Horizon: Attenborough on Population Growth

Anyone watching this?

I know we've talked about this on here before, but it is really hard to argue with the points made by the great man. Forget "global warming"*, the real issue is unchecked population growth.

The world population has more than TRIPLED in fifty years.

That's just not sustainable.

(* of course, the huge population means more energy cosumption, so is actually a root cause of carbon pollution too)

sobering stuff.

the human population will stabilize somehow.

it'll be disease, famine, or war that does it. or a nasty combination of all 3.

he has wonky specs

The real cause of any problems with climate is the concept of the scientific paradigm. Just because the vast majority of people think that something is correct doesnt make it so.

1960/70 – global cooling,
1980/90 – global warming,
2000 – present – climate change.
So in my book it's all bollocks.

WTF does Attenborough know about climate change anyway – he's a film maker.

Yes the zoo fighting trolling gob sh1te is far more qualified to pass judgement on this ..praise be he is here with his facts again 🙄

Back OT yes the population is highly unlikely to be sustainable for the long run.

Goan: take it you didn't see it then? It had **** all to do with global warming. If you want to debate that then go join hainey on the global warming thread.

Of course all the long haul flights and lighting effects in his productions are as green as possible aren't they. hypocrite.

David' CO2 emitting' Attenborough

There is no problem. If the earth heats up, people will die – lots of them. This will lead to less resource depletion and release of greenhouse gases – equilibrium will be restored – problem sorted itself out.

Increased energy and food efficiency are the only way forward.

People need to remember that the stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones…

thanks for that so we still have stones then – another great insight

What exactly do you mean by the statement

Increased energy and food efficiency are the only way forward.

We all going vegan and switching the lights off?

We could try eating less and switching the lights off – that would be a start.

Any problem that there may be is caused by wasteful consumption of finite resources.

eat less cheese

Can we maybe limit the discussion to folk that at least watched the programme and have some idea what all the words meant??

ok then – why would a tripling of the population in the next 50 years be bad? It's not as if we'd run out of room and there would be plenty food and fuel to go around if people didn't waste so much…

Population in developed countries is already declining. Its kind of self-controlling, if people grow up in crowded conditions, there less likely to have lots of kids.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327271.400-the-population-delusion.html?full=true

i quite like the quote:
"We are burdensome to the world, the resources are scarcely adequate for us… already nature does not sustain us." So wrote Tertullian, an early Christian, back in the 3rd century. At that time, the world population stood at some 200 million.

People need to remember that the stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones…

Sorry to jump on your back JUnkyard, but I'm hoping for an explanation of that one too – in terms of how it relates to David Attenborough's opinions on population growth.

Not jumping to his defence but, Attenborough has long held that population growth is the big "elephant in the room" (sorry for the use of that cliche but couldn't think of anything else right now) that nobody in the world is prepared to discuss.

Goan, I'd debate it with you if you weren't being so glib.

ok then – why would a tripling of the population in the next 50 years be bad? It's not as if we'd run out of room and there would be plenty food and fuel to go around if people didn't waste so much….

Yup, in fact according to the programme, if we persuade the entire world to live like the poorest in India then we can just about manage a population of 20 billion.

Though if we continue at our current growth rate we could be at that level in our lifetimes.

Will watch it on catch up and get back to you
DD feel free I cant be arsed

Isn't it all part of god's great plan, anyway? 😯

DD – it's a line form Bjorn Lomborg's Skeptical Environmentaist – it means that new technology replaces old long before the situation becomes critical. To relate it to population growth – new energy generation and use techniques will be developed as will those for food.

GrahamS – The programme wouldn't really be much cope if it said that everything would be fine now would it. Wouldn't really get many people talking about it…. Taking Attenborough's word on this subject is like taking the Sun newspaper as being gospel on Neuroscience.

DD feel free I cant be arsed

You know what, neither can I JY. A discussion on population growth/control might be interesting.

It's the weight of science on the side of the massive proportion of scientists who are sceptical about the tiny amount of manipulated evidence from the government funded climate changeologists who are like basically starting a like religion so that the government, who are so gay like, can tax our arses off.

So, as you were everyone.

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yes well with his latest news I wll be busy. Now I dont need to worry as something will come along I am off to turn the heating up and breed like a catholic rabbit.

A very clear and non sensational programme.
As he started with, the human race is not very good at understanding the scale of it's own population

Goan: okay so which bits are shaky then? Are the population figures wrong? Do we actually have much more fresh water and food hidden away somewhere?

The UK population is on target to be 77 million by 2050. That's around another 16 million people added to our tiny island.

Goan, the points you make just display the kind of arrogance that caused the recession.

