Fear Armageddon!

[andyandy]

They'd still be cave dwellers for some time though =) That would be so cool. I could like thunk girls over the head, throw em over my shoulder, and take em to my cave.

lol
maybe armageddon wouldnt be so bad....

[MoonStarer420]

solar flares are another possibility but I dont think they're too well understood either ....but the sun goes through cycles of greatly increased solar activity

It's more of a problem with lack of solar activity. Solar flares are directly associated with sunspots. Sunspots were first seen...well ok I canâ??t remember but it was (perhaps) a few hundred years ago? Anyway, there were seen and then no one saw them for a 70 year period before they started showing up again. During these 70 or so years the Earths climate dropped enough so that lakes in Europe, that rarely had dealings with snow, froze over.

A guy in my astronomy class thinks that the opposite is happening today. That the Sun has had an increase in solar activity (flares and such) and that is why our Earthâ??s climate is warming up. We have a bet going over a bottle of wine between his and mine. My opinion is that humans are the main contributor. Itâ??ll probably turn out to be a factor of both, (It usually does) but itâ??s hard to say until the sunspot activity drops off again, if it does.

[Oneironaut]

I love this. A one word solution to all the human problems: Space.

What about humanism, or education?

Don't you have any faith in the possibility of turning it all around?

Of course I don't think space is the only thing that can be done to curb overpopulation. I just happen to think it will ultimately be the means by which the problem is eliminated once and for all.

There is, of course, the economic factor of overpopulation. Overpopulation is only really a problem in poorer countries where having a child is an economic asset rather than an economic burden. In poorer countries a child is seen as an extra set of hands on the family farm, or perhaps capable of paid labor. However, in industrialized countries children do little productive work, since their primary task is to learn. That's why the population is soaring in places like Nigeria and India, but growing very slowly or even dropping in places like Europe and Japan. A lot could be done by using our great industrial might to increase the standard of living for the Third World. But alas, we'd rather use it to make race cars, silicone breast implants, wall-mounted singing fish, beer helmets, exercise equipment we buy from infomercials but never use, greasy hamburgers that we eat instead, and tools designed by our top scientists to be as efficient as possible in the task of murdering other human beings. Ah, the wonders of capitalism...

[andyandy]

i was thinking about virus/diseases that could do for humankind....

at the moment we have the mosquito as a pretty effective carrier of disease - malaria being the greatest killer....now as luck would have it it's unable to carry the HIV virus (a genetic fluke for us)....

because if there was a combination of a disease that could be transfered sexually and one which that could be transmitted via carrier then we would be properly in trouble....especially if it was a disease like HIV that can lay dormant and unnoticed for years - giving it a greater potential for spread.....

we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that the mosquito doesnt do any evolving any time soon

[Moose101]

Of course I don't think space is the only thing that can be done to curb overpopulation. I just happen to think it will ultimately be the means by which the problem is eliminated once and for all.

Space isn't our solution at all. We can't fix our own ecosystems; how are we supposed to fix Mars's?
Overpopulation wont be a problem. Children are financial burdens for us youth in trades and labour. They really shouldn't be. But it's the way the middle class wants it. They want to support their crack habbits and buy their 100,000 dollar boats by bending us over and fucking us the ass. You're right, poorer countries are getting up there though. Which should be interesting in a few years when we are all burdened by the same middle classes retirement in hospitals from cancer. But I guess that only applies to Canada. This middle class mainly consists of the babyboomer generation so their time is coming right quick. I hope the other countries wisen up and realize that half their population is already in our country while the other half out numbers ours. Which will start a war. Isn't greed great?

[MoonStarer420]

Space isn't our solution at all. We can't fix our own ecosystems; how are we supposed to fix Mars's?

It's not just Mars, he's talking about extrasolar travel to any of the trillions of other stars in our galaxy.

Overpopulation is already a problem on Earth and will be untill we are able to build a constuctive (instead of a distructive) society.

[Moose101]

Quit day dreaming. This is not star trek. We are never leaving this solar system. Not even with mechines. Technology will have it's limits. I know we wont see it's limits in our lifetime but it will come eventually. BTW, anyone know for sure if USA isn't faking it this time? People seem to have forgotten how much of a joke that moon mission was. Perhaps they found a way to hide this wires this time.

[Oneironaut]

Sorry to break it to you, but we've already got machines heading out of the solar system. You remind me of the people 100 years ago who decreed that man would never make it to the moon. Technology can change faster than anybody expects, and humans are born explorers. Don't tell me our species is just going to leave this open frontier completely unexplored and uninhabited for all eternity. Even if it takes 10,000 years, we'll eventually make it out there. Provided, of course, we don't kill ourselves off.

[Oneironaut]

By the way, have you actually looked at the evidence for the moon landing? I take it by your faith in the conspiracy nutjobs that you are either very gullible or at least incapable of thinking in a scientific, logical manner. I think we can safely ignore your uneducated opinions on space technology, since you can't even seem to recognize it when you see it in operation!

[RatedR]

No I don't believe the armageddon is near. Haven't people been worried about it since the mid-evil times? None of the signs are here, the Anti-christ, the Four Horsemen, although there have been alot of predictions from the bible to come true. Such as.....Israel being founded, some say 9-11 is in the bible, I don't believe it. What do we have left to look forward to before Jesus comes to save us? Death, Famine, Natural Disasters, War, Anti-Christ, Four Horsemen, etc. Plus in the bible it says 'The Rapture will come like a thief in the night, two virgins will be in the field, one will be left, one will be taken." etc.