The problem is not whether 9 billion is the real threshold for
population growth, the question is when are we going
to realise the moment we hit the threshold ? Should we even
wait for that threshold to be reached before we do anything about
it?
The Green Revolution can be viewed in two ways, yes it saved us
and allowed us to expand our population twice fold (by 3billion+)
or it could actually set us up for a much harder fall (7-8 billion
starving compared to 3.5 billion starving)
Population growth can only be sustained through infrastructure
building supported by increasing resource production. That means
when we finally hit that peak resource production the progressing
years are going to be filled with more and more suffering as
the system struggles to support the population on even less
resources.
We are NOT running out of resource per say but we are hitting a
production plateau, where each new discoveries is going to cost
more manpower and energy to extract.
Instead of digging 100 feet in the barren desert and oil
will gush out on its own we need to build
gigantic rigs to tow over to established oil
reserves in the deep sea to extract. Instead of digging on exposed
coal seams we have to dig gigantic holes in the ground to get
it.
THAT is the problem. Energy is only a small factor in the whole
equation of the human population problem. We still need mineral
resources/wood to build our infrastructures, petroleum is still
needed for chemical processes even if we don't use it for
energy.
There's a very good reason why countries like China have to
resort to draconian population control, even India and
Pakistan is already trying to curb their population growth and
Bagladash is already having a lot of social problems with
their population growth.
Any new technology we developed now to delay the core problem
would be harder and harder to implement because of the huge
population involved and the increasingly shrinking pool
of technicans capable of implement the complex infrastructure
capable of supporting that technology.
The point is when we DO hit the limit, immense suffering would
follow almost immediately. Are we going to wait till then before we
start regretting it or start doing something now?
Resources are limited while world population are bulging.
Technology can help recycle resources for human usage for instances
but technology still has limitation. The over-population can be
solved through implementing policies and using technology such as
allocation of human population to other planet's settlement and
implementing world-wide population control.
The majority of the population issues are largely concentrated
in certain parts of world. I do think one can adminstrate
population control in certain parts of the world properly.
In other developing and war-torn countries, i'm not too sure if
they are currently facing a major over-population issues.