Our serious Human issue...

[Muad'Dib]

[COLOR=DimGray]One word for ya... [I]overpopulation[/I].

Ever since humans practicaly existed, we've been, well, a bit different, no? As we evolved, one of the most prominent differences between us and our other cousins on Earth, is how much we reproduce. Of course, it compares nothing to some small furry mammals, and bugs, and so on, but we... well, big. The problem is, we humans no longer reproduce to survive... we do it for pleasure.

This, inevitably leads to way too many humans. We are choking our planet... Earth con not sustane us forever, especialy at the rate we are growing in numbers. We, if I may quote Agent Smith, are a virus. Not to mention the irreperal(sp?) damage we have caused the planet, and fellow creatures.

We are responsible for hundreds of species going extinct, and because of us, the Earth's natural life-time has already been greatly diminished.

The question... do you think us humans really should even be aloud to exist? We cause mroe damage than we're worth, and the world would be much better off without homo-sapians.[/COLOR]

[StarShine]

Eh, it's not overpopulation I'm worried about. We'll just keep building our cities up...

Pollution is the thing that bugs me, that and how we carelessly destroy other animal's homes. And war...and hate crimes...

Anyways, I see your point. Nothing really can be done though. It's not like people are willing to stop reproducing...but maybe the government will do a favor and pass gay marriage.

[Muad'Dib]

Hmmm... you say that nothing can be done, but what have you seen on the news for so many years? Death. A whole crap load of death. Now, I am not, repeat, NOT promoting acts of random violence, but I see it liek this...

Let them die. There's too damn many of us, so let them get blown up, or stabbed, or run over. Sure, go after the person who did it, but let the person die. The terrorist attacks on 9/11? Hell, in a way, they did the world a favor.

Now, I'm not saying that 9/11 wasn't a pretty sad day for everyone, but think of if mass killing like that happened almost everyday, until there were onyl a handful of large groups left...

The world, my friend, would be saved.

[Godelsensei]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]What do you mean, should we be [I]allowed[/I] to exist? Is there some intergalactic superviser waiting to kick us off the "playing field"?

Population projections predict (O_O aliteration!!!) that we are going to come to a head of about 8 billion in 100 years, then slowly begin to decrease in number.

As for us being "allowed to exist", I think you're being rather unfair. Should the seven-foot-tall sixth grader be allowed to play basketball?
Although I agree that we are being too harsh on our planet, I see no reason for any alleged deity to wipe us out. I take public transit whenever I can, throw my garbage in the proper receptical (and actively demand that others follow suit), recycle... I know it sounds rather pathetic, but it's still better than deliberately throwing trash on the ground. I hate people who litter--they just suck infinately.@_@

With the development of more environmentally-friendly methods of transport (i.e. hybrid cars, fuel cels [yes, they're working on fuel cels!!!: D] etc...), we are slowly progressing towards being less of a threat to ourselves.
One of the main problems, however, is urban sprawl. This is where your population issue comes into play: too many people, living too far away, all needing to get somewhere at the same time.

This clogs the roads, while the fumes from millions of cars are whisked away and about by the wind, into the lungs of the world.
It's a matter of improving urban layout, educating third world countries about contraception, developing evironmetally friendly reasources...

Despite our faults, I see no reason to banish us, as a species, from existance. After all, we've also done some very good things: developed medicines, mathematics and proper language... Just because we've, to an extent, surpassed the "live to reproduce" level of existance (as I see it, at least), it doesn't mean we're evil.


EDIT:

Woah, woah, woah. It would seem that a couple posts were made while I was making my own. Quite frankly, I am disgusted by your comments about 9/11.
Like I stated before: it is NOT overpopulation. It is population density. We do not need to kill ourselves off in order to "save the world". We need to plan our living spaces more effectively.
We need to deal with pollution more effectively. After that, it's a matter of keeping ourselves out of conflicts with ourselves, so we don't kill any of third parties (human or not) in the process.

[I]"When I think of humanity, it's like Mother Nature played a mean joke on us. She wanted to see how long we'd last, with our little bodies and big brains. She made a joke out of us, so now we're getting back at her. And the gods are all like, 'Well, ****, that wasn't supposed to happen...' "[/I]
[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Tasrai]

[COLOR=teal][SIZE=1]I have never thought of it like that....us being a virus and all...
But I don't think I'm too worried about over population, whenever we seem to be doing great and our population growing, a war comes up...No I think the human trait of killing each other senselessly and causing contention will be the end of us, not the Earth overpopulating...[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Harry]

I'm glad you're overlooking the fact that we can easily make enough food on this earth for each person and as soon as China and India become more developed their booming population will stop also.

