World’s population hits 8 billion

[Wind]

Any thoughts on this? The population just keeps on growing.

World population to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022

"Amid falling growth rates, global population projected to peak around 10.4 billion in the 2080s

The global population is projected to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022, and India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023, according to World Population Prospects 2022, released today on World Population Day.

“This year’s World Population Day falls during a milestone year, when we anticipate the birth of the Earth’s eight billionth inhabitant. This is an occasion to celebrate our diversity, recognize our common humanity, and marvel at advancements in health that have extended lifespans and dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality rates,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “At the same time, it is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another,” he added.

The global population is growing at its slowest rate since 1950, having fallen under 1 per cent in 2020. The latest projections by the United Nations suggest that the world’s population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050. It is projected to reach a peak of around 10.4 billion people during the 2080s and to remain at that level until 2100.

World Population Prospects 2022 also states that fertility has fallen markedly in recent decades for many countries. Today, two-thirds of the global population lives in a country or area where lifetime fertility is below 2.1 births per woman, roughly the level required for zero growth in the long run for a population with low mortality. The populations of 61 countries or areas are projected to decrease by 1 per cent or more between 2022 and 2050, owing to sustained low levels of fertility and, in some cases, elevated rates of emigration.

More than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to contribute more than half of the increase anticipated through 2050.

“The relationship between population growth and sustainable development is complex and multidimensional” said Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. “Rapid population growth makes eradicating poverty, combatting hunger and malnutrition, and increasing the coverage of health and education systems more difficult.

Conversely, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those related to health, education and gender equality, will contribute to reducing fertility levels and slowing global population growth.”

In most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in parts of Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, the share of population at working age (between 25 and 64 years) has been increasing thanks to recent reductions in fertility. This shift in the age distribution provides a time-bound opportunity for accelerated economic growth per capita, known as the “demographic dividend”. To maximize the potential benefits of a favourable age distribution, countries should invest in the further development of their human capital by ensuring access to health care and quality education at all ages and by promoting opportunities for productive employment and decent work.

The share of global population at ages 65 and above is projected to rise from 10 per cent in 2022 to 16 per cent in 2050. At that point, it is expected that the number of persons aged 65 years or over worldwide will be more than twice the number of children under age 5 and about the same as the number under age 12. Countries with ageing populations should take steps to adapt public programmes to the growing numbers of older persons, including by establishing universal health care and long-term care systems and by improving the sustainability of social security and pension systems.

Global life expectancy at birth reached 72.8 years in 2019, an improvement of almost 9 years since 1990. Further reductions in mortality are projected to result in an average global longevity of around 77.2 years in 2050. Yet in 2021, life expectancy for the least developed countries lagged 7 years behind the global average.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all three components of population change. Global life expectancy at birth fell to 71.0 years in 2021. In some countries, successive waves of the pandemic may have produced short-term reductions in numbers of pregnancies and births, while for many other countries, there is little evidence of an impact on fertility levels or trends. The pandemic severely restricted all forms of human mobility, including international migration.

“Further actions by Governments aimed at reducing fertility would have little impact on the pace of population growth between now and mid-century, because of the youthful age structure of today’s global population. Nevertheless, the cumulative effect of lower fertility, if maintained over several decades, could be a more substantial deceleration of global population growth in the second half of the century,” added John Wilmoth, Director of the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs."


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88NmgyGvCpU

[Catsquotl]

Any thoughts on this?

I have some thoughts, none of em are very promising for a perpetually expanding growth in the " near" future.
Any solution would involve some culling. whether by "natural" causes or by our own stupidity.

I do believe though that any entity or god known as Gaia, Terra or earth will endure and overcome the human stain.

[Wind]

If humanity continues to behave like a pest on the planet, then I do feel that Gaia will react. As already is happening.
Every system, including Gaia seeks to have homeostasis. Once the system becomes too unbalanced, the scales are tipped.

This is our home for now, but Gaia is our host and mother. She has been very kind and patient while she has been abused.
It is humanity's duty to be the guardians and protectors of nature and wildlife, but that job has been handled very poorly.

[Aragorn]

I have some thoughts, none of em are very promising for a perpetually expanding growth in the " near" future.
Any solution would involve some culling. whether by "natural" causes or by our own stupidity.

Oh, don't worry too much. As long as the United States of America and NATO continue to exist, there will always be wars in which thousands if not millions of people get killed off.

