• aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Unpopular truth: We don’t need 8 billion humans. We don’t even need 1 billion. Not for a terrestrial species occupying only one planet.

    Ideally, the global population would stay about the same, but slowly rise and fall in seasons like the temperature.

    This is a windfall that we should use to sort out the food distribution problem. But we won’t.

  • 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 months ago

    “In many ways, tumbling fertility rates are a success story, reflecting not only better, easily available contraception but also many women choosing to delay or have fewer children, as well as more opportunities for education and employment.”

  • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
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    3 months ago

    After listening to Malthusian panic from “conservatives” for over 50 years, I savour the irony.

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s not even conservatives, there are some doomers who get off being excessively pessimistic. r/collapse used to be hysterical about overpopulation. When I showed them the video of late statisticians Hans Rosling showing trend data of declining fertility rate, thanks to growing wealth of developing countries, and why their fears are unfounded, they just brushed it off. It is in recent years when mainstream news finally started reporting declining fertility rate and the UN project the global population to plateau, r/collapse finally stopped being hysterical on the topic.

  • Drusas@kbin.social
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    3 months ago

    Good. Now if only we could get the wealthy and powerful to switch to a form of economy which prioritizes stability over infinite growth.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    With how unaffordable life is in general, it’s not exactly surprising that people are having fewer kids. They’re a giant drain on your already scarce resources.

    Frankly I was also hoping for corona to… do a little housekeeping as it were. But it didn’t really do much in terms of actual population decline.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      There are huge inneficiencies in the labor market that, if corrected, would allow a lot more people to live comfortably. There are a large number is companies that don’t deserve to exist, let alone waste people’s talent and abilities on complete nonsense.

    • Player2@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Without societal change, even a die-off as extreme as half of everyone dying will have absolutely no effect beyond the immediate term. Just look at the Black Death as an example: about half of Europe among others died over its period and yet we are still facing overpopulation issues not 7 centuries later.

      The general populace just needs to learn and understand that maybe staying well above replacement level is not good, actually.

      • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Of course, when the Black Death happened, the world in general was much smaller. People weren’t quite as aware as to what was happening elsewhere. And given that things like infant mortality were much higher, life expectancy was lower, no real contraception etc… people really had no real incentive not to procreate again. So they did.

        These days we’re generally more aware and more in control. I like to think that if corona HAD wiped out half the planet, the survivors would see clear benefits: less overcrowding, nature is restoring, the air is cleaner, etc etc. You saw some of that during the pandemic when, for example, the canals in Venice turned crystal clear because of lack of humans.

        I’d flip that coin right now. Whoever lives inherits a paradise. Use it wisely and learn from previous mistakes.

        • Player2@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Maybe I’m just a cynic but I don’t think mentality has really changed since then. If that were the case we would see more rapid population decrease instead of it just being due to financial pressure

      • nikscha@feddit.de
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        3 months ago

        Stop down voting him, he’s right. Earth day is on April 22, so we would need to shrink earths population to a third in order to make our current way of living sustainable… (Shrink the rich first)

        • Player2@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          While I appreciate the sentiment, my whole point was that this action would probably not be an effective solution :D

  • BurningRiver@beehaw.org
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    3 months ago

    My grandparents came over after world war 2, with my grandfather barely speaking any English. He got a job as a busboy and could afford to rent a house and have my grandma raise my mom and uncle (and my aunt, later) while he worked.

    10 years or so ago, he lamented how nobody was having kids like they used to. I asked him to repeat his situation when he got here, then explained to him that my wife and I barely have enough to pay our mortgage and have some fun while we both work full time, with no kids.

    We’re actually doing fine financially now, but the window for kids passed. Even if it were still a possibility, I’m not sure I even would. Just so I can raise some wage slaves to keep this klepto-plutocracy alive and well? Nah, fuck that.