Just look at the people who are starving in Zimbabwe. At one time it was a productive land that fed people of other countries. Then it went Communist. Now look at it. Notice the leaders of that country are well fed.
Kids your age should realize the root cause. It is not the environment or the size of the Earth. It is governments who hate the people they rule over. And we can put false religions high on that list too. For those two organizations take take take and give nothing back. Oh, they may round up a few bums every now and then and give the a decent meal, but it is just a photo op and nothing more.
You might say, "That is not true. The US gives X amount of dollars to welfare." That is vote buying pure and simple. That is taking my money to give to someone who will vote for the powers that are installed. That will never solve the Earth's problems. That will only add to the problem.
Look for the real cause or root cause. A good government can handle masses of people because it lets them be productive. The US proved that for over a century. I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said, "When the government tells you when to plant and to reap, the nation will go hungry." Think about it.
The number one thing that you can do to help change the world is to not vote for any 21st century representatives that only have an 18th century understanding of science. This will greatly help with the global warming issues that are with us now and as the climate will proceed to change as we go forward.
As far as the over population concerns go, sadly, this is a self correcting problem. Populations will come back to more sustainable levels on their own, with or without climate change.
I've got news for you. Population growth is not a problem. The real problem of the future will be population decline, as there will not be enough children to take care of you when you are older. Japan is already suffering from this problem, and it is why they are so far ahead in development of robots.
Europe is already on a path to declining population. By 2050 Russia is projected to have a smaller population than Yemen. The old family tree was one person had two children and four grandchildren. Now it is more often four grandparents have two children and one grandchild.
South America has also seen a large drop in its fertility rate.
Even China and India are seeing large drops in their population growths, which will eventually lead to decline.
Overpopulation is not a problem. Underpopulation is.
Now if you are worried about carbon emissions, it appears the Muslim countries are maintaining high population growth, so eventually Muslim domination is likely, and those lifestyles mandated by those countries tend to be low carbon emissions.
Start by reading Dr. Hardin’s famous paper [Science, New Series, Vol. 162, No. 3859 (Dec. 13, 1968), pp. 1243-1248]:
? ? ? ? http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~asmayer/rural_su...
Also read this seminal book by Dr. William R. Catton:
? ? ? ? http://www.amazon.com/dp/0252009886
We must come to grips with the idea of finding out how to run civilizations that have stable populations. It’s never been done before on a regional, let alone global, scale. But all societies depend upon age distributions distorted by an exponential growth. No one knows how to run one over the long term that has zero or negative growth.
The world’s population has almost tripled in my short life. The sheer mass of humans and their domesticated animals is perhaps now some 99% of all land vertebrates. We are consuming Earth's resources 50% faster than their renewal rate -- those that are renewable at all. Now add fossil fuels and other scarce, finite resources.
It simply cannot continue. We will either figure a way to handle it intelligently and more gradually or else the problem will seek it’s own solution precipitously. Sadly, the only solution avoiding precipitious effects won’t happen. We are collectively incapable of that.
What will happen is this: Resources will be exponentially tapped and species die-off will continue on a geometrically driven decline, as we “climb on their backs” to survive. Destroying all the more rapidly the very diversity that otherwise might help protect us from environmental changes we are also making, or support us more generally. We are in the middle of the 6th “extinction” event. The diversity of this life and it’s health is what we humans depend upon. That diversity also provides the protective actions that help mitigate changes we make, as well.
An old textbook on history I read some 40 years ago while in school showed a ‘liberated’ gas chamber in WW II Germany, where the bodies were piled up in a pyramid in the middle of the room. The caption explained that there was a vent in the ceiling and that some of those in the room climbed onto the backs of others, trying to get closer to that vent and survive just a little longer. They all died, of course. But some got a few more seconds.
Like that frozen image I saw many years ago, humans will yet climb onto the backs of all remaining life on earth, killing it all the faster in a vain attempt at survival, and unwilling to do the only thing that would actually save themselves and everything else. It can’t continue, yet it will.