Come to think of it, Russia and the People's Republic of China also have their own ways of curtailing population growth, as do Islamic-fundamentalist countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia. Israel is also doing a good job at slowly eradicating the Palestinians from the land that the bearded dude in the sky gave to the people of Judea. Oops, yeah, sorry, for a moment there I forgot that Israel is only an extension of the Anglo-Saxon Empire.

But ISIS, Al Qaeda and the likes are also still around, as are the warlords in various regions of Africa. Speaking of the latter, if we keep with our capitalist-corporatist exploitation of Africa, then famine and drought will probably keep that lot under control for a while still.

So you see, there's nothing to worry about. Us rich-ass white folks up here in the northern hemisphere will still be able to thrive on the suffering of the "lesser humans" for a while longer. All we have to do is keep on manufacturing all kinds of junk that nobody needs and only few can afford, but that everybody wants because it's "Oooh, shiny!", and that they will then get themselves into debts over so they can buy the fucking things.

"A billion here, a billion there, and soon it'll add up to some real money."

((US Senator Everett Dirksen)

Sorry guys, I think I've begun channeling George Carlin.

[Fred Steeves]

Sorry guys, I think I've begun channeling George Carlin.

You're just miffed at not being in "the club".

Seriously though, there's various ways of looking at this, different possible scenarios. Even if we manage to not blow ourselves up (as presently is being attempted), there is the other possible extinction event already mentioned that this living breathing planet who so kindly hosts us really does finally have enough of us abusing her and shakes us off like a dog would fleas. I disagree that humans are "stain", we have our rightful place here just like everything else under the sun, I think Mother Earth would grieve deeply for a very long time were she ultimately forced to shake us off as a last resort defense mechanism. The classic "it didn't have to be this way"...

Now supposing we can weather through this storm of great ignorance we suffer under and make it out the other side, that would be a big fucking deal, and we have the tools at our disposal to handle any population problem whether too populated, or too little. We've not yet begun to scratch the surface of what science and technology, combined with good old fashion human ingenuity, are capable of. A glimpse can already be seen in that I live out in a rural area in the woods, surrounded by cows, horses, sheep and goats, yet I still have the whole world at my fingertips with the www at my disposal.

The same could be true of an over population problem. Just in this country alone, flying from coast to coast reveals the sheer vastness of undeveloped land, and the same would be true in other huge countries as well. The more technology is acquired, the less people need to live in, or near cities. If we ever got our hands on free energy people could live anywhere. Problem solved.

[Wind]

Now supposing we can weather through this storm of great ignorance we suffer under and make it out the other side, that would be a big fucking deal, and we have the tools at our disposal to handle any population problem whether too populated, or too little. We've not yet begun to scratch the surface of what science and technology, combined with good old fashion human ingenuity, are capable of. A glimpse can already be seen in that I live out in a rural area in the woods, surrounded by cows, horses, sheep and goats, yet I still have the whole world at my fingertips with the www at my disposal.

The same could be true of an over population problem. Just in this country alone, flying from coast to coast reveals the sheer vastness of undeveloped land, and the same would be true in other huge countries as well. The more technology is acquired, the less people need to live in, or near cities. If we ever got our hands on free energy people could live anywhere. Problem solved.

I do like your optimism and share it too. If we do make it through the storm and that is a big if, then we could have indeed a great future ahead of us. That won't come easily though, but it can be possible. If we don't have hope for a better future then why even bother living? I believe it matters that we leave this world in a better condition after we are gone. That will be our legacy. The way I see it is that things are going to get worse before they get better. The night is darkest just before the dawn. Technology is fastly developing now, but more than that people need wisdom which is deeply lacking.

Free energy could be the key, hopefully greed wouldn't ruin that too. My theory is that big oil companies have tried their best to ensure that we don't get free energy technology, because that's bad for business, but then again that's a whole another topic. To me also big city living doesn't exactly feel natural and that's despite that I've lived all my life in the largest city in Finland, but of course even our largest city with 500k people in it is nothing compared to the big cities in the world. Also thankfully here in the suburbs we also have had quite a bit of nature too, I would never live downtown and eventually my idea is to move even further near nature.

