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As the world's population grows, competition for food, water and energy will increase. Food prices will rise, more people will go hungry, and migrants will flee the worst-affected regions.
Originally posted by OhZone
It is a sorry thing that some of our best ag land is being paved over with housing developments.
TPTB are preparing to put meters on private wells.
Now, what does that tell you about the water supply?
I would like one of you populatin growth forever folks to tell us,
Why exactly should we who have what we need for our comfort and happiness should be forced to give up any of it,
just so more people can be born.
Originally posted by poedxsoldiervet
reply to post by On the level
I think we waste alot of land in the world... that could be used to produce food. And one of the main reason people do not use it I belive is because of control..
My simple solutions to feeding the world the WHOLE WORLD....
There are large amounts of arid land desert mind you. And some if not all of this desert is located near oceans. how hard would it be to open water facilites to suck in the salt water from the oceans, take out all the salt, and clean the water? From there you build massive "water pipelines" to these arid lands and pump that water into crops that we can plant there. Not only could we feed and water the enitre world but get people to back to work in Africa the Middle East and our very own deserts in the American Southwest. Granted there is a logistical aspect of this, but you mean to tell me we as a collective whole cannot turn salt water into real water? Some of the desert species like scorpions or snakes may be endager, but humans or snakes...hhmmm Humans when all the time.... Man If I had the money to do this I would and boy would I be the first trillionaire of the world.
Originally posted by chiron613
reply to post by poedxsoldiervet
It would be very difficult to extract the salt from the ocean water. The process requires an enormous amount of energy. In some desert areas it is possible to use the sun to heat the water and desalinate it, but the process is inefficient and doesn't yield the vast quantities of water you'd hope for.
Originally posted by open_eyeballs
OK but putting things into perspective...It has been postulated that all of the 6 + billion people on the planet could all own and occupy a quarter acre on just Australia alone...
Of course you have to take into consideration all the arid land, mountainous terrain and un inhabitable areas, but none the less... It is of my opinion the earth is no where near unsustainable levels of human population. Personally I think we could triple our population and still be ok...
As for land, a lot less is suitable for growing food than you might imagine. As an ex-farmboy myself, I can tell you it takes a lot more than scattering a few seeds hither and thither. As the world urbanizes, more and more good farmland gets asphaulted over, exacerbating the problem. There is a lot of land that can grow "a little" food, but much less than most people think that can actually grow big stocks of crops.