Ultimate space simulation software

 
User avatar
apoastron
Space Tourist
Space Tourist
Topic Author
Posts: 32
Joined: 31 Oct 2022 01:38
Location: City of Port Phillip, Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Global population hits 8 billion

15 Nov 2022 02:10

Well, we did it. We've managed to cram 8 billion people onto this tiny rock.
8 billion people.png
8 billion people.png (19.62 KiB) Viewed 2765 times
Tell me, Dr. Freeman, if you can. You have destroyed so much. What is it, exactly, that you have created? Can you name even one thing? I thought not.
 
centurion
Observer
Observer
Posts: 10
Joined: 05 Feb 2022 17:56
Location: Australia

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

15 Nov 2022 04:19

Probably start dropping soon.

The way some seem to be happy with the way we are going I doubt it will keep growing.
 
User avatar
apoastron
Space Tourist
Space Tourist
Topic Author
Posts: 32
Joined: 31 Oct 2022 01:38
Location: City of Port Phillip, Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

15 Nov 2022 14:46

some people say it wont exceed 11 billion unless we start building habitations on other planets
Tell me, Dr. Freeman, if you can. You have destroyed so much. What is it, exactly, that you have created? Can you name even one thing? I thought not.
 
A-L-E-X
Galaxy Architect
Galaxy Architect
Posts: 3498
Joined: 06 Mar 2017 20:19

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

03 Dec 2022 18:56

Probably start dropping soon.

The way some seem to be happy with the way we are going I doubt it will keep growing.
Yes it's good that the population will stabilize, we need that to preserve the environment.

Here is what's going on with the drop in fertility seen around the world:

Decreasing fertility rates may be linked to pollution caused by fossil fuel burning, a review of scientific studies has found.

Over the past 50 years childbirth has steadily decreased. The study focused on Denmark, but the trend is also seen in other industrialised nations. One in 10 Danish children are born with assisted reproduction and more than 20% of men never have children, according to the researchers. This decrease seems to have started at the beginning of industrialisation. Experts have warnedthe trend could lead to an unbalanced demographic with too few younger people to support the older generations.



This is poetic justice....finally these chemicals (including fossil fuels) are doing something good.

Nature always finds a way to protect itself.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... n-research

A cocktail of chemical pollutants measured in people’s bodies has been linked to falling semen quality by new research.

Chemicals such as bisphenols and dioxins are thought to interfere with hormones and damage sperm quality, and the study found combinations of these compounds are present at “astonishing” levels, up to 100 times those considered safe.

 
Bisphenol A (BPA) was responsible for the highest risks, the scientists said. The chemical is found in milk and tinned food as it leaches from the linings of the packaging. The key steps for healthy male sexual development occur during pregnancy, making the study results particularly relevant for expectant mothers, the researchers said.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... inds-study

 



 
 
User avatar
BernEsports
Observer
Observer
Posts: 11
Joined: 04 Dec 2022 10:32

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

04 Dec 2022 11:02

Little-little rock. rock with not many resources for that 8 billions, one of the reasons to colonize other planets. Hope it will be before 10 billions because of some stars in our generation, that makes it happen
 
centurion
Observer
Observer
Posts: 10
Joined: 05 Feb 2022 17:56
Location: Australia

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

07 Feb 2023 20:32

Ahhh its not that little, space makes it look liitle.
Earth is plenty big enough for us right now, we simply have to get some perspective and work on our existing technologies to do things better.
In fact things are alot better than they have been in the past.
Getting us all out of poverty and making energy cheaper seems like a good goal.
Then the more brain power we have to work on building better ideas can't be a bad thing.
 
A-L-E-X
Galaxy Architect
Galaxy Architect
Posts: 3498
Joined: 06 Mar 2017 20:19

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

08 Feb 2023 04:57

Ahhh its not that little, space makes it look liitle.
Earth is plenty big enough for us right now, we simply have to get some perspective and work on our existing technologies to do things better.
In fact things are alot better than they have been in the past.
Getting us all out of poverty and making energy cheaper seems like a good goal.
Then the more brain power we have to work on building better ideas can't be a bad thing.
We are in the middle of a mass extinction event so it is really good that the population will stabilize in this century, it needs to happen to keep enough room for biodiversity and the health and welfare of all creatures.
 
centurion
Observer
Observer
Posts: 10
Joined: 05 Feb 2022 17:56
Location: Australia

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

09 Feb 2023 16:33

Ahhh its not that little, space makes it look liitle.
Earth is plenty big enough for us right now, we simply have to get some perspective and work on our existing technologies to do things better.
In fact things are alot better than they have been in the past.
Getting us all out of poverty and making energy cheaper seems like a good goal.
Then the more brain power we have to work on building better ideas can't be a bad thing.
We are in the middle of a mass extinction event so it is really good that the population will stabilize in this century, it needs to happen to keep enough room for biodiversity and the health and welfare of all creatures.
I am not sure I agree with you.
Is it not true that more than 80 percent (Don't quote me) of all life that has ever existed is already gone.
I am not saying that I want biodiversity to die but I do not think we are in the middle of a mass extinction.

