Population

Hi Al,

Al Globus wrote:

> > They will starve. The beautiful thing about *any* ecosystem -
> including the
> > ones that have people among their species - is that they
> self-regulate their
> > populations. If there is a space culture stupid enough (or unlucky
> enough,
> > or whatever) to have a population growth way too big, then they'll
> run out
> > of resources and that will finally limit their growth.
>
> The resources in our solar system alone are about 6-8 orders of
> magnitude greater than
> on Earth. There are about one-hundred billion stars (I think) in the
> galaxy alone. I think we'll have enough resources for quite awhile.
>
> > Look at some starving
> > nations in, say, Africa and you'll see some examples of that
> self-regulation
> > in progress.
> >
> Actually, Africa is very rich in resources and has a low population
> density.

Couldn'r agree with you more! I used to live in Central Africa, and
during the years I was there, there were no shortages to speak of at
all.

> I've noticed, informally, that famine in Africa is highly
> correlated with war and revolution. Europe experienced famine for a
> brief time after the second world war, and India experience a
> "man-made"
> famine during that same conflict. Africa's problems seem to derive
> primarily from grossly incompetant leadership rather than inadequate
> resources.

This is not wholly true. The real problem out there is stupid European
and American journalists and mediamen who treat the whole place in their
items as if it was nothing but a rather minor nation instead of one of
the largest continents on our planet. If there is a war in Ethiopia it
is described as a war in Africa - and the whole of Africa including
other nations further away from Ethiopia than Finland in Europe is, get
blamed for being a bad investment risk, thereby grossly increasing the
task of any of the more competent African leaders in other countries
when they come to seek investment to develop their nations.

Zambia, where I was, is a country two and a half times larger than UK,
but it then (in the late 60s and early 70s) had a total population less
than Scotland (5 million as opposed to UK's 55 million). Dr Kenneth
Kaunda, who was a good leader (despite what the ignorant media say) was
being driven silly by international organizations continually telling
him to decrease his population when what he desperately needed was to
increase it, because he didn't have enough folk to properly farm the
place.

Outright idiocy on the part of Western Europe and the USA are much to
blame for Africa's problems today. Incompetent leadership in Africa is
to blame to some extent, but nowhere near as much as is made out.

> > Lucio Coelho
>
> --
> Al Globus
> CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
> aglobus@..., (650) 604-4404
> http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html

Best wishes, Andy Nimmo.