Why Overpopulation is Not a Problem

Ever since the 1960s, the issue of overpopulation has been a hotly debated topic. Overpopulation, however, might not be as big of a problem as it seemed at the time.

Accelerating Future has written another blog post that deals with this issue. As the population of the US surpasses 300 million, many are worried that the US will not be able to hold many more people. This is one of the arguments being used against immigration. Never mind that China, which is of similar area to the US, holds 4 times as many people. But how uncrowded is the US? It is often said that all of the world's people could fit on a very small island. But then again, the issue of overpopulation is not about real population density, but rather whether there are enough resources to go around. Is there enough farming space to feed the world? Here's what Michael Anissimov had to say:

So it turns out that if 5% of the United States were converted into urban area with a population density of 6,000/km², and 45% were converted into suburban area with a population density of 2,000/km², with the remaining 50% left for rural area, parks, and farms, there would be enough room for 3 billion in the urban areas, and 9 billion in the suburban areas, for a total population of 12 billion. This is in the US alone. This scheme could be extended to the other countries and continents for a total population of around 100 billion. Everything between the Arctic and Antarctic circles are potential targets for colonization. This is about 130,000,000 km² of land area (the circumpolar regions have about 20,000,000 km² of land).

12 billion people in the US? That's a lot of people. To do this, the five major obstables to this are

• colonizing the deserts
• colonizing the highlands
• providing energy
• providing food
• disposal of waste

In the blog entry, he sets forth many solutions to these problems, so be sure to read it. During the 1970s, it was believed that the Earth had a carrying capacity of about 10 billion people. With the advances in science and technology at this time, we now know that the number could be much, much higher.

Accelerating Future: Better Ways to Get To Space

The blog Accelerating Future has an entry on the various methods that are being studied to provide routine travel from the Earth's surface to orbit. Among the topics include rocket planes, space elevators, space ports, orbital airships, and more.

Life , Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness, Equality, and Fraternity

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." -- Thomas Paine in Common Sense, 1776

Many people wonder why we are interested in the settlement of space and the oceans. To many, it is a very odd goal to focus on, especially when there are still problems on Earth that need to be solved (this objection will be addressed in a future blog entry). To most who are space and ocean enthusiasts, the answer is self-evident. All of us enthusiasts have our own vision of space/ocean settlement, and they seem to emanate from some inner desire (see Space Settlement: The Journey Inward). But for those of us who do not have this desire, this bears expanation. Of course, there is no one explanation. There are many reasons we can (and often do) use to justify it. In this blog entry, I will use the "City Upon a Shining Hill" argument.

In the book Mining The Sky John S. Lewis writes this:

Who will go into space [and the oceans]? It's not always easy to leave, especially for those with the greatest need to leave. The worst tyrannies want stability at any price...they violently oppose emigration because it fosters the notion that there is a way out; it raises hopes...Space [and the oceans] will at first be largely a haven for refugees. The refugee state is usually a melting pot. New Amsterdam in the late 1600s was an amalgam of Huguenots from France, Walloons from the Low Countries, English dissenters, Puritans, and Sephardic Jews from Iberia. ..they were all there because they were escapees from Roman Catholic or Anglican persecution. Their common desire was to have religious freedom...It was this search for freedom from religious, political, and ethnic persecution that will send the first [settlers] forth into space [and the oceans]. Thereafter, anyone who wants to go will be able to do so.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the Jews of Europe desperately sought to escape persecution and eventually mass slaughter. Citizens of the Soviet Union have routinely tried to defect to Western Europe or the United States. Today, the United States and Western Europe attract many of these immigrants from around the world. A lot them have experienced deplorable conditions. They have come from extreme poverty and persecution. But will the US and Europe always be good places to emigrate to? There is growing anti-immigrant and nativist sentiment in these regions. It is not hard to imagine a world in 2012 in which America and Europe shut their doors to immigrants desperately trying to escape genocide.

Things could very well come to a point in the currently developed nations in which people will want (or need) to leave. Perhaps, freedom in these areas of the world could wane. While many think that this can't happen, keep in mind that there is a rising demand for the persecution of Muslims in Europe and in the US. When Bush won the presidential election of 2004 (one that a lot of people believe was stolen), many liberals and leftists seriously contemplated (and few actually did resort to) moving to Canada. Even though the 1990s seemed like good times compared to today, there were many people who thought that the US government was moving in the wrong direction. Many libertarians certainly felt that way, and many do now. The majority of the people (citizens of all political stripes) in the US today are dissatisfied with the current direction of the nation.

When people are dissatisfied with the way things are going, they come up with new ideas. Protestant Christianity arose from centuries of corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. The US was born because of mis-government on the part of colonial and British leaders. The abolitionist movement was born because of the evils of slavery in an era of liberty. As misguided as the authoritarian communist movement was, the movement was born because of exploitative and abusive labor practices. Today, there are many people who have differing ideas on rebuilding society. There is always a better way that things can be done, it seems. As Lewis states:

Subversives, idealists, inventors, artists, scientists, and mystics alike...have a nasty way of asking questions such as, "Why do we have to do this? Why not that?"

There are many who believe that they still can perfect socialism. Some believe in laissez-faire capitalism. Many want to try a direct democracy. Still many others dream of building the first "open source civilization". In an era in which all land of currently under someone else's control, trying to build an experiment for your new idea can be very difficult, and often results in bloodshed. People with new and/or divergent ideas will be persecuted. Many people disagree with Margaret Thatcher when she stated that "There Is No Alternative" to the current social system. And there are a lot of people who are set to prove her wrong.

Americans commonly believe that the issue of secession was settled -- once and for all -- by the US Civil War. But today, the the demand for secession and the demand for moving elsewhere is greater than most people realize. On the Internet, you can find a lot of groups with the aims of secession. This Wikipedia entry has a partial listing of various secessionist movements, and also movements for the creation of new nations around the world. When the opportunity to seastead or settle space finally arrives, there will be many, many more people who will want to move, and also a lot more reasons. And many of these people will form new social experiments. They will want to push the limits of liberty, equality, community, spirituality, freedom, democracy, lifestyle, social organization, science, art, expression, thought, and humanity. Those social experiments that fail will be thrown to the dustbin (or the recycle bin) of history, while those that are successful will be copied, and will inspire even newer types of societies.