I don't think population is going to grow rapidly anymore anyway if you look at the demographics.
Remember we are still coming out of a fairly long ice age and life has done pretty well surviving that.

I am optimistic.
 
A-L-E-X
Galaxy Architect
Galaxy Architect
Posts: 3498
Joined: 06 Mar 2017 20:19

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

10 Feb 2023 18:44

Ahhh its not that little, space makes it look liitle.
Earth is plenty big enough for us right now, we simply have to get some perspective and work on our existing technologies to do things better.
In fact things are alot better than they have been in the past.
Getting us all out of poverty and making energy cheaper seems like a good goal.
Then the more brain power we have to work on building better ideas can't be a bad thing.
We are in the middle of a mass extinction event so it is really good that the population will stabilize in this century, it needs to happen to keep enough room for biodiversity and the health and welfare of all creatures.
I am not sure I agree with you.
Is it not true that more than 80 percent (Don't quote me) of all life that has ever existed is already gone.
I am not saying that I want biodiversity to die but I do not think we are in the middle of a mass extinction.

I don't think population is going to grow rapidly anymore anyway if you look at the demographics.
Remember we are still coming out of a fairly long ice age and life has done pretty well surviving that.

I am optimistic.
Yes population growth is flattening which is a good thing, a proper balance is needed.

This is information about the new mass extinction:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event

scroll down to this and if you want take a look at the research cited in the footnotes

Research completed after the seminal 1982 paper (Sepkoski and Raup) has concluded that a sixth mass extinction event is ongoing due to human activities:
[td][/td] [td]Research completed after the seminal 1982 paper (Sepkoski and Raup) has concluded that a sixth mass extinction event is ongoing due to human activities:     6.      Holocene extinction currently ongoing. Extinctions have occurred at over 1000 times the background extinction rate since 1900, and the rate is increasing.[26][27][a] The mass extinction is a result of human activity,[29][30][31][32] driven by population growth and overconsumption of the earth's natural resources.[b] The 2019 global biodiversity assessment by IPBES asserts that out of an estimated 8 million species, 1 million plant and animal species are currently threatened with extinction.[34][35][36][37] In late 2021, WWF Germany suggested that over a million species could go extinct within a decade in the "largest mass extinction event since the end of the dinosaur age."[38][/td]
 
User avatar
Watsisname
Science Officer
Science Officer
Posts: 2318
Joined: 06 Sep 2016 02:33
Location: Bellingham, WA

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

11 Feb 2023 02:14

I take bigger issue with calling it "the sixth mass extinction" than recognizing that the extinction rate is currently significantly greater than the "background extinction rate". The latter is a strong claim to make, especially given the biases in determining past extinction rate from the fossil record and comparing to currently derived rates (my own greatest source of skepticism toward this claim until more recently), but it has been repeatedly borne out by different researchers with different methods. From what I can tell, in the scientific community it is not that controversial anymore. A quick look on google scholar will reveal many recent articles investigating this question and coming to essentially the same conclusion about it being real. What's causing it is also not very controversial. It is a combination of land-use change and climate change, and it is affecting species differently depending on where they are and what their vulnerabilities vs. adaptive or migration potentials are. The harder questions are "how serious is it?", "how is it likely to evolve in the future as the world continues to warm", and "what actions should we take?". My guess is that minimizing land use change and warming are better options for a variety of reasons, more so than trying to preserve vulnerable species directly.

The problem with calling it the "sixth" mass extinction, though, is that the previous "big five" are not clearly defined. When they were first being studied it seemed logical to describe them this way, but now our understanding of species loss over geologic time is much better, and we realize that those five extinctions were not the largest nor the most statistically significant. Calling this one "the sixth" is a bit arbitrary or even confusing if one looks at the extinction record.

