Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT: 2377-2381 (4-8 February, 2013) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Valdís:
--- Quote from: Westrim on 06 Feb 2013, 00:22 ---But to directly address your beliefs, overpopulation is hardly debunked, there are just lots of variables /.../ Overpopulation is a matter of how many resources each person uses, not how many people there are, ultimately.
--- End quote ---
Variables which show.. that it was completely wrong. The predictions back then were wrong in almost every regard and efficiency+production more than outpace the population growth on a consistent basis. It simply isn't the world-ending problem people like to pretend it is. Plenty of the 'limited resources' we use today didn't even exist back then (and the ones he predicted catastrophe for actually got better), just as we'll move on to better alternatives in the future.
--- Quote from: Westrim on 06 Feb 2013, 01:07 ---It absolutely is your fault when you extrapolate from a nation of 9 1/2 million to a world of 7 billion, which had about 110 less Swedens 12 years ago.
--- End quote ---
So your point is "Ban Valdís from having kids to worry less about the undeveloped world having too many"? Why should I "Extrapolate" at all to places which have nothing in common? Especially when all such extrapolations are inevitably wrong and always have been in the past.
westrim:
--- Quote from: Valdís on 06 Feb 2013, 01:11 ---So your point is "Ban Valdís from having kids to worry less about the undeveloped world having too many"? Why should I "Extrapolate" at all to places which have nothing in common? Especially when all such extrapolations are inevitably wrong and always have been in the past.
--- End quote ---
..I'm sorry, at what point did I say "you shouldn't have kids?" I only rebutted your views on world overpopulation and their apparent connection your own nation's lack of that issue (since you kept saying "it's not happening, and my country has the opposite issue").
And you're as wrong as someone can be from a hindsight perspective. We managed to avert the worst case scenarios, but that in no way means they weren't possibilities, it just means we actually managed to work to avoid them, be it by tens of billions funneled into the green revolution or tens of thousands of volunteers doing family planning. Right now we're shooting for the lower end of the UN projections from the late 90s, but a lot of work went into making that happen.
I want to say a lot more, but I really should cut it short for sleep and not clogging up the thread with non-comic discussion reasons.
Valdís:
--- Quote from: Westrim on 06 Feb 2013, 01:37 ---..I'm sorry, at what point did I say "you shouldn't have kids?" I only rebutted your views on world overpopulation and their apparent basis in your own nation's lack of that issue.
--- End quote ---
The thing I was responding to originally specifically singled out people who need technology to do so, as if they have less of a right to it than others. I also based nothing in my own nation, I specifically said that "This is wrong, and even if it was right it isn't an issue for us.".
--- Quote from: Westrim on 06 Feb 2013, 01:37 ---We managed to avert the worst case scenarios, but that in no way means they weren't possibilities, it just means we actually managed to work to avoid them, be it by tens of billions funneled into the green revolution or tens of thousands of volunteers doing family planning. Right now we're shooting for the lower end of the UN projections from the late 90s, but a lot of work went into making that happen.
--- End quote ---
Which has nothing to do with Malthusian overpopulation catastrophes. What, you think that I think that the efficiency+production more than keeping up with growth just happened magically? Of course we wouldn't be able to support the current population if we still had the agriculture of the year 1800, but that's an insane assertion to start with. You can't presume it'll stay exactly the same as when he wrote it. His assertion was that population will grow exponentially, where as efficiency+production would grow arithmetically. He was objectively wrong in every regard.
But yeah, quite off-topic. I stand by it not being immoral to use technology relating to having kids, though. :-P
ZoeB:
--- Quote from: ElvisRevenge on 05 Feb 2013, 23:44 ---Good for Jeph for rewriting the comic when he didn't feel comfortable with it. Creator's got a right to change their story however they see fit, IMO.
--- End quote ---
Who... Wha.... GRONK.
Ah. That was... a random act of kindness. It wasn't necessary, but it was compassionate.
Akima:
There is a thread on the subject of "Global limits for population and economic growth" in the Discuss section of the forum.
I suspect Marten's Mum was just winding him up. She's seemed to make a habit of it in her last couple of appearances.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version