Facing a growing problem

[rustled]

I can't agree. We're still at sustainable numbers and now levelling out. Lift enough out of poverty and we'll be dropping, not increasing.

Well the rate of growth for our planet is not quite as high as 40 or 50 years ago, but by 2055 it's projected we'll have 10 billion people.
The more people that are lifted out of poverty, the bigger demand on natural resources.
Educated, working people demand more of everything. There will be an even bigger demand on minerals, petroleum products, there will more industrial pollution and there will be more carbon being pushed into the environment.
Maybe these developing countries will take a greater stand on all aspects of pollution, and maybe they won't.
An ever increasing population is dangerous, the Earth's population today is way too high. We cannot sustain our planet with today's population, lifted out of poverty or not.

Countries with better education and less poverty produce fewer children and less pollution. Countries with the means to improve air quality, water quality and sanitation have the means to reduce pollution. (Until we allowed ourselves to be distracted by alarmist prophecies, that's where our focus was.) There is no logical reason to assume countries rising out of poverty today would have bucked that trend and done the opposite.

By what metric is the earth's population today "way too high"? The metrics of alarmism, certainly, but what reasonable proof do we have that if we stopped population growth in its tracks today, we would be unable to feed and clothe and shelter everyone without destroying the planet? What reasonable proof do we have that a stable, educated population of 10b with a reasonable standard of living would destroy the planet?

Our goal thirty years ago was to help those in third world countries lift themselves sustainably out of poverty to a reasonable standard of living. The goal in these "more enlightened" (i.e., alarmist) times is to save the planet regardless of the consequences for the people already living in crushing poverty. It does not escape our notice the people most alarmist about the health of the planet are doing the opposite of what they preach. Worse, this shift in focus to satisfy alarmism has done much to slow our progress in helping people in third world countries lift themselves sustainably out of poverty to a reasonable standard of living.

[rustled]

Of course not, oldtrucker. (If it was up to me, I'd provide "agree", "disagree" and "interesting" buttons and see how that worked out.)

What you've posted hinges entirely on the proposition "humans are destroying the earth".

Because of the admitted alarmism from those directly responsible for this belief, it's quite easy for me to disagree with what you've posted without being rude or horrid or hateful about it.

[mexi cali]

removed