, today has unique and real chances to move to a completely new stage of its development, to enter a world where there are not even such concepts as hunger, lack of water, lack of a roof over your head, electricity or other life-sustaining resources. These are technologies that in the shortest possible time are able to solve the problems of ecology and the consequences of upcoming natural disasters. Moreover, thanks to the development of climate geoengineering, they provide an opportunity to protect the inhabitants of the planet in the era of global climate change on Earth. But all this can become free, free and accessible only in a society that values and lives in accordance with universal human spiritual and moral values. Otherwise, such epochal knowledge will not bring any benefit to billions of people.
To finally dispel the myth of overpopulation let's take a look at population density maps. We provide a link to .
The areas and points marked in yellow have the same number of people as the rest of the land.
Let's take a closer look at enlarged images of some regions:
India, Bangladesh, China
Indonesia (Java Island), Japan
Europe
Another way of representing the population of our vast planet. 5% of people live in the area marked in red. And exactly the same number lives in the territories marked in blue.
The 17 locations marked in red are home to 5% of the world's population. Exactly the same number as it lives in the entire territory marked in blue. Blue color covers 72% of the land, red - only 0.1%.
And now let's take a closer look at the population density by country and continent.
Canada Square is the second largest after Russia Square. But half of Canadians live south of the 49th parallel, marked blue on the map.
Half of the inhabitants of Italy live on only 8% of the country's area. The main reason is that mountains are located in the central part of the Apennine Peninsula.
Probably the most unusual country and continent in terms of population density distribution is Australia. 50% (11.5 million people) live in tiny dots marked in red on the map compared to the rest of the mainland.
50% of US residents live in large cities, which are distributed throughout the country. California is the most populous state.
14% of the Spanish population lives in Greater Madrid (Madrid proper + suburbs). It is indicated by a large red area in the center. About 90% of the country's area is occupied by mountains.
In this animation, several cards are connected. They show what territory is occupied by 10, 20 and more percent of the population of France. This is one of the countries that is almost completely populated.
Most of the territory of North Africa is covered by the sands of the world's largest desert - the Sahara. The two areas marked in red are inhabited by 50% of the inhabitants of this entire region. This is the Nile Delta and its coastal territory in Egypt and Largest cities Morocco - Rabat and Casablanca along with the suburbs.
According to experts' forecasts already in the coming decades, several billion (!) People will be subjected to forced migration due to global climate change. These maps indicate that there are more than enough places on our planet for settling and relatively comfortable living even for such a large number of people. It is enough to adopt the experience of the inhabitants of Japan, who manage to build megacities in small flat areas of their country. By the way, judging by the latest information about climate change, the inhabitants of Japan should seriously think and prepare for resettlement to the continent right now. You can read more about this in the articles:
On planet Earth can live 25 billion people, subject to the predominance of cultural, moral, universal values in the relationship of people. Thanks to the latest developments OF PRIMORDIAL ALLATRA PHYSICS this life can become as comfortable as possible in terms of material and everyday life and open up incredible prospects for the exit of the entire civilization as a whole from the power of the system of the Animal mind. And it's possible.
What does a person feel when he is free inside in spirit, free from the world of matter? About this in the unique program “CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERSONALITY. FROM KNOWN DEAD TO ETERNALLY LIVING" on ALLATRA TV channel:
Prepared by: Vitaly Afanasiev
One of the causes of the Second World War, unleashed German Nazis, was their belief that the population was multiplying too fast. The leaders of the Third Reich seriously feared that, due to the population explosion, the Germans would fall into poverty, be unable to feed themselves, begin to starve and die out, which is why they planned an invasion of the East - to fertile lands. As we remember, their struggle for resources ended in colossal slaughter and the destruction of dozens of countries. Is this possible in the 21st century?
Mistakes of Malthus
In 1798, the English priest and scholar Thomas Malthus published an essay on the law of population. Without undue emotion, using city statistics, he argued that the population was increasing much faster than the livelihoods he created.
Malthus did not see this as a tragedy - on the contrary, he showed that the mechanism of self-regulation of numbers exists by itself, manifesting itself in wars and epidemics. However, his theory did not give grounds for optimism: it followed from it that humanity was not destined to break out of the eternal cycle of violence, because only it, according to Malthus, ensured a balance between the natural desire of a person to leave numerous offspring and the possibilities of nature to provide for human needs.
On this idea, a whole cultural and ideological trend has grown up, called "Malthusianism". Its essence is in an effort to limit the birth rate and thus prevent the growth of violence. In particular, it was proposed to promote sexual abstinence in every possible way, prohibit early and late marriages, and legally reduce the possibility of marriages among the poor, the disabled, and the deformed. Two decades later, neo-Malthusianism appeared, whose adherents did not suffer from an excess of humanism and proposed more radical measures - up to the total forced sterilization of entire sections of the population.
In particular, it was proposed to promote sexual abstinence in every possible way, prohibit early and late marriages, and legally reduce the possibility of marriages among the poor, the disabled, and the deformed. Two decades later, neo-Malthusianism appeared, whose adherents did not suffer from an excess of humanism and proposed more radical measures - up to the total forced sterilization of entire sections of the population.