In 1944 the US Coast Guard introduced 29 reindeer onto the remote St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, in order to serve as the backup food source for the 19 men stationed there. When World War II ended, the base closed and the men left. David Kline, a biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, visited St. Matthew in 1957 and found a thriving population of an estimated 1350 reindeer. They were feeding on a 4″ thick mat of lichen that covered the 332 km2 island. (There were no predators.) In 1963, he found 6000. And then, in 1966, he discovered an island strewn with reindeer skeletons and very little lichen. 42 reindeer survived: 41 females and 1 male in poor health. No fawns. The remaining reindeer all died by 1980.
Ultimately, we are no more intelligent than deer or bacteria in a petri dish. Indistinguishable results, anyway.
The only option is significant and rapid action and even then there are no promises. Just hope. But... well, your parents have already presented you with a perfect example of the problem. They don't get it.
Climate though is only one of many facets. Humans have literally taken over the planet, moving from partial dominance to complete and total overwhelming effect. Forest systems are stripped down into patchwork quilts; roads, fences, etc, further divide and endanger these areas. Monoculture farming, heavily depending upon fossil fuels, support the already large human populations.
We will keep pressing our foot on the accelerator as we run right smack into a series of upcoming “walls.” Unable even to realize the walls we’ve hit, in denial about the walls yet ahead, always with the foot stuck down hard on the accelerator and unable consider the idea of lifting up on it.
I expect to see crisis responses to declining ecologies we’ve quilted and hacked to death with our machetes and also climate changes to occur in my remaining lifetime. Perhaps circa 2025-2030, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see it sooner (or a little later.) We are at the wall now, and already pushing up against this unmovable object. We already feel some of the pain. We just haven’t yet realized that we are moving at 60mph and the wall won’t move.
“It’s not the fall that kills you. It’s the sudden stop at the bottom.”
I anticipate “interesting times.”
First get a good education and learn to think for yourself, rather than reciting what others might tell you.
Learn to recognise when you are being misled, sometimes unwittingly by the misleader , including teachers , who have themselves been misled.
Study Logic, learn to Reason and explore Aristotle's Sophistical Elenchi.
Maybe try a course such as this
https://www.coursera.org/course/thinkaga...
Lastly remain true to yourself, remember nothing is quite as it seems and beware the merchants of doom.
The world is generally a better place now than it has ever been.
Do you even have a right to change the world?
The major problem is that poor undeveloped nations have high birth rates. by allowing them economic improvement better prosperity and education, they will naturally reduce their reproduction.
However this is just what western countries are denying them, poor countries need cheap energy, but under the excuse of global warming, developed counties are denying them coal, oil, and gas.
by being a responsible citizen
Every day i'm burdened by the fact that my generation has to face problems that no other generation has ever faced before. Problems that have stemmed from two long world wars and the procreation of billions of human beings.
Yes, if you caught my drift, i'm talking about the future problems of Population Growth and Global Warming. Many kids of my generation, as well as me, are severely worried about these problems and are trying to act upon it to the best of our abilities. However, the major stem of all the natural problems that are happening in our world today is due to population growth.
My question here today is, how (as a 16 year old teenager) can I help with these problems and try to change the path that our race is headed down? I had this discussion with my parents, but they gave the typical answer of "Grow up, be a doctor, make money".
There seems to be many optimal solutions that could end in great results, but I just don't know how I could contribute. I mean, after all, i'm just one kid that the world isn't really willing to listen to.
I know there are many kids my age that would back me up now, and when they got older, to try and change these issues. I am really frightened about how the world will look in a century, but I believe that the world can be healed and helped now if action is taken.
I know some of you might downgrade me due to my young age, but trust me, i've looked at both sides of the stories and have determined a mindset and an attitude that will forever be embedded within me that wants to take action upon the worldly problems of today.
