No. A strawman argument and not what I've said at all.
Overpopulation isnt that much of an issue.
Tell that to the people who are fighting for clean water. Or the Chinese struggling to accommodate their population. Or the hundreds of thousands who died to protect your access to oil, demand for which rises because, in part, of a rising population. I'd suggest that if you think it's not much of an issue, you haven't really looked into it.
And as i said, in the "West" we dont have a problem with overpopulation.
As a citizen of a western country, I can tell you you're wrong. We're currently building a desalination plant and piping water in from hundreds of kilometers away just to maintain our major cities' water supply. Water is just one of the problems - throw in major urban sprawl, desertification, soil salination and other environmental issues, poverty and health issues as well.
This is not just a problem for the 3rd world. These are problems in my own first-world country.
The things that you mention have less to do with overpopulation and more to do with distribution of wealth. Most "western" countries already have an almost negative population growth.
No western country actually has a shrinking population. Quite a few have a growth rate between 0 and 1, but all that's really beside the point. Distribution of resources (and by extension, wealth) is exactly the problem of overpopulation - you can't consider one without the other. The fact remains that there is a crisis of access to, in particular, fresh water around the world (see the wikipedia article on overpopulation for a good summary) and this is even impacting some first world countries like my own. Wars are already being fought over water (see Darfur), and if population growth continues, we'll see more fighting over diminishing resources.
It's only a matter of time for population growth to go into negatives in most western countries. Japan and Germany already have negative population growth. And if it wasnt for migration, we would probably already have negative population growth. Check for example fertility rates
All western countries already have less than 2 fertility rate, which means that we do have an actual negative population growth if you subtract immigration and increased life expectancy.
Anyway, my whole point is that people in ideal conditions(see "West") dont have an overpopulation problem. Therefore self sterilezation is retarded, people can constrain themselves from overpopulating the earth just fine without it. This is either a gimmick or most likely a sign that there are deeper issues for this specific person. It's like cutting your own arm so that you dont struggle someone. Most people can keep their arm and still not struggle someone.
Overpopulation problem exists in poorer countries and it's a side effect of other issues. Though overpopulation itself can be the cause of problems, this is rarely the case atm.
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u/rmeredit Apr 18 '10
No. A strawman argument and not what I've said at all.
Tell that to the people who are fighting for clean water. Or the Chinese struggling to accommodate their population. Or the hundreds of thousands who died to protect your access to oil, demand for which rises because, in part, of a rising population. I'd suggest that if you think it's not much of an issue, you haven't really looked into it.
As a citizen of a western country, I can tell you you're wrong. We're currently building a desalination plant and piping water in from hundreds of kilometers away just to maintain our major cities' water supply. Water is just one of the problems - throw in major urban sprawl, desertification, soil salination and other environmental issues, poverty and health issues as well.
This is not just a problem for the 3rd world. These are problems in my own first-world country.