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  1. #1
    Merely a Setback Trassk's Avatar
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    Humans are a plague: David Attenborough

    world renowned wildlife expert and naturalist has recently spoken out, after doing a series based in Africa, of the vast overpopulation of humans across the world. Speaking directly about the overpopulation within countries like Africa or Asia, Attenborough spoke frank about his feeling that humans are one of the greatest threats to the world today.

    http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/22/sir-da...earth-3361381/

    Attenborough is known for expressing his feeling towards the growth of humans world wide and the effects on other animal species it has on them. To him, humans are animals in the same catagory as anything else he studies, and such matters as what the population of mankind requires, resources, food and space it takes up as it grows.

    Sir David is part of a group that promotes means to stop humans from overpopulating, especially in areas where is does little for the enviroment and the people living there themselves. I think it was said if it was any other species of animal or insect, if a species grew to large, mankind would cull those animals or insects to reduce the population and help balance other species out. Yet its humans themselves who overpopulate, and such a thought as culling humans would be considered genocide or an atrocity.

    I am finding myself in agreeance with sir David, in no way believing mass killing of people would be the answer, but finding a way to stop people overpopulating the planet. Its easy to turn a blind eye to such a thing and think its all just some dorks saying stuff that doesn't effect you, and yet from this same report, people talked about how in some countries it is so overpopulated by people, they are forced to emigrate to other countries.
    And, with the world facing this current economic decline, in having more people come into it each generation (they expect humans to double in population by the year 2050), its not going to get better.

    Anyway, its an interesting thought. We know for a fact the reason other species die out is because one species grows to large in numbers, and people are as much animals any anything else.
    #boycottchina

  2. #2
    I'm in total agreement with him, and it's a large part of why I'm against allowing immigrants to come from places with overpopulation issues, and why I'm against helping those areas unless the aid also demands that population control is both implemented and effective.

    'Civilized' parts of the world naturally see a decline in population growth (even population declines), but since people from less civilized areas keep flocking to the places with population declines, the growth problem won't naturally resolve itself.

    Alarmists warning us about the dangers of population growth have historically been proven wrong, but that can only keep happening for so long. It doesn't really matter if the ceiling is ten times our current population, with continued exponential growth we're gonna run out of space and resources no matter what; continued growth becomes physically impossible at some point (we're not going into space any time soon, and even if we did, with exponential growth that'd barely give us any breathing room at all).

    I'm not a misanthrope like some people, but it's hard to deny that the more people there are on the planet competing for resources, the shittier it's gonna be for everyone involved.
    "Quack, quack, Mr. Bond."

  3. #3
    hes right, he said it in his first civilisations documentary, if we were to all dissapear tomorrow, the world would go on just fine without us, and probably thrive.

    most if not all species relys on their habitat to survive, we create our own while destroying others. if we were taken out of the ecosystem, everything would go on just fine.

    over population is one of the reasons why the early civilisations failed, they had it good at first but its not that nature fails to support man its that man fails to support nature.
    Last edited by Heathy; 2013-01-22 at 01:35 PM.

  4. #4
    Titan Kalyyn's Avatar
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    Earth without humans would be pointless. No other species has made a contribution to science or technology since we wiped out the neanderthals. Granted, I may have just hurt my own argument there...

  5. #5
    Watched one of his show during the xmas period...covering the 60 years of his TV career, the human population has practicaly doubled in his lifetime, he has seen species become extinct in the short period he has been filming.
    Cant say i disagree with the assesment given his view

  6. #6
    Deleted
    Well if you imagine the Earth as a much smaller with millions of tiny organisms living on it. One day a different kind of organism is introduced, this one spreads drastically and infects surrounding areas, ignoring the naturally occurring balance that was achieved by evolution over billions of years. We'd call that organism a virus, on a larger scale like Earth, I think plague is a fitting description.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-22 at 01:43 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Kalyyn View Post
    Earth without humans would be pointless. No other species has made a contribution to science or technology since we wiped out the neanderthals. Granted, I may have just hurt my own argument there...
    The problem with that is that we're the only ones who care about technology and science. Nothing else in the history of existence has acknowledged it.

  7. #7
    Sir David Attenborough is one of my personal heroes.

    I own Planet Earth and Frozen Planet on BlueRay and never get tired of listening to his amazing insight on both Nature and the future of Humanity.

