The human species has topped 8 billion, with longer lifespans offsetting fewer births, but world population growth continues a long-term trend of slowing down, the US Census Bureau said Thursday.
The bureau estimates that the global population exceeded the threshold on 26 September, though the agency said to take this precise date with a grain of salt.
The United Nations estimated the number was passed 10 months earlier, having declared 22 November 2022, the “Day of 8 Billion”, the Census Bureau pointed out in a statement.
The discrepancy is due to countries counting people differently — or not at all. Many lack systems to record births and deaths. Some of the most populous countries, such as India and Nigeria, haven’t conducted censuses in over a decade, according to the bureau.
While world population growth remains brisk, growing from 6 billion to 8 billion since the turn of the millennium, the rate has slowed since doubling between 1960 and 2000.
I mean, resource depletion is a thing… I’m not sure anyone can academically honestly claim that there is enough fresh water dispersed around the globe to where it would prevent mass migration.
Right, but that’s not what people are claiming. Our ability to sustain this level of population is completely dependent on complex logistics systems, built around an economical model based on exponential growth.
We could probably sustain a population of 12 billion people with the complicated system of trade and shipping we have now, but that’s assuming the trade and logistical system will remain feasible in the future.
In reality the current global population is higher than what the globe could support without the use of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer derived from fossil fuels. If we ran out of fossils fuels, or if the trade of these fertilizers goes up in price due to our departure of utilizing fossil fuels… We’re likely to see famines on a scale not seen in hundreds of years.
First off we have plenty of other sources of fertilizer, and while there would be impact on how things are done now with synthetic fertilizer, if wouldn’t be the end of the world like you imply it would.
You’re like someone 200 years ago saying “if all the horses died we wouldn’t be able to travel”. It’s so shortsighted it’s funny.
And of course the entire world is just going to migrate and die of thirst, they definitely won’t desalinate and shove the brine in the environment. That doesn’t fit the overpopulation fearmongering.
We’d have all these problems at 4 billion people, it makes no difference
Not in any amount that could sustain the industrial levels of farming that is required to feed the global population.
If we were dependent on the natural nitrogen cycle we wouldn’t be able to sustain our current population without turning everything into one giant farm.
I just don’t think you know anything about the nitrogen cycle, or how instrumental the haber process is to food production.
Are the rich governments going to pay for the poor nations massive desalinization systems. What about land locked countries, or areas dependent on snow melt, or aquifer?
It’s a complicated problem.
Holy hell this is such a naive take that it makes my head spin. Phosphorus is an absolute essential for life on our planet and cannot be replaced or synthesized by something else. Currently it’s literally running off farm lands and into the deepest depths of our oceans.
This is just one of the many examples of resources that are being depleted and will need a comprehensive and horrendously expensive global effort to be addressed, all while the world population continues to grow and increase in demand.
We have plenty of phosphorus. For many hundreds of years from currently available supplies at current usage. It’s how we use it and waste it.
It’s much easier to deal with the science than the morals of who gets to live. Most countries will soon reach a good enough quality of life that populations will stop growing, but that won’t solve the problem.
Killing off half the human population and spending horrendous amounts of resources keeping people from reproducing is a laughable solution that is as lazy as can be and achieves nothing long term or short term.
I find this nothing to scoff at. At our current rate of consumption, estimates range from between 80-250 years [1] [2], unless we can find more phosphorus sources. In reality, our consumption is increasing and we are trending towards a shortage by 2040. Putting aside the resource shortage, we will need to double production to maintain our current simulated requirements by 2050 [3]. Increasing production in itself has significant climate and environmental pollution impacts.
All of this is to say, this is just one example of the complexity of the human footprint and sustaining ourselves as a species, in particular the challenges we will face as a consequence of overpopulation.
Nobody ever said we needed to “kill half the human population” or “keep people from reproducing.” Please be civil and don’t put words in my mouth.