[Know It All]

[Mod: post deleted. See Rule 3.
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Prosthetic Conscience]

[Know It All]

[mod: deleted for rule 3 violation again. Also, do not make double (or triple) posts. See 'Double Posts' in Newbie Guide:
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[Know It All]

What is interesting is that starving men have no sex drive. Starving women don't ovulate. It appear that only children starve in Africa.

Right, I have to be careful because my last post was removed (must have been a liberal ). It's actually true what you say. A malnourished woman can not get pregnant, which indicates there is enough food for the adults. The daft thing is that those in the western world who can afford to have children would rather by a bigger TV and a new car. Those in the 3rd world refuse to take any advice about contraception, and the less well off in the western world can have as many kids as they want, because the state picks up the bill (in the UK anyway). So ultimately we end up with badly brought up children and foreigners for a workforce.

[Prosthetic Conscience]

Right, I have to be careful because my last post was removed (must have been a liberal ). It's actually true what you say. A malnourished woman can not get pregnant, which indicates there is enough food for the adults. The daft thing is that those in the western world who can afford to have children would rather by a bigger TV and a new car. Those in the 3rd world refuse to take any advice about contraception, and the less well off in the western world can have as many kids as they want, because the state picks up the bill (in the UK anyway). So ultimately we end up with badly brought up children and foreigners for a workforce.

The gross stereotypes that pervade your thinking are astounding. It's as if there is this one entity of 'Africa' that is all permanently 'starving', and at the same time all churning out endless babies, rather than being continent of over a billion people, and 3 times the size of Europe, whose conditions vary in both space and time, and whose attitudes to contraception vary as well. And then you chuck in the stereotypes about too many 'badly brought up children' in the British poor, for good measure.

Please, try to imagine that a billion people can actually behave differently from each other, and shouldn't be lumped together as one caricature. Recognise the humanity of Africans, and you might be able to understand them.

[Truth To Power]

We are rapidly approaching a limit to the amount of food we can squeeze from a hectare, and water is a continuing issue.

Research on greenhouse agriculture, which is usable on most of the world's land, shows that a labor-intensive model can feed 50 people/ha. There are 100ha/km^2, and about 200Mkm^2 of usable land. That doesn't even include the possibility of extending aquaculture over the world's oceans. So the earth can certainly provide food for a population in the trillions, with CURRENT TECHNOLOGY. That's over 100x the current population.

Dwindling arable land and unpredictable climate make predictions worthless, despite technology.

Greenhouse agriculture doesn't require, and is far more productive than, use of arable land.

At some point, food prices will start to rise, and after that national food hoarding becomes inevitable.

The labor cost of food will continue to decline over the long term.

[One Degree]

Research on greenhouse agriculture, which is usable on most of the world's land, shows that a labor-intensive model can feed 50 people/ha. There are 100ha/km^2, and about 200Mkm^2 of usable land. That doesn't even include the possibility of extending aquaculture over the world's oceans. So the earth can certainly provide food for a population in the trillions, with CURRENT TECHNOLOGY. That's over 100x the current population.

Greenhouse agriculture doesn't require, and is far more productive than, use of arable land.

The labor cost of food will continue to decline over the long term.

It would be nice to see a source for these claims. Also, where do you think the nutrients will come from for all these greenhouses? Math is one thing but finite resources are not dependent upon hypothetical math figures.

[quetzalcoatl]

Most of the currently uncultivated land is worthless without intensive application of fossil resources and water. Who will be paying for this miracle? Presumably the people consuming the food, which means a mass die-off is still inevitable.

Do you really want to live on a planet where are the rainforests, tundra, prairies, and old-growth forests have been stripped for agriculture? That, and a population of trillions, is a dystopian horror.

[Zagadka]

The other obvious thing to worry about is doing another Aral Sea or Salton Sea. Thinking we have the capability to do as we wish without carefully studying the consequences can be permanently terribly damaging (even if there is a short term gain. Similar to deforestation).

