<story><title>Countries are gathering in an effort to stop a biodiversity collapse</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/14/climate/un-biodiversity-conference-climate-change.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rcMgD2BwE72F</author><text>&amp;gt;People keep saying we can feed 10 billion people. We can. But at what cost to the diversity of biological systems?
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&amp;gt;It’s not popular to say but we need to stabilize population growth and stop encroaching on natural habitats and put a brake on consumerism.&lt;p&gt;This is not popular because it assumes that everyone has an excessive footprint. I&amp;#x27;m vegetarian, I get most of my food from a local, organic farm. My footprint is minimal (no car, zero commute, no flight, etc). We could be billions more if we chose to live this way. Why ask&amp;#x2F;force people not to have a family where we could have happy family living responsibly? Asking others to die &amp;#x2F; not reproduce is a great way not to challenge our way of life.&lt;p&gt;For some reasons, all the people I know who campaign for population stabilization&amp;#x2F;reduction are among those with the worst footprint.</text></item><item><author>mc32</author><text>People keep saying we can feed 10 billion people.  We can. But at what cost to the diversity of biological systems?&lt;p&gt;It’s not popular to say but we need to stabilize population growth and stop encroaching on natural habitats and put a brake on consumerism.&lt;p&gt;The developed world has in many parts allowed previously used areas to revert to a natural state.  However in high pop growth countries the opposite is happening as both thd developed world and developing world both need as well as demand more resource extraction.  We&amp;#x27;re depleting ocean fisheries, contributing to soil erosion, having water shortages, etc.&lt;p&gt;Stabilize populations to 1960s or whatever, but we need to do the same as we’re doing for pollution set a benchmark and aim for it.  Get those people educated, provide them with prophylactics and get them out of a pop explosion curve and get to ZPG like Italy and Japan (US as well if we didn’t import pop growth).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>akudha</author><text>I too have no car, zero commute, maybe take one flight every other year etc. I still think we should stabilize human population. I don&amp;#x27;t know what is the maximum number of humans mother earth can support without completely fucking up the planet, but I don&amp;#x27;t want to find out. Do you?&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t have kids and don&amp;#x27;t plan to have. Nobody is forcing me not to have kids, in fact the opposite. I am the black sheep of my family and social circle, people look at me weird for not having kids (not that I care).&lt;p&gt;The problem with asking people to live responsibly is that it hasn&amp;#x27;t worked so far. Ever tried asking a meat eater to reduce a &lt;i&gt;tiny&lt;/i&gt; bit of their meat consumption? Another issue is that even if it worked, it will take a long time for people to change their habits. We should of course educate people about responsible living, but we should also remember that it is a long, hard process.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know what the solution is, but we are at a point that we should try &lt;i&gt;everything&lt;/i&gt; we can think of, including asking people to have less kids, live responsibly etc etc</text></comment>
<story><title>Countries are gathering in an effort to stop a biodiversity collapse</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/14/climate/un-biodiversity-conference-climate-change.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rcMgD2BwE72F</author><text>&amp;gt;People keep saying we can feed 10 billion people. We can. But at what cost to the diversity of biological systems?
&amp;gt;
&amp;gt;It’s not popular to say but we need to stabilize population growth and stop encroaching on natural habitats and put a brake on consumerism.&lt;p&gt;This is not popular because it assumes that everyone has an excessive footprint. I&amp;#x27;m vegetarian, I get most of my food from a local, organic farm. My footprint is minimal (no car, zero commute, no flight, etc). We could be billions more if we chose to live this way. Why ask&amp;#x2F;force people not to have a family where we could have happy family living responsibly? Asking others to die &amp;#x2F; not reproduce is a great way not to challenge our way of life.&lt;p&gt;For some reasons, all the people I know who campaign for population stabilization&amp;#x2F;reduction are among those with the worst footprint.</text></item><item><author>mc32</author><text>People keep saying we can feed 10 billion people.  We can. But at what cost to the diversity of biological systems?&lt;p&gt;It’s not popular to say but we need to stabilize population growth and stop encroaching on natural habitats and put a brake on consumerism.&lt;p&gt;The developed world has in many parts allowed previously used areas to revert to a natural state.  However in high pop growth countries the opposite is happening as both thd developed world and developing world both need as well as demand more resource extraction.  We&amp;#x27;re depleting ocean fisheries, contributing to soil erosion, having water shortages, etc.&lt;p&gt;Stabilize populations to 1960s or whatever, but we need to do the same as we’re doing for pollution set a benchmark and aim for it.  Get those people educated, provide them with prophylactics and get them out of a pop explosion curve and get to ZPG like Italy and Japan (US as well if we didn’t import pop growth).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chuckee</author><text>&amp;gt; Why ask&amp;#x2F;force people not to have a family where we could have happy family living responsibly?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sorry, but you &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; that people can still have families (up to 2.1 children&amp;#x2F;woman on average) while staying below the replacement reproduction rate (so resulting in population reduction). So why pretend that they&amp;#x27;re being asked to give up families entirely?</text></comment>