Image

One counterpoint I could find to the current claims of high extinction rate implying a crisis, is that there is less attention given to the rate of species birth (i.e., speciation). At least one author found evidence that the current speciation rate roughly matches the rate of extinction. Their conclusion is that the current problem is not so much the loss of species, but the diminishing of population sizes to a small fraction of what they once were. That sounds logical, I suppose, though I don't see it being verified and catching on.
 
A-L-E-X
Galaxy Architect
Galaxy Architect
Posts: 3498
Joined: 06 Mar 2017 20:19

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

11 Feb 2023 03:47

I take bigger issue with calling it "the sixth mass extinction" than recognizing that the extinction rate is currently significantly greater than the "background extinction rate". The latter is a strong claim to make, especially given the biases in determining past extinction rate from the fossil record and comparing to currently derived rates (my own greatest source of skepticism toward this claim until more recently), but it has been repeatedly borne out by different researchers with different methods. From what I can tell, in the scientific community it is not that controversial anymore. A quick look on google scholar will reveal many recent articles investigating this question and coming to essentially the same conclusion about it being real. What's causing it is also not very controversial. It is a combination of land-use change and climate change, and it is affecting species differently depending on where they are and what their vulnerabilities vs. adaptive or migration potentials are. The harder questions are "how serious is it?", "how is it likely to evolve in the future as the world continues to warm", and "what actions should we take?". My guess is that minimizing land use change and warming are better options for a variety of reasons, more so than trying to preserve vulnerable species directly.

The problem with calling it the "sixth" mass extinction, though, is that the previous "big five" are not clearly defined. When they were first being studied it seemed logical to describe them this way, but now our understanding of species loss over geologic time is much better, and we realize that those five extinctions were not the largest nor the most statistically significant. Calling this one "the sixth" is a bit arbitrary or even confusing if one looks at the extinction record.

Image

One counterpoint I could find to the current claims of high extinction rate implying a crisis, is that there is less attention given to the rate of species birth (i.e., speciation). At least one author found evidence that the current speciation rate roughly matches the rate of extinction. Their conclusion is that the current problem is not so much the loss of species, but the diminishing of population sizes to a small fraction of what they once were. That sounds logical, I suppose, though I don't see it being verified and catching on.
That's an interesting addition about the rate of species birth.  The thing with mass extinctions is, usually after they happen we see an explosion of biodiversity (I believe this occurred about 100,000 years after the K-T event.)  I'm glad you brought up population sizes and I'm sure that monotypal farming and relying on a small number of agricultural products has something to do with that.  There is also the effect of pesticides on the death rate of critical pollinators.  UN scientists came out with a report about how pesticides are overused and that there better ways to protect farmlands without using them and without driving pollinators towards extinction.  It seems like Bayer, Dow, et. al, and their consumers don't want to listen to that sustainable message and continue to overuse these dangerous pesticides like neocortinoids that have been strongly implicated in pollinator die offs.
 
jjliang
Astronaut
Astronaut
Posts: 41
Joined: 19 May 2021 07:51

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

11 Feb 2023 08:18

How many more mass extinctions do you think Earth will likely continue to experience before it finally becomes a microbial-only planet again and gets sterilized by a hotter and brighter Sun as it ages over the next 500 million years? Will any animals inevitably become extinct and be replaced with brand new species in the meantime? And will any animals ever evolve bipedalism, lose their fur, endurance, and/or the tendency to bonk rival species on head again? Is evolving a furless, bipedal animal that has endurance and/or the tendency to bonk rival species on the head more of a good thing or a bad thing for the survival of life on Earth?
 
centurion
Observer
Observer
Posts: 10
Joined: 05 Feb 2022 17:56
Location: Australia

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

14 Feb 2023 16:21

I think inevitably all things come to an end at some stage.
The dinosaurs did,  I hope maybe for the people or life of the future that their is some way to carry on but I don't like saying this because it makes people angry but I wont be here.
So for me it does not matter.
The time scales of the universe dwarf my little existence and whatever will be will be.
I think if the earth was facing a new heavy bombardment in the next decade I don't think there would be much we could do about it.
And these days I am more optimistic about the climate than I once was.
I used to think it was really bad, getting older and having some new learning experiences has changed my perspective.
I am glad for that.
Certainly would not mind cleaning up all the rubbish and the plastic we keep pooping out.
That's a problem.
 
User avatar
SavvdomD
Observer
Observer
Posts: 1
Joined: 20 Apr 2023 12:36

Re: Global population hits 8 billion

20 Apr 2023 12:39

I just hope it will not be similar to a situation like in computer game "They´re billions!", haha :D

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 2 guests