    If you are interested on what else he has to say about the problem of human overpopulation, watch this awesome hour-long documentary of his:

    BBC Horizon - How Many People Can Live On Planet Earth
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa3ZD...O35zgw&index=3

    (Yes, it might be a bit overdramatic, but it's only in an attempt to strengthen the point.)
    My Gaming Setup | WoW Paladin (retired)

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  8. #8
    Deleted
    Didn't the Matrix make this point about us being a virus.

    I agreed with it then and do think we need to stop overpopulating. The issue at hand is how to do it; would any of you want your friends/family not be allowed to pro-create.

    Humans cannot stop one another from pro-creating which is extremely frustrating as there are one or two sections (not race or colour or creed or religion) of the population I would love to sterilise

  9. #9
    I think it's plain that anyone who believes himself to be part of the plague should commit suicide. Why wouldn't they?

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    I think it's plain that anyone who believes himself to be part of the plague should commit suicide. Why wouldn't they?
    Oh we are a plague in a sense. We shape our host to what we want, and bend it to our will. I think it's just time for this plague to spread.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Kalyyn View Post
    Earth without humans would be pointless. No other species has made a contribution to science or technology since we wiped out the neanderthals. Granted, I may have just hurt my own argument there...
    Quite a few species have created ways of using our technology though. For example, some apes have learned how to remove the bait from a trap, and then set the trap off without getting caught.

    And you are right, we drove the only real "competitor" into extinction a bit more than 10000 years ago.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Kalyyn View Post
    Earth without humans would be pointless. No other species has made a contribution to science or technology since we wiped out the neanderthals. Granted, I may have just hurt my own argument there...
    Not exactly like we are using that technology all that wisely. We have a internet and computer based world yet everyday at my office alone we blow through paper. We mourn the loss of local newspapers who refused to go digital, but were causing mass destruction of our rain forest.

    China is sitting on enough solar power stock to power 1/3 of the world yet they build a new coal plant every other day.
    I am just enjoying the ride down. We deserve to all burn.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Thrive View Post
    Oh we are a plague in a sense. We shape our host to what we want, and bend it to our will. I think it's just time for this plague to spread.
    Which sense?

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plague

    1
    a : a disastrous evil or affliction : calamity
    b : a destructively numerous influx <a plague of locusts>
    2
    a : an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality : pestilence
    b : a virulent contagious febrile disease that is caused by a bacterium (Yersinia pestis) and that occurs in bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic forms —called also black death
    3
    a : a cause of irritation : nuisance
    b : a sudden unwelcome outbreak <a plague of burglaries>

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    In the sense that we ruin worlds, or at least change them excessively to a way that only helps us. Not that its the wrong thing to do, but denying our impact on the world is silly.
    Edit: Well only our world

  15. #15
    Human overpopulation? We don't have a population issue, we have, will have a resource issue though..

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    I think it's plain that anyone who believes himself to be part of the plague should commit suicide. Why wouldn't they?
    Well, that escalated quickly.

    Watch the video I linked, it lists a few ways to help slow down overpopulation without having to commit suicide.
    My Gaming Setup | WoW Paladin (retired)

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  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Howard Moon View Post
    Well, that escalated quickly.

    Watch the video I linked, it lists a few ways to help slow down overpopulation without having to commit suicide.
    Well sure, we can help slow overpopulation without suicide, but if someone is really committed to their cause, they'll just off themselves rather than having a couple kids of their own (as Attenborough did).

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Howard Moon View Post
    Well, that escalated quickly.

    Watch the video I linked, it lists a few ways to help slow down overpopulation without having to commit suicide.
    We don't have an over population issue. As population grows we run out of resources, but that is a resource issue not a population one.

  19. #19
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    I think it's plain that anyone who believes himself to be part of the plague should commit suicide. Why wouldn't they?
    Not all humans are a plague, it's just our pattern as a collective organism.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-22 at 02:04 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Themius View Post
    We don't have an over population issue. As population grows we run out of resources, but that is a resource issue not a population one.
    Depending on your perspective it is either of the two, you can't sit there and say exclusively that we don't have a population issue to those who believe population control is the solution. In the same way I believe you make the assumption that funding ways to increase our resource generation is the answer so it's a resource problem to you.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Felfury View Post
    Not all humans are a plague, it's just our pattern as a collective organism.
    Why contribute to it though? If someone really believes that, why would they have two kids?

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