Population growth&food

1... Big fish eat little fish? 

      Yes.

       Do big fish survive only?

       Not really. 

       Huge, fierce, strong animals also become extinct.   (Dino vs Man)

2....The man, and the Apes might be similar in some ways. But no one chimpanzee can cultivate the erath, grow food, learn to write and speak, think about their future or past. But of course they eat , drink, mate, rear their babies. A dragonfly is not a bee, a lioness is not a bulldog, and I am not a chimp.  ( I would not like to be :)

3... Gentlemen, thanks to the wisdom of  the Man, ( though wisdom, alone cannot solve all our problems) scientists have found ways to grow huge cauliflowers, eggplants, pumkins :) etc. Do not worry about famine... if we just think of the food and drink we waste, we can see how rich the nature is. Most animals prey on others only when they are hungry. See..lions, snakes etc

I bet we could feed half of Afrcia even with the food that is wasted in a buch of certain countries...

 

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this should not mean that we must not use modern ways of cutivating the earth....i do know about hormones .... but there are lots of  fertile land that is not used in many countries, but being used as residential areas. So , it is us who makes the earth insufficient.

Juan Enriquez: Why can't we grow new energy?

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/juan_enriquez_wants_to_grow_energy.html

There are  of course fertile land that is not used in all parts of the world even in Chile.I think that the satellite photoes must be upgraded because they do not show agricultural policies of the countries.the farmers in Turkey(uses very high technologies in agriculture ) must consider the policies of the government(which brings usually bed results) and must calculate the amount of crops that they decided to cultivate.I have seen tons of food which were destroyed in order to increase the prices.

Edited by Murat - 02-Aug-2008 at 22:16

Here you see, and you say the potential of the earth to be sufficent ,for human  being now and forever.The earth can produce twice more for the people of the current time.May be We can talk about whether or not we could do something to change the sharing or delivery policy of food and it`s management to reach a more benficial point.  

Hmmm...
Interesting topic. So the earth can feed us indefinitely?

No. Not really. Or, rather, it cannot feed the current population plus more and more people indefinitely.

Our massive population requires several things:

1. Fresh Water, which we ARE running out of--admittedly, nothing can be destroyed, only transformed, but fresh water is rapidly being turned into forms we can't use. Ice caps getting mixed with salt water, contamination, evaporation, etc.

2. Food. We can semi-support our current population because of fertilizers, pesticides, and infrastructure that are ALL dependent on a constant supply of cheap fossil fuels. you can argue about how many the earth can support, total, but you cannot logically argue that we will ALWAYS have a constant supply of cheap fossil fuels. Nor can you argue that alternative energies enable us to maintain exactly the same lifestyle and infrastructure. Many renewable energies require vast amounts of fossil fuels--the currently available energy--to set up, and sometimes to maintain. In addition to THAT, you have to realize that the methods we have been using to farm have lowered the nutrient content of the soil vastly--meaning that, once we are unable to use the gigantic amounts of fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals, whatever the "natural" population limit of the earth is (absent any chemical additives) that number will have lowered drastically, until we raise the nutrient content again over decades, possibly centuries with nitrogen fixers and build up the humus again (IF we ever do that)--the humus being the layer of nutrient-rich organic matter that makes for the largest part of the minerals/vitamins absorbed by any plants, and by extension, any animals. Th assumption that the earth is magically going to support everyone is as absurd as the assumption that humanity is obviously going to go completely extinct--both MAY by some slim chance be correct, but are unlikely at best and delusional at worst.

Life changes, slowly, over time, and sometimes DRASTICALLY, and quickly. We run out of fossil fuels means we run out of pesticides/fertilizers means we run very low on food at the same time as we run low on good fresh water means we experience drastic change means our population lowers means eventually earth's resources are able to support our numbers at that time means we experience population growth means, EVENTUALLY, that we go through similar crisis points and rebounds.

It's pretty much the standard existence of any species. Growth, crisis, growth, crisis, growth, crisis, growth, and so on ad infinitum.


(may have gotten my terminology wrong..I THINK it's called the humus, but it's been a while since I had to reference that soil layer in a sentence)

 

Edited by Murat - 03-Aug-2008 at 20:59

Edited by Murat - 05-Aug-2008 at 00:22

I agree with your last statements. 

Edited by Murat - 05-Aug-2008 at 04:07

Human being is both a functional unit in this system and possess the right to manage and orientate it as well.It is rather complicated that some individuals (or specific groups)  could not realize the principles of whole mechanism then the system works improperly.First of all a person must be respectful to him/herself.