Also in the grand scheme of thing,s 9/11, Gulf War 1, Gulf War 2 don't even make a dent in the population.

[Godelsensei]

[QUOTE=Harry]I'm glad you're overlooking the fact that we can easily make enough food on this earth for each person and as soon as China and India become more developed their booming population will stop also.

Also in the grand scheme of thing,s 9/11, Gulf War 1, Gulf War 2 don't even make a dent in the population.[/QUOTE]
[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]
There is no question: we have the resources to support our population. In Canada alone, the unused land is unbelievable. No, I'm not talking about the frozen parts, but the fertile ones.

Overpopulation is not an issue. Urban sprawl is...[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Muad'Dib]

Alright Sensei, ya got me. I guess I was... excited, hmm? But I still say we're in way over our heads, just becuase we didn't know what we were doing to our planet until it was too damn late. Sure, we're taking measure to preserve Earth, but how much can they do? And how long is it going to take to change our ways to a more, 'eco-friendly' society? By that time, we will have caused even more damage, and though it can be reduced, the causes will always be there, and the Earth is gonna choke on it's own creation.

Alright... as for "the human trait of killing each other", it may be brutal, but look at all the other animals. They hunt each other, sometime even killing their own species, but we have no natural predators except ourselves. If we really wanted to get back into Earth's rythem, we should just screw all this technology and go back to the pre-tool age. We hunt them, they hunt us, everything is more or less balanced. But we all know that's never gonna happen... at least in our life-times.

So, Harry.... you think we can continue to provide enough food for the whole world? The Earth isn't a continuous rescource, and when we use it up, we're very much screwed unless we find another planet by that time. You say when China and India solve their population problems... hm. Well, I can only think of two solutions to that... one would be to move a whole lot of them into other countries, wich is pretty much already happening, and the second, is to blow em all up, wich is, of course, inconcievable by human 'standards'.

[StarShine]

Death isn't the solution. Everytime one person dies another 1.5 people are born. :-p Yeah, let them die. But it's not really "doing something" about the situation. If you wanna go on a mass-murder spree go ahead. Just don't put me at the top of your hit list.

[Harry]

[QUOTE=FirePheonix727]

So, Harry.... you think we can continue to provide enough food for the whole world? The Earth isn't a continuous rescource, and when we use it up, we're very much screwed unless we find another planet by that time. You say when China and India solve their population problems... hm. Well, I can only think of two solutions to that... one would be to move a whole lot of them into other countries, wich is pretty much already happening, and the second, is to blow em all up, wich is, of course, inconcievable by human 'standards'.[/QUOTE]
You don't even know what you're talking about. Don't waste people's time with this nonsense you spew.

[Semjaza]

This isn't going to happen in my life time, if at all. Therefore, I don't care. I'll have my alotted two and a half children and die when my time comes.

I also believe something like 200 species of animals are killed on a very consistent basis thanks to rain forest destruction. It's either every day or every week, I can't remember anymore. In any case, things went exctinct due to other creatures long before humans came about as it is.

[Winter]

The fact of the matter is, we arent a threat to our earth. We cannot kill the planet. If we pose as bad enough a threat to the planet, we'll die long before we kill her.

Our planet isnt going to die; we'll go first. *smokes cig, and throws smoke carton out on the grass*

[Nikorasu]

Are we a threat to the planet and everything on it? Yes. We are populating quickly, and out cities keep expanding. Plus, we've created weapons that can kill everything on the planet other than roaches. We are a threat, but we can also help the planet a great deal. The problem is that we don't. As for people saying that they'll be dead before the planet dies, well, that's not really the best line of thinking now is it? There will still be some species alive, be it human or not. They deserve a planet to live on as much as we do.

[Mitch]

[size=1][color=red] Who cares is what I say. I don't care--don't care about the planet, don't care about overpopulation, don't care if we're destroying the planet, don't care if we've killed, maimed, destroyed, elimanated, eaten, beaten, bruised--I don't care. Animals will go extinct anyway. It is the natural way of nature. It giveth, and it taketh away.

Heaven is Mars.

And: "The Sun will continue to shine almost unchanged for several billion years. Meanwhile, the Earth will continue to pass through ice ages and warm periods as its orbit goes through a regular cycle of slight change.

"In about 5 billion years' time, energy from the Sun's huge core will make its outer layers expand. As our star swells and grows hotter, the water on Earth will start to boil away. Life forms will suffocate in the great heat.

"As the Sun turns into a red giant star, Earth will be scorched to a cinder, and its atmosphere will be stripped away. A few million years later the thin outer layers of the Sun will have consumed the Earth; Mars will probably escape.