Dictionaries characterize Malthusianism as an “anti-scientific system of views”, and this approach to the theory of Malthus and his followers is correct, since in their calculations they do not take into account a lot of factors: the redistribution of employment during the industrial revolution, the uneven structure of incomes in bourgeois society, qualitative leaps in development production and agriculture. Nevertheless, Malthusianism became extraordinarily popular in the first half of the 20th century, it was the basis of the theory of "living space" that the Nazis in Germany borrowed to justify their aggressive conquest plans.
All the calculations of Malthus were crossed out by the "green revolution" that began in Mexico in the mid-1940s. The latest agricultural technologies, wheat varieties resistant to pests and climate change, reasonable land use have allowed Mexicans to short time achieve food abundance and start exporting. Mexico's experience was intercepted by other countries, and by the early 1970s, the threat of famine that had plagued civilization for centuries receded. Today you can be sure: Agriculture able to feed everyone.
It would seem that Malthusianism should perish along with the theory of "living space". However, it is back in fashion. Why?
Global problems
Modern neo-Malthusians are well aware that the problems of the 19th century are a thing of the past. And yet they say that the threat of overpopulation remains, having changed only the content.
The following arguments are given. Western civilization managed to overcome the "sores" of the agrarian way of life due to strict social modernization: the abolition of serfdom, the imposition of the priority of property rights, the destruction of communal ethics in favor of individual labor, the emergence of universities that promote the rapid exchange of knowledge. Innovations pushed the growth of production efficiency, which was able to satisfy the basic needs of the population.
On the Chinese beach
Eastern civilization came to a similar result with a delay of half a century, but used identical methods. At the same time, billions of people are still not embraced by Western values, their countries remain agrarian and poor, surviving on foreign aid. The population is growing there, which means that a situation will soon arise when civilization will not be able to feed a useless horde. Food prices have already jumped, and it's still flowers!
To the problem of increasing the "excess" population is added the shortage of fresh water. After all, it goes not only to public utilities - water is required for sowing fields, steel giants, power plants, mining complexes. Some countries (e.g. Algeria, Japan, Hong Kong) fresh water have to be imported. Water is becoming an invaluable resource, and some futurologists write that bloody wars await us for access to moisture reserves: for example, to Lake Baikal.
It's time to die
To cut the Gordian knot of accumulated problems, modern neo-Malthusians put forward the concept of the "golden billion", drawn from international environmental discussions of the late 1980s. It is curious that the concept itself was invented by Soviet scientists, among them Academician Nikita Moiseev, who at a meeting in Rio de Janeiro said that in order to maintain the ecological balance, the population of the Earth should be reduced to a billion people.
Soviet scientists hesitated to say how the reduction should be carried out, but neo-Malthusians are always ready to speak out instead of them. And the latter believe that developed countries should refuse to help developing countries, cut off their access to resources and knowledge, and also take a number of strict measures to limit the birth rate.
The prospect of imposing the concept of a "golden billion" looks daunting. In fact, it is proposed to arrange a high-tech genocide, and on a scale that even the leaders of the Third Reich could not imagine.
Fortunately, not all experts are inclined to believe in the "golden billion". Very indicative in this sense is the dispute that began between the biologist Paul Ehrlich, who considers it necessary to introduce radical measures to reduce the population, and the economist Julian Simon, who believes that the development of technology will allow in the future to provide a decent standard of living for a population of any size: at least for a billion, at least for 100 billion.
To prove his case, Simon suggested that Erlich choose five types of raw materials, and if at least one of them rises in price in 10 years, the economist will pay 10 thousand dollars. Ehrlich accepted the bet with pleasure and chose five rare expensive metals: tungsten, copper, nickel, chromium and tin. After 10 years, he was forced to publicly give money to an economist, because the rise in prices for rare metals provoked a scientific search, engineers found substitutes, and the demand for the listed metals fell sharply, which ultimately led to a decrease in their value.
Reason for optimism
However, faith in technical progress not enough. After all, the population is growing not in developed countries (in which it is declining, the only exception is the United States of America), but in the poorest, where, moreover, the level of education is close to zero. Qualitative leaps in technology will not help pull these countries out of poverty, and no one, thank God, is going to reduce their population with the help of carpet bombing or total sterilization.
So, we still can't get out of the "Malthusian trap"?
Our famous compatriot Academician Sergei Kapitsa built a multi-factor model of demographic growth and showed that humanity, like technology, is experiencing systemic qualitative leaps and, after growth that will continue for another 100 years, will stabilize at a population of 12-14 billion people.
The Earth is quite capable of feeding such a number of people. And if we do not have enough resources, then there is always space, which we have just begun to explore. The most active part of the population can be sent to colonize neighboring planets. And then a completely different story will begin - galactic humanity, the possibilities of which it is difficult for us to imagine today.
Anton PERVUSHIN
Water on the planet can end in 17 years (!), Oil - in 30, and food will need twice as much. The PRC blames the poor countries of Africa and India, demanding that “Chinese laws” be introduced everywhere. What should Russia do in this case?
