Overpopulation And Pandemics: A Bad Combination

[PoliTalker]

Population control advocates have a new argument. Pandemics:

(Oh, these darn scientists) By Bahar Gholipour, LiveScience on November 26, 2013:

" In mid-April 2009, samples from two California children suffering from the flu arrived at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for further investigation; something didn't seem normal about the particular flu strains they had. Local clinics and flu surveillance staff had detected a virus that had a unique genetic makeup, different from any known human flu virus. It was entirely new to science.

That was the beginning of the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Countries around the world took notice and prepared for possible outbreaks, the World Health Organization sent out guidelines to ministries of health and vaccines were developed in a matter of months. The virus, which may have started infecting people first in Mexico, spread across the globe, infecting millions of people and killing thousands before running its course, with the pandemic coming to an end in August 2010.

The virus was a new strain of H1N1, the influenza virus involved in the devastating 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed between 30 million and 50 million people worldwide, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than died during World War I. The emergence of the new H1N1 in 2009 was a reminder that despite the unprecedented progress in treating infectious disease in the past decades, the looming shadow of a deadly pandemic still persists.

In fact, with every mysterious virus that surfaces, be it the 2009 swine flu, the 2002 SARS coronavirus, or most recently, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a viral respiratory illness that has emerged around the Arabian Peninsula and killed half of the people who have had it), the same questions come to the minds of researchers and health authorities: Is this the virus that's going to cause the next pandemic? And will humanity be able to stop it?

And now, new challenges are being added to existing ones: The latest population projections from the United Nations, announced in a new report last summer, estimate that the world's population will reach 9.6 billion people by mid-century, and 11 billion by 2100.

The sheer number of people, their interactions with animals and ecosystems, and the increase in international trade and travel are all factors that will likely change the way humanity deals with preventing and treating epidemics, experts say. In fact, the unprecedented growth of the human population in the second half of the last century — growing from 2.5 billion to 6 billion — may have already started changing how infectious diseases emerge.

"There's a strong correlation between the risk of pandemic and human population density. We've done the math and we've proved it," said Dr. Peter Daszak, a disease ecologist and the president of Eco Health Alliance, who examined the link in a 2008 study published in the journal Nature."

What 11 Billion People Mean for Disease Outbreaks

""Each wildlife species carries a bunch of microbes, most of them we've never known about," Daszak said. "When you build a road into a new patch of rainforest, you put a pig farm in there, people move in and come into contact with these pathogens.""

This would be a whole lot easier to control if there were fewer people on the planet and we had better technology and understanding.

[PoliTalker]

"We are currently in the middle of a global Covid-19 pandemic, and in South Africa we are in month four of a series of strict lockdowns. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, children have been out of school for months and entire industries lie dormant. In this context, one might legitimately ask how important is World Population Day, and of what relevance is it for our current situation?"

"The environmental catastrophe we may face (referred to as a Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (Kolbert, E. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. 2014. Henry Holt and Company) is a direct consequence of human activity resulting in massive increases in greenhouse gases which have led to temperature increase, shrinking glaciers and more frequent extreme weather events. The impacts of climate change are numerous, but a significant one has been the increasing displacement of people.

The current pandemic has shone a terrifying spotlight on human vulnerability and has shown up our human arrogance and our delusional sense of superiority and dominance over the natural world.

“Climate migrants” are only one of the examples of how population movement is putting further pressure on already vulnerable cities, forcing an ever-increasing expansion into previously remote animal habitats and “wild areas”. Rapidly expanding cities are devastating wildlife to the point where we are losing our biodiversity at a rate 1,000 times that in pre-human times. The total mass of wild animals has been reduced by more than 80%, while plant mass has been reduced by 50%.

One consequence of this is that the wildlife that remains has had to adapt to living in a new proximity to human beings. These new “intimate” configurations, and the increased contact between humans and wild animals, has massively increased outbreaks of infectious zoonotic diseases." (A zoonotic disease is one that originates in animals and mutates to make the jump into human-to-human transmission)

"A possible (beneficial) consequence of the current pandemic is that the reality of our encroachment, and the resultant diseases that we are going to be at risk of suffering from, is going to be increasingly difficult to deny or rationalise away. "

Covid-19: A terrifying glimpse of a future where overpopulation and climate crisis overwhelm Earth

[Jack]

Try explaining that to the Bluntskulls here in America that want to import every Third World Laborer into America.

[PoliTalker]

"The current pandemic has shone a terrifying spotlight on human vulnerability and has shown up our human arