Census Bureau population estimates for 2050
http://news.yahoo.com/census-world-look-2050-084801254.html
That's a lot of food, a lot of water, a lot of living space, and a lot of energy that will be needed. There probably won't be much left of the natural world. I'm glad I probably won't be here to see it.
floor effects mean that the tools you are using to measure don't go low enough
so, if you are measuring reaction times to something, and you think they will be at least 500ms, but they are actually 300ms, you will get a floor effect, because the measure you are using isn't sensitive enough to fast RTs.
in this case, it really only mean, "gee, how can I want to go to Ethiopia any less?"
Originally posted by King Kandy
Unless serious changes to the conditions occur, I can't see Africa experiencing the kind of population growth they're talking about. I'm curious how they got that prediction.
Most likely numbers are based on assuming that the rate of change in the rate of growth will remain steady.
Originally posted by King Kandy
It doesn't seem like a very sustainable rate of growth given the widespread starvation that already exists...
Ah, but here's the horrific part, the rate of starvation isn't necessarily going to change all that much as the population increases. Africa might really suck to live in relative to the West but its economies are growing, which will allow more people to just barely scrape by.
The assumptions that the UN makes for their three estimates are on page 7 of this: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf
Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Ah, but here's the horrific part, the rate of starvation isn't necessarily going to change all that much as the population increases. Africa might really suck to live in relative to the West but its economies are growing, which will allow more people to just barely scrape by.The assumptions that the UN makes for their three estimates are on page 7 of this: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf
my understanding is that the growth also doesn't apply equally to all parts of society. So while major cities might be growing and getting foreign investment, not so much in the poorer and more hard done by areas... this might not be as related to population though...
overpopularion is certainly harmful to the natural world and presents a danger to its future and to the future of human populations, but opverconsumption is a much, much bigger menace. tripling the size of the african population is would still have a much smaller impact than a 25% increasing in the US population