According to the forecast of the Institute for Demographic Studies of France, in 2050 the population of the Earth will be 9 billion 701 million people! Agree, this is actually a disaster. Already, people barely have enough natural resources. Gasoline, water and food become more expensive every year. The environment is getting worse and worse, millennial glaciers are melting, rivers and air are being polluted. If tough measures are not taken, our children will suffocate from the tightness of the planet, like in the subway at rush hour.
Half of the people will lose water
56 year old Professor Wang Leung from Chinese city Kunming, in an interview with AiF, does not hesitate to express his opinion very expressively. He is a member of the recently established Save the Planet Association in China. Members of this association are confident that it is high time to limit ... the uncontrolled growth of the world's population. Moreover, Chinese scientists are convinced that the world needs to learn from the experience of the Celestial Empire, which has learned to control the number of its citizens. "The Chinese could have been 5 billion by now," Wang Leung said. “However, the One Family, One Child program, harsh fines and cheap condoms have brought great results.” Residents of China are annoyed that the world press sees a threat to the planet only in an increase in the number of Chinese. “This is just plain propaganda,” a Hong Kong official fumes. demographer Richard Chong. - Yes, China's population is 1 billion 350 million, but the growth rate - 0.49% - is one of the lowest in the world. But 1 billion 212 million people already live in India and three times more children are born than in China. So which one of us is more dangerous?
The world does not pay attention to Africa, and this is a real time bomb. In African countries, the most high level fertility: in Niger, one woman on average gives birth to 8 (!) Children. Soon life on our planet will be a ride on a crowded bus. People began to live longer, health care is improving, serious wars have not been fought for a long time. Paradoxically, the improvement of the conditions of life on Earth at the same time means its possible death ... "
According to UN statistics, 1 billion people on Earth suffer from malnutrition. In order for everyone to have enough food by 2050, it is necessary to increase agricultural production by 70%. The Wildlife Fund (WWF) has previously stated: to meet the needs of mankind, it is necessary to colonize two (!) Planets the size of the Earth, otherwise famine will soon begin. Most people (China has the same problem) tend to live in megacities - there is no one to grow fruits and vegetables. Water consumption is growing twice as fast as the world's population. And this is a much more serious issue than problems with food. According to the forecast UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, by 2030, half of the earth's inhabitants will have nothing to drink: they will have to spend $ 200 billion annually on desalination of water from the oceans. So far, oil and gas are not so bad, although their consumption will quadruple over the next forty years. The available energy resources will last until 2047, if they do not come up with a different type of fuel. And it still hasn't been figured out...
Beggars threaten with an atomic bomb
The Chinese voiced what the rest are afraid to say out loud, assures Austin Longway, environmentalist from Australia. - In Europe and Russia, the population is decreasing, while in Africa and Asia it is increasing at a cosmic speed. At the current birth rate, as the American Dr. James Martin, by 2100, 20 billion (!) people will live on Earth. But the main problem is not the number of people. In poor countries, about 10 times more children are born than in rich ones. This will eventually lead to poor states demanding their share of natural wealth, blackmailing the rest of the world. North Korea, with atomic bomb is already receiving food aid. In the future, many presidents of the third world will understand: the presence nuclear device- a guarantee that your republic will be fed for free. Indeed, it is time to introduce laws on the Chinese model, limiting the birth rate in individual countries. Even if it sounds implausible and fantastic at the moment, I do not rule out that in the future the UN will introduce special “medical contingents” to Africa and Asia to control the population.
China has long been preparing itself to become a global leader. In black Africa, doctors from the PRC generously pay money to families who decide to undergo sterilization and distribute condoms. It is quite possible that the attempt to spread the One Family - One Child program to the entire planet is a step for the Celestial Empire to world domination. However, this does not cancel the difficulties in the case of overpopulation of the Earth. Around Russia (whose population continues to decrease) there are enough states where the birth rate is growing by leaps and bounds. 44 million people live in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan: by 2050 this number is likely to double. We cannot breathe from guest workers - but it turns out that this is not the limit. If the forecasts come true and the time comes for the sharing of water, food and energy resources, we will be overwhelmed by a wave of hungry immigrants. As distant and apocalyptic as this scenario may seem, it should be considered now. Otherwise it might be too late...
Optimist's opinion
The famous Danish ecologist Lomborg Bjorn believes that the panic about the overpopulation of the Earth and the coming apocalypse is somewhat exaggerated. In his opinion :
1) Oil and gas will never run out, because most of the reserves have not been explored.
2) Since 1949, the percentage of hungry people in the world has decreased from 45 to 18%.
3) The world's forest space has increased despite deforestation.
4) Pollution environment has been declining rapidly over the past 20 years.
True, as the ecologist himself emphasizes, the situation can change at any moment.
“Your Gorbachev never understood: socialism should be built with a lot of money and a full stomach.” Why did the USSR collapse, while China is now celebrating the 64th anniversary of the Communists coming to power? Read a special report on this in the next issue of AiF.
