Some interesting stuff on here. Like number of people ever to have lived. Like the vast number that are alive now compared to how many were alive when you were born.
When I was born I was 2,657,525,798th alive
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515
I remember a thread on the forum a few years back when the concept of 8 billion or even 9 billion was said to be unlikely in only a few years time. I am glad I will be gone by then. The pressure on food and water will be immense.
I have to disagree as 60% of the planet is covered in water, we just need to improve our water infrastructure to capture more rainwater and use it more efficiently. A Cambridge research institute has just produced a new strain of wheat which is more disease resistant than current varieties and produces 30% more grain per acre. They will have the seed commercially available by 2019. There are still many big productivity gains to made in many important agricultural areas of the world, including South America, Asia and Eastern Europe. The Russian and Ukrainian black-earth Steppes are one of the major breadbaskets of the world and if they had the same yields per acre as Western Europe and North America, they would produce between 1.5 and 2.5 times more grain. Market gardening particularly has very low productivity for the land area in most parts of the world outside of Western Europe and North America.
Until the industrial revolution populations were fairly static, due to starvation, tribal wars and disease. Since then we have relied on technology in all aspects of our lives to keep ahead of our needs. We have yet to run out of ANY resource. Thorium power stations and ever improving battery technology, will provide all the power we need for the next 1-2000 years. As long as the most important people on earth keep researching, designing and improving, technology, yes our R&D engineers and scientists to keep humanity ahead of the game, then I think the future is bright.
We are rapidly doing much more for less in terms of energy and materials required with ever improving technology and long may it continue. Personally I'm optimistic if the engineers and scientists are allowed to continue. The biggest danger is uneducated people and their superstitions, politicians and certain religions where I don't think we have yet got anywhere near to reaching humanities golden age.
In all Western countries we have major problems where our birth rates are below the 2.1 children per couple for replacement let alone any population growth. The UK birth rate is currently 1.6 and the lowest in Europe is Italy with 1.2. This is what is fueling migration along with our Ponzi scheme pensions.
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Topic: On the subject of births and deaths , what number person on earth are you? (Read 3488 times)