Longer lives
It's no surprise that the average lifespan of a human has been increasing in recent decades. That said, what are the main problems with increasing Earth's population?
Inequality
First off, it exaggerates inequality between poor and rich people.
Even though everyone is, on average, living longer, which is objectively good, richer people are seeing bigger benefits from more modern medicine and life-increasing tech. This can increase already existing tensions between groups with a large wealth gap.
Chronic diseases
Because more people reach elderhood, incurable and permanent diseases get a lot more prevalent in the population, like cancer and memory-related illnesses.
This means more money spent on treatments and social care, which, if spent on people who don't work anymore, can have a negative economic return, despite arguably being essential to give those who have worked in the past a worthy life (or end-of-life).
What about overpopulation?
Overpopulation was a concern when the Earth's population was increasing exponentially, in the 20th century (source), but in recent years, the growth rate has started to go down, leading to what we see in other animals' populations: A logistical curve, flat, huge spike, and then flat at a new equilibrium.
The Big Benefit
After exploring the main drawbacks of an increased lifespan, there is an obvious benefit that should be pointed out:
Longer, healthier lives mean more years in which we are able to work and contribute to society!
Conclusion
Well, it's obviously great that humans live longer! But everything is a tradeoff, and even the most amazing or despicable
action or person has an upside AND a downside, and you should always be aware of both!
Thanks for reading!
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I wasn't bored or anything last year but I made a spreadsheet of the world population and the higest rise in world population occurred in the 1960s at 2% per year world average. The the world population has been rising but the rate of change has been dropping. We are down to 1% per year. Should we extrapolate, this should get close to zero in fifty years and perhaps go negative for a time. We should get to a equilibrium somewhere under 20 billion if we trust the extrapolation.
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Interesting! When looking at Worldometers they also had the growth percentage graph! It's very interesting to visually look at how the growth is slowing down!
And for people who only now started looking at statistics because of COVID, then the world's population graph will feel very familiar!
Exponential growth, then exponential decline!
Also, 20billion!?, I think an updated projection puts as at 11 billion at most!
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I don't know how they project the population growth but I am not so confident in my number. It may be right that 11 billion is the equilibrium projected based on previous numbers but conditions are changing.
I do think climate change is real and climate change could make parts of Canada and Asia habitable and other parts more habitable than today. The added carbondioxide has been and I think will continue to make the Earth greener and food production more productive. This rise of photosynthesis might be so high that the carbondioxide. Plants grow best with much higher trace amounts of carbondioxide than we have today.
This could all go sideways though if enough people become infertile from the Covid shots. Also, climate change could go the other direction and force an ugly and sudden depopulation. Then there is diseases, war, a skynet and a grey goo scenario.
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You've got a free upvote from witness fuli.
Peace & Love!
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Good evening. I appreciate your article, and it is good to know that there is more possibility of a long life to contribute, which invites us to prevent and take care of our health. Thank you.
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Great article, but will people be able to contribute really if we are overpopulated?
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Hello friend, the truth is that those who can afford this series of treatments can take advantage of it all, but ordinary people do not have that economic possibility. I think it is not something accessible to the majority of the population but on the contrary.
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