"After the red giant stage, lasting about 100 million years, the Sun will run out of nuclear fuel. It will shrink and become a white dwarf star. From the surface of Mars it will be a dim pinpoint.

"[i]The Earth will no longer exist.[/i]"

Heaven is Mars.

And she's gonna die anyway. And the sun'll be just a little dwarf, like Pluto as she sits in the sky now.

What's the bets on us as a race surviving for about 5 billion more years?

I hope we go extinct like dinosaurs.

It is all wasted light.
Is all wasted light, even in the night.

It is all wasted light

Ray Bradbury is a pimp.[/size][/color]

[Godelsensei]

[COLOR=Gray][FONT=Courier New]FirePheonix, I hope it will come as a pleasant surprise to you that YES!, we do have the ability to feed the planet! : D You can stop fretting about that now. ^_~

Humans have all but mastered the art of agraculture over the past 20 000 years or so. Our main problem is that we're not 'spreading the wealth', so to speak. But I already said that (twice).

As far as "muderous tendencies" go, humans are not at the top of the list. All sorts of creatures go as far as to eat their babies.
Animals fight all the time, killing each other right, left and center. It's just that we do it on a bigger scale--that is, with weapons.

Pollution is our biggest issue. Like I said: people who litter just suck infinately. It's like they find some sort of smug, mallicious joy out of doing whatever they can to make our planet dirty. I think I may have to go make an addition to the Head a splode. thread...>_>
[/FONT][/COLOR]

[StarShine]

Mars? Well there's a thought...maybe we can all live on Mars in communes. Hopefully we'll bring enough water with us, seeing Mars is lacking it. That could be a problem.

[Muad'Dib]

Not to get off subject, but Mars actualy has quite a bit of frozen water, if I remember correctly... and when the sun does do all that, I'm guessing it wouldn't be so frozen anymore.

Alright, one more comment... yes, we have the [I]ability[/I] to "feed" the planet, but look at us... how many people are gonna do so? Oh, there are organizations, and groups dedicated to reviving Earth... good for them, but it's likely that more than half of the general populous either doesn't know, or doesn't care. So how do we get them to care? We can't.... no matter how many people start doing it, it's not gonna be enough if people don't start listening, wich is almost guarenteed that they wont.

Whoever said humans were a joke, was deffinately right... we're freaks.

[StarShine]

Again with the food thing...

There are starving children all over the planet right now, we're not doing anything about it. Therefore we're not obviously not going to do anything about it when half of the world is starving. We're just gonna pull a Soilent Green and start eating each other.

[DeathBug]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]So...what is this thread about? Pullution? Over-population? Morality? Either way, it's bloody morbid, and rather short sighted in my opinion.

Human beings don't have the capacity to destroy Earth. We simply can't do it, and it's pretty arrogant to think we can. Sure, we can screw with a few species (and, yes, to keep things in perspective, human beings have caused the extinction of an incredibly minute percentage of species from Earth's point of view), but the Earth was here before us, and will be here long after us. And critters will still be living on it.

Let me tell you a story about some little algae plants. These tiny single-celled plants began to spew a highly corrosive waste product into the atmosphere. As they multiplied, the ammount of waste being given off increased until the entire ecosystem had been altered to house it.

This deadly, highly corrosie waste product is known as oxygen.

Let's keep things in perspective: humans can kill ourselves, but all life? The Earth? Yeah, right. We're just a mild zit as far as she's concerned.[/color][/size][/font]

[Mist]

[color=orange][size=1] I would just like to state that I always appreciate people's opinions, but [i]honestly[/i], the 9/11 comment were really out of line. In regards towards humans being a virus, for all the wrong we've done, we have at least [b]attempted[/b] to right some of our wrongs, haven't we? Why do you think we plant a tree for every tree we cut down? Anyway, it's not really our fault why we're here. I won't go into my opinions on that subject though. ^_^[/color][/size]

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

[quote name='Mist][color=orange'] Why do you think we plant a tree for every tree we cut down?[/color][/quote]

Exactly. Thinking that is just silly. Of course we don't plant a tree for every tree we cut down, who are we kidding?

Anyway, back to what seems to be the topic of humanity being an ecological threat on a global scale. Well, I think that's definitely true if you consider wiping out countless species and devastating entire ecosystems as "threatening." Whether population control is the answer is something I'm not sure about. In fact, I'd say that's NOT the answer. People did plenty of horrible things to the planet a hundred years ago, and our population was a fraction of what it is today. Some help lies in creating, supporting, and enforcing perpetual energy generation (solar-powered wind turbines in skyscraper-high columns, for example), and somehow changing the way humans spread (changing it to "up" rather than "out," creating large super-colonies). Although that would be nigh impossible for agriculturally-based living...

