Go kill yourself may seem a little bit harsh (I always think it should be spelled harshe, just to give it a little more emphasis, but whatever) but think about it. There are people who think that technology will be the savior of us all when it comes down to the carrying capacity of the planet. But think about it, there are well over 6 billion people on the planet (as of 2008). Our society as a whole has no natural predators at this point, population grows exponentially, and application of technologies (despite new technology growing exponentially) grows practically linearly.
In my opinion we need to face the fact that there is simply not enough to sustain our current state of affairs. There is only a limited amount of water on this planet, assuming we develop fusion of some sort and can create more oxygen or can get it from other planets, we could be ok. But as it stands there is only enough water on the planet to fill a certain number of bodies, a very high number, but when you include basic sanitation and the fact that waste water needs to be purified and americans like to live a lavish lifestyle (basic comfort aside we waste a ton)... its a dire conundrum when the population gets above a certain threshold. We are nearing a point where it will also be impossible to force any kind of restriction upon this type of endeavor. Free will aside, governments cannot forcibly make people do anything and people are prone to disagree when their own opinions on the matter are not taken into account. And if we have learned anything from people over the last 5000 years, we are prone to violent uprising when we arent happy. To address this issue, we need to slow the growth of our species so we dont hit the point only to have our entire infrastructure fail because we didnt anticipate. We also need to make the issue stand out in the minds of everybody so that they know what our situation is and make informed decisions in place, and we need to adjust policy so that we do not die out.
My thoughts on the subject are that if I am to have a child, will I want them to grow old in a world that is dying due to its own inability to face a crisis of the survival of our very species. And I cant say no because my children will need to make that decision for themselves. I will not likely need to deal with it. I can however imply to those whose essence lies in the shallow end of the gene pool that it may be in humanity's best interest to go kill themselves.
Man, now I am thinking about global warming, but I dont really want to get started on that.
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