Vocal Voices

Eat like a lapsed vegan.

Nuts - 50g a day
Beans, chickpeas, lentils and other legumes - 75g a day
Fish - 28g a day
Eggs - 13g a day (so one and a bit a week)
Meat - 14g a day of red meat and 29g a day of chicken
Carbs - whole grains like bread and rice 232g a day and 50g a day of starchy vegetables
Dairy - 250g - the equivalent of one glass of milk
Vegetables -(300g) and fruit (200g)

If we all chip in it could feed 10 billion of us without causing catastrophic damage due to climate change and other environmental pressures - according to experts.

Really?

And the extra three billion will be living where, and living in, and drinking what, and wearing what, and moving around by...? No damage there, eh?

I have a radical alternative: Let us not get anywhere near 10 billion, and maybe try to reduce us from the current seven(ish) billion.

Correction, what about the other2.33bn people…

Here's a dramatic thought for you. China is at 1.41bn and India is at 1.36bn. India will overtake China in the next 5 years at this rate. If we want to "save the world" we're going to have to define what the world is first because it is a very moving target right now.

You really could not make this stuff up.

It has beeen 'discovered' that the brine left over once fresh water has been extracted by a desalination plant is... toxic. There are 16,000 of these plants around the world producing drinking water for increasing populations where water is scarce.

This is another solution 'gone wrong' and is one of many. Yet still nobody wants to tackle the real problem... and probably never will until it's too late.

The main driver behind this is overpopulation. Not only in India and China but Africa as well. Some countries are producing way more people than they can educate or look after and if there's a famine then there's no chance of feeding them either, without outside help.
The obvious answer is to tell them that until they get their house in order they get no foreign aid or assistance. Won't happen though.

What frightens me about the diet report is not the diet itself, but the mood music.

The 39 authors, all scientists, have accepted that the global population will reach 10+ billion by 2050. There is no hint of doing anything about it.

They also assume that it will somehow magically stop, stabilise and then be sustainable!

Nothing is said about the things I mentioned in the my OP, they will just be solved.

Another thing puzzles me and that is what all these extra people will be doing? I even ask that of the present?

As for the population increase stopping and stabilising. It will, one day, but it will not be through the efforts of humanity. Nature will do it, and it will not give a stuff about the colour of our skin, nor our religion, nor the size of our bank balance. Nature will pick us off in our billions but we do not know the time scale.

The global population doubled in the 40 years from 1960 to 1999. Think of the disaster awaiting if it crashes at the same rate. Coincidentally the figure of about three billion for 1960 is the figure many environmentalists and conservationist believe is sustainable. It would be less if we live more organically.

I had a look at the woldometers site just to check my findings and also to understand what they are thinking.

As far as I can work it out, at the fastest "Doubling" rate of doubling of the population, the world was growing at 1bn per 15 years (1970's). Today it will take 200 years to "Double". Great isn't it.. Wonderful only 1% growth instead of 2%.

Except for one little problem. We are now adding a billion every 12-13 years. Some great slowdown.

Just because more people are producing less additions does not mean real growth has slowed down, or that the problem has gone away. This is where the calm acceptance of 10bn comes from. Because it is "better" you know.

This is just like the scientist who jubilantly claimed that in 5,000 years time the human race would have evolved longer thumbs because of texting. You and I both know that in 500 years time the human race will have biologically grown transmission devices which will be directly accessible from the brain. 4,500 years later, should we survive our idiocy, our bodies may have less appendages than we have today as we won't need them...

This is the problem with vertical scientific viewpoints...

Suff wrote: You and I both know that in 500 years time the human race will have biologically grown transmission devices which will be directly accessible from the brain.

I very much doubt if there will be any human life left on this planet by then.

Aggers I am inclined to agree... there maybe a rump of humans left, but they will not be living a 21st century lifestyle.

Taking this slightly off topic... Perhaps I was out by 450 years. This technology is already having simple results. At this rate they'll have something viable in 50 years and totally immersive in 100.