I don't have nearly enough knowledge or anything to really offer any real suggestions. Forget I said anything.

As far as that "humans can't destroy the earth" concern, well we certainly have enough nuclear weapons to cover the earth several times over. That's not really disputed. I don't think that'll wipe out ALL life, but it will certainly wipe out the current ecosystems, and it'll be thousands of years or more before anything restores. That shouldn't be a possibility to consider, though.

[ninetails390]

[quote name='Mist][color=orange][size=1] I would just like to state that I always appreciate people's opinions, but [i]honestly[/i], the 9/11 comment were really out of line. In regards towards humans being a virus, for all the wrong we've done, we have at least [b]attempted[/b] to right some of our wrongs, haven't we? Why do you think we plant a tree for every tree we cut down? Anyway, it's not really our fault why we're here. I won't go into my opinions on that subject though. ^_^[/color'][/size][/quote]
Mist is right, we are doing our best to fix what we've done wrong; it's not our fault that our best sometimes isn't enough. We are human, we aren't perfect, no one and nothing is, of any species. Perfection is a position held only by the one who created us. We only need to try our best, and everything will work out in the end. Killing people is not the answer; how would you feel if you died because someone went out on a mass-murder spree too solve overpopulation? That changes the veiwpoint a little, doesn't it? Resourcefulness is one of the most valuable qualities anyone could have in today's collapsing world, more inportant than almost every quality other than compassion and faith. We just need to try our best; care for others and tell them how to try their best, too. Have faith in God, or whoever you happen to beleive in. Just have faith in your religion, whatever it is, it will give you hope. All of us are truly good inside, as Anne Frank said. It's just a question of whether we believe that we can be a sucsessful species, and I believe we can. ;)
Wow, I didn't know I was that philosophical. I must have got it from my dad; he's a pastor...

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1][color=darkred][url]http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=24546[/url]

Now, don't judge me on the quality of my typing there, but that is a lot of argument for you people to sink your teeth into. I don't know a whole ton about this of course..but neither, I wager, do you. I didn't reread the link I posted up, but here is what I think as of now.

Humans are wasteful and bad and all, but we are gradually improving. Killing our planet? Possibly. Probably even. Hopefully we can get out of the loop before we do though, and we certainly seem to be working on it now. The Earth can support us...if we manage it efficiently.

Urban Sprawl, Third World Countries, Pollution. All contribute a detrimental effect on our world. Overcome these problems and we should definitely be on the road out of danger.

-Josh[/size][/color]

[Mist]

[QUOTE=ScirosDarkblade]Exactly. Thinking that is just silly. Of course we don't plant a tree for every tree we cut down, who are we kidding?
[/QUOTE] [color=orange][size=1] Which coincides with my point. Humans are [b]not[/b] perfect, but at least we [i]attempt[/i] to remedy ecological situations instead of bypassing them all together.[/color][/size]

[r2vq]

Ninetails390, this kind of talk disgusts me. It disgusts me that more people dont think like that.

We already assured in this debate, the problem is not the [I]population[/I], but what the popularion is doing! In fact, our population could be considered a strong point!

We have over 6 billion people at our disposal. Do we have means to feed them? Ask the obese in North America. Do we have a place to house them? Take a look at Canadian wilderness. Do we really need them? Yes! If everybody took heart, if everybody [i]cared[/i], if nobody took more than needed, if nobody was [i]greedy[/i], we could make a world that [i]everybody[/i] would love, and [i]nobody[/i] would be able to turn away.

But most people don't care. Of course not. The world will may be destroyed by us humans, but I'll be dead by then. The human race might kill itself, but I wont be involved, it's past my time. Why should I care if the pollution will kill my great-great-great-great-grandchildren?

Why [i]should[/i] you care? Why should [i]I[/i] care so much if it's so far away? [b]It's not far away.[/b] What the human race is doing isn't affecting the Earth and its Ecozones in the future, it's affecting us NOW.

[b]A river caught fire.[/b] Not even by today's pollution, which is worse than anybody at the time could think of, but by the pollution created by a city 30 years ago. 30 years ago!! A river caught fire!! River, water, giver of life, and it got so polluted, so contaminated with our junk, it caught fire!

What humans are doing and the way they're acting is affecting us all. It's not his caused by over-population. And it's definately some other guy's problem but not yours. This is a problem that concerns ALL OF US. This is a problem that will kill YOU, and every single of your overpopulating crowd unless [b]everyone[/b] takes concern, and [b]everyone[/b] works. And the more people there are supporting, the easier it will be to get more people involved. Become involved, join the army. :whoops: The more people involved... Ah just care. If enough of you stop being narrow-minded and cynical, things can change, in our lifetime.

-ArV