From: Damien R. Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Fri Mar 15 2002 - 13:36:56 MST
On Mon, Mar 11, 2002 at 11:09:03PM -0500, Vanessa Novaeris wrote:
> population "problems." So then I started to think about what specific things
> made me think there was a population problem to begin with - traffic,
> housing, faulty civil engineering, old infrastructure, short sighted city
> planning, and large-scale private & corporate developments that do not
> consider (or care to consider) the overall congruity of the of their
> structures with the surrounding areas. But the most basic thing (which
> totally eluded me) is that many people actually choose to live & gather in
> densely populated areas.
This post, and the replies, seem to all share the assumption that people
concerned about overpopulation are concerned with spatial overcrowding.
From that angle overpopulation is a straw man.
But the environmental concerns I read about aren't about overcrowding,
they're about excessive demand on resources. Fresh water, fertile
agricultural soil, greenhouse emissions, energy. Concerns that humanity
is already intercepting 40% of the primary productivity of the Earth,
for example, or whatever the exact number is. These may be addressable
concerns, but not by simply pointing to the open spaces of Alaska.
-xx- Damien X-)
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