Humans are Plague on Earth - Attenborough

[Sparkle]

Humans are a plague on the Earth that need to be controlled by limiting population growth, according to Sir David Attenborough.

The television presenter said that humans are threatening their own existence and that of other species by using up the world’s resources.
He said the only way to save the planet from famine and species extinction is to limit human population growth.
“We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now,” he told the Radio Times.

Link

I have to say I agree with him 100%. For most of my adult life I've believed that we need to curb our population otherwise nature will do it for us. Its just a shame that we're likely to destroy much of the planet/environment before we eventually learn, if we ever learn. Its all so very tragic.

[Fawkes]

The Earth is a self correcting system. The Earth will go on and so will life, but if we don't change then it will be the end for us.


EDIT:
Hans Rosling: Global population growth, box by box

[Osem]

I don't worry about any of this stuff, Jeremy Clarkson has all the answers and he'll see us through.

Well you can't argue with that really.....

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Agent Smith: Humans are a virus

We'll end up making the planet un-inhabitable for our species before we learn. There are already three times as many humans as the planet can sustainably support. Then when we're gone some other creature can have a go at being top dog or as many have speculated: Top cockroach.

Cats. Cats will take over the world.

[Russ]

Obviously my views lean towards the spiritual but even on those terms as well as evolutionary, we are vastly over-inflating our own importance on the planet. We are only the (self-imposed) dominant species because God/nature/whatever-you-believe-in allows us to be.

A good example is the weather. We may think we're awesome enough to get a Short Circuit-type robot on another planet but all it takes is for nature to slightly alter the Gulf Stream to give us the chaos that the rain caused last year.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Damien

Cats. Cats will take over the world.

Cats with opposable thumbs.

[Gary L]

What we need is some form of human culling.
it's just deciding who to start with.

Originally Posted by Sparkle

Link

I have to say I agree with him 100%. For most of my adult life I've believed that we need to curb our population otherwise nature will do it for us. Its just a shame that we're likely to destroy much of the planet/environment before we eventually learn, if we ever learn. Its all so very tragic.

If you believe you are a plague, feel free to stamp yourself out.

I subscribe to the Christian belief that the human race was put on Earth to tend and keep it, and it is our failure to be faithful to that command that causes problems for our planet, not the mere fact of our existence.

Originally Posted by Russ

Obviously my views lean towards the spiritual but even on those terms as well as evolutionary, we are vastly over-inflating our own importance on the planet. We are only the (self-imposed) dominant species because God/nature/whatever-you-believe-in allows us to be.

A good example is the weather. We may think we're awesome enough to get a Short Circuit-type robot on another planet but all it takes is for nature to slightly alter the Gulf Stream to give us the chaos that the rain caused last year.

Our brains!

But yes controlling the climate is a step too far for us at the moment. Ultimately even if we manage in reign in the earth and manage nature we'll still face the prospect of the sun burning out.

We need to colonise other planets!!

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Gary L

What we need is some form of human culling.
it's just deciding who to start with.

And l gather you are going to put yourself forward as the first volunteer.

[Julian]

Originally Posted by Gary L

What we need is some form of human culling.
it's just deciding who to start with.

Anyone who isn't meek?

[RB2004]

No culling required, just need to start venturing into the solar system, that's why we have projects to mars.. So eventually we can colonise mars and the moon.

Just needs doing sooner rather than later... Lots of species are threatened and nobody learns, whales, tigers etc

Originally Posted by Damien

Our brains!

But yes controlling the climate is a step too far for us at the moment. Ultimately even if we manage in reign in the earth and manage nature we'll still face the prospect of the sun burning out.

We need to colonise other planets!!

We don't need to go even that far. There's still vast capacity here on Earth. I'm surprised to hear Attenborough blaming overpopulation in Ethiopia for famine, for example. That's thinly-disguised 19th-century Malthusian nonsense. Ethiopia's population density is considerably lower than, say, the UK or France. What it lacks is not breathing space, but the technology and infrastructure to sustain itself. Time and time again, wherever in the modern world a society has become developed, it has overturned Malthus' prediction that population would outstrip agricultural production, resulting in famine and death.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Chris

I subscribe to the Christian belief that the human race was put on Earth to tend and keep it, and it is our failure to be faithful to that command that causes problems for our planet, not the mere fact of our existence.

We were killing right from the very start. God, we even killed Jesus of all men.

---------- Post added at 10:05 ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

And l gather you are going to put yourself forward as the first volunteer.

I was going to give you £50 to get the ball rolling

---------- Post added at 10:10 ---------- Previous post was at 10:05 ----------

Originally Posted by Julian

Anyone who isn't meek?

I think we should give them a break. they've already got the British government on their backs.