1 Billion people don't have access to clean, safe water, if technology is going to ensure the ever growing population is going to thrive please tell me why 15% of the world's population has to suffer that?

Goan – do you think he did all the research, spoke to all of the experts in the program and made it all up himself, or do you think it was independantly researched and produced with him as a presenter?

If we are to continue to "progress" and "grow" we are going to have to get used to living with a lot less consumption, or find a miracle new way of generating power to help provide us with fuel and water. Space is not the issue, resources are, and we are seriously pushing them. As stated in the programme, if you watched it, nearly 40% of land mass is being used for food production and theres not a whole lot more we can use, and countries are currently buying farming land and using more power and water to try to make them farmable and get fresh water to the population. If the number of people grows as expected and even if we don't increase energy use at all from now we're stuffed.

Yet again, people need to watch:

CK – no, nor do I think that he had a crack team of academics either.

I agree with the next bit, but don't see that being a real problem to be honest. The planet will be fine – couldn't really care less whether the species survives or not.

I suspect he had a decent set of researchers behind him assessing the latest data presented BY academics though.

Really you don't care about the continuation of the species, millions of other other species, or the world as we currently have it? You don't feel any obligation to future generations to try to minimise the unpleasantries and leave them a legacy as good as you've had? I find that a bit odd.

It's mutual Goan

Couldn't care less about the species. Life moves on. There were things here before us and there will be other shit here after us – its the way the planet works. Humans are not important in the bigger picture.

Humans are the only species capable of understanding its effect on other species and limiting it, it has a responsibility to minimise that effect. To completely disregard everything in a "not my problem" way is ridiculous.

CK – no, nor do I think that he had a crack team of academics either.

True, I mean they were talking to folk at the Population Division at the UN and guys from NASA. They'd have been much better off asking driving instructors.

The planet will be fine – couldn't really care less whether the species survives or not.

No children Goan? No one under the age of 30 that you remotely care about?

You're factually, rationally correct Goan.

But, you're also selfish, arrogant and amoral.

What we do now affects the quality of life for the future of this planet, whilst it might not 'matter' in the grand scheme of things, you try telling that to a dying, starving miserable future population that will look back on our time and see us as greedy foul ignorant idiots who chose to squander the achievements of mankind because we wanted to drive to the shops for a pint of milk.

GrahamS – Did either of those two institutions edit the programme – no i doubt it. 2 kids and a 3rd on the way – they'll be fine.

People spend way too much time worrying about things they have no control over. Instead of thinking up the next scary fairy story the scientists could actually do something to fix the problems that are here now….

Life is too short to worry about the bollocks that they come out with.

Nick – if you read my points above I say that the only way to prevent this type of problem is to stop wasting everything that we have. I'm far from being selfish arrogant and amoral – refusing to take my point onboard is al of those things though.

Instead of thinking up the next scary fairy story the scientists could actually do something to fix the problems that are here now….

With respect, we are. The predictions you dislike are borne out of assessing what needs to be done to fix existing and future problems, you can't just fix existing issues blindly ignoring the future, that would be stupid and wreckless. Believe it or not, scientists and engineers don't just sit around making predictions for the sake of getting their name in the media. While Id be the last person to suggest academics are ego-free, their ego is USUALLY fed by the success of their research in solving problems (because that's how it's judged), not by the publicity of it.

that would be stupid and wreckless.

he probably can quite easily then I think you may have misuderestimated him 😆

You contradict yourself, either the species matter (to us, right now) or it doesn't.

I would say that spending more time thinking up what might go wrong is way more wreckless than fixing the problems that are here now. Malaria and AIDS anyone?

nick – where do i contradict myself?

CK – having spent a lot of time around academics I would say that the vast majority of them want to be published at all costs – whether their work is factually correct or not.

sticks head in..oh another miserable goan thread 🙄
closes door behind him.

GrahamS – Did either of those two institutions edit the programme – no i doubt it.

No but they do edit their own websites and the data there agrees.

You can play with the UN Population Division data here:
http://esa.un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp

World Population (in thousands)
1950: 2,529,346
2000: 6,115,367
2050: 7,958,779 – 11,030,273 (projected obviously)

World Population (month by month)

07/01/09 6,768,167,712
08/01/09 6,774,705,647
09/01/09 6,781,243,583
10/01/09 6,787,570,618
11/01/09 6,794,108,554
12/01/09 6,800,435,588
01/01/10 6,806,973,524
02/01/10 6,813,511,460
03/01/10 6,819,416,692
04/01/10 6,825,954,628
05/01/10 6,832,281,663
06/01/10 6,838,819,599
07/01/10 6,845,146,634
.
From US Census Bureau