I don't think big city living is really good for anyone, but it certainly won't be good for your health if something were to happen to the infrastructure. People should learn to become more self-reliant, working with nature and in nature, instead of working against nature and exploiting it. I think the natives had it right too, you could say that they were "primitive" people, but they lived in harmony in nature. They respected it, they respected life and animals because they saw it as sacred. How come humans have forgotten and no longer see nature as sacred? We have a beautiful gem given to us, this garden and we have more than enough for everyone.

As Gandhi said; "The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not everyone's greed."


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5CHNsmbEw8

[Fred Steeves]

The night is darkest just before the dawn. Technology is fastly developing now, but more than that people need wisdom which is deeply lacking.

I think the natives had it right too, you could say that they were "primitive" people, but they lived in harmony in nature. They respected it, they respected life and animals because they saw it as sacred. How come humans have forgotten and no longer see nature as sacred?

I think it's safe to say that without wisdom, the sacred is unrecognizable, meaningless. What we have presently is clever, which is useful, but ever so dangerous and reckless without the other two.

[Wind]

I think it's safe to say that without wisdom, the sacred is unrecognizable, meaningless. What we have presently is clever, which is useful, but ever so dangerous and reckless without the other two.

That would be correct.

[Aragorn]

I think the natives had it right too, you could say that they were "primitive" people, but they lived in harmony in nature. They respected it, they respected life and animals because they saw it as sacred. How come humans have forgotten and no longer see nature as sacred?

I think it's safe to say that without wisdom, the sacred is unrecognizable, meaningless. What we have presently is clever, which is useful, but ever so dangerous and reckless without the other two.I think it's safe to say that without wisdom, the sacred is unrecognizable, meaningless. What we have presently is clever, which is useful, but ever so dangerous and reckless without the other two.

That would be correct.

Getting into the woo-woo here, what we are seeing is however part and parcel of the so-anticipated and so-venerated Age of Aquarius. If you ask any astrologer, they will tell you that Aquarius represents innovation and change, but that this does not necessarily imply that it would be innovation and change for the better.

To give you but one example, wokeism is definitely innovation, and the way it is being pushed through the various media, it certainly has enough clout to impart a change. Hell, the fact that it is being pushed by the mainstream media — virtually all of them here in Belgium, and many of them in the USA — as well as by the education systems over here in Europe, is already a significant change, and undoubtedly also imparts that change onto society by way of the upcoming next generation.

Yet, I do not consider wokeism a change for the better; on the contrary, it completely foregoes common sense, it ignores and/or denies history and culture, and as such, it does the same with wisdom. And the same is just as true for the opposite of wokeism, i.e. the reactionary and ultraconservative forces at work, because knee-jerks are an instinctive behavior, not a sign of intelligence, let alone wisdom.

As many have already said over the years, there's a fine line between genius and insanity, and the way I see it, that fine line has now already long become all but invisible to the vast majority of the population. People do things because they can, not because they should. And that can lead us just about anywhere, including toward ultimate bliss in a utopian society or toward a chaotic, nightmarish dystopia.

From the purely mathematical perspective, the chances of attaining either of those two or somewhere in between are about equal. From my own life's experience and observation, I'd say we're solidly headed toward attaining about 75% of the dystopian scenario, although I will also add that not everyone will be regarding things as dystopian, even if only because of the diversity in tastes and opinions. But from Wisdom's perspective, yeah, I think my prediction won't be too far off the mark.

Putting it all into yet another perspective, first of all, my words here-above are mostly wasted, given our dwindling number of active members — most of this forum's visitors are bots, and these days they appear to be chiefly interested in threads that have been dead and buried for ages — and secondly, given my age and my many medical conditions, I probably won't be around anymore by the time humanity's dignity hits its all-time low. It's already that bad in some areas of the world — which is why there are so many refugees — but at least the whole globe hasn't reached that point yet; emphasis on "yet".

And within this context, Wisdom tells us to hope for the best, but to always expect the worst. Who am I to argue with Wisdom?

[Aianawa]

If humanity continues to behave like a pest on the planet, then I do feel that Gaia will react. As already is happening.
Every system, including Gaia seeks to have homeostasis. Once the system becomes too unbalanced, the scales are tipped.

This is our home for now, but Gaia is our host and mother. She has been very kind and patient while she has been abused.
It is humanity's duty to be the guardians and protectors of nature and wildlife, but that job has been handled very poorly.

Oh so agree with this, and it is only a very small % needs to be flicked off this Earth, imo nature is allways the ultimate winner and more are heading into nature and or quieting their mind, to nature.