General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Let me make this pellucidly clear - what real life has taught me [View all]RandomNumbers
(19,217 posts)(I agree 100% with the main point of your post)
Your statement
"This planet has enough resources for all of us. "
may or may not be true at this moment - that is a technical question. At some point, assuming continued population growth, it CANNOT be true.
Unless we will all live in concrete and steel boxes, with only AI-generated images (holograms?) for 'beauty' and wonder ... and food generated straight from dirt and sunlight without the bother of other living beings. (and who would control such manufacturing?)
Certainly the planet does not have enough resources for everyone to just take what they want without limit (which I think is the point of your post) - but humans as a species are stupid and uncaring - see: ivory-billed woodpecker, passenger pigeon, Tasmanian tiger. Before anyone says, but those were a long time ago - we are seeing many species extinctions every year. To avoid losing ever more iconic species, such as the monarch butterfly ... not to mention keystone species, and whatever the correct term is for the foundational species of microfauna and microflora that are essential for the food chain - including, for now at least, humans - we MUST set aside more wild space, probably more than most of us currently realize.
The web of life is collapsing under the weight of 8+ billion humans. I do not advocate for "killing off" people - that is a strawman argument often used to deflect from facts and avoid the real question - but we need to face the facts. Or at least acknowledge being okay with the sterile future that awaits humanity, if it is even able to implement and survive such future. To avoid that dystopian future, we need to start by acknowledging that there is, indeed, SOME limit to human population growth, beyond which there is no return. And take steps to HUMANELY reduce or at least balance population growth. ( Like not forcing women to pump out babies they don't want, would be a great start ... allowing women to control their reproduction has been shown to go a long way to balance population growth. Too bad the US is going in the wrong direction in many places, and instead of being the obvious solution that it is, it's a political / religious football wielded by the patriarchy. )
https://www.worldwildlife.org/news/press-releases/catastrophic-73-decline-in-the-average-size-of-global-wildlife-populations-in-just-50-years-reveals-a-system-in-peril/
To repeat, I absolutely agree with your main point. However we go about dealing with the population / ecosystem extinction questions, every person born deserves humane treatment and a chance at a good, reasonably comfortable life. That's just going to get a lot harder though, if we ignore that there is, at some point, a limit to how many of us can share in the wealth that is this beautiful planet.