[AFAIK]

Even without population growth, urbanisation and industrialisation threaten some of the most fertile land available. Since settlements are often founded in areas with plentiful arable land, the expansion of those towns and cities requires farmland to be converted into housing, shopping, industrial and transport infrastructure. This land is usually much more fertile than the average because populations were historically focused on the best land.

This is a big problem in rapidly developing countries like India and China but also occurs in developed countries with aggressive real estate developers and new industries that are allowed to build office parks on fertile farms e.g silicon valley.

[Zagadka]

Yea, growing up in LA, I can remember by decade how area that used to be farms became housing developments and malls... and that is hardly new, where I grew up was an orchard not long before that. What used to be out of town rapidly became a new shopping center larger than small cities. Even worse, you get the effect demonstrated by "white flight" - but it isn't racial, just with little investment back into the older parts of the cities, things rot.

Jane Jacobs is going to be proven utterly correct in every statement in her life.

[Know It All]

The gross stereotypes that pervade your thinking are astounding. It's as if there is this one entity of 'Africa' that is all permanently 'starving', and at the same time all churning out endless babies, rather than being continent of over a billion people, and 3 times the size of Europe, whose conditions vary in both space and time, and whose attitudes to contraception vary as well. And then you chuck in the stereotypes about too many 'badly brought up children' in the British poor, for good measur

Please, try to imagine that a billion people can actually behave differently from each other, and shouldn't be lumped together as one caricature. Recognise the humanity of Africans, and you might be able to understand them.

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All countries have their traits, and generalizing is what human beings do. Most of Africa is pretty third world, and the only contraception supplied is from the local witch doctor. I also stick by what I said, poor parents are rarely good parents, and the vast majority of people in prison come from poor families. It may not be a very liberal or PC thing to say, but I don't do PC, I prefer to speak the truth.

[Pants-of-dog]

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All countries have their traits, and generalizing is what human beings do. Most of Africa is pretty third world, and the only contraception supplied is from the local witch doctor. I also stick by what I said, poor parents are rarely good parents, and the vast majority of people in prison come from poor families. It may not be a very liberal or PC thing to say, but I don't do PC, I prefer to speak the truth.

Making sweeping generalizations about a whole continent of people is not the truth.

[Suntzu]

Making sweeping generalizations about a whole continent of people is not the truth.

Not the whole continent, just the part below the Sahara.

[Pants-of-dog]

Not the whole continent, just the part below the Sahara.

Racist one liner that displays the ignorance of the speaker! Smiley!

[One Degree]

Racist one liner that displays the ignorance of the speaker! Smiley!

Don't you find it confusing to be racist against racist? I mean they are all white in your mind, correct?
And even if not in your mind, do you agree they are white in most people's minds that accuse others of racism?
Does not that seem racist?

[Pants-of-dog]

Don't you find it confusing to be racist against racist? I mean they are all white in your mind, correct?
And even if not in your mind, do you agree they are white in most people's minds that accuse others of racism?
Does not that seem racist?

This post makes no sense at all.

Try rewording it to make it clearer.

[Know It All]

Making sweeping generalizations about a whole continent of people is not the truth.

You sound just like my liberal son. If 9 out of 10 people from Botswana only ate cabbages, he would remind me that the remaining one eats other foods, and therefore Botswana isn't a cabbage eating nation.

[Pants-of-dog]

You sound just like my liberal son. If 9 out of 10 people from Botswana only ate cabbages, he would remind me that the remaining one eats other foods, and therefore Botswana isn't a cabbage eating nation.

And? That does not, in any way, make what you said any more intelligent or correct.

[Know It All]

And? That does not, in any way, make what you said any more intelligent or correct.

Sorry, I thought this was a debating site, and not a "who can be clever" site. My point is that people generalise by nature, and sweeping statements are the norm for most people.

[Decky]

Only idiots generalise, they are foolish people. On the other hand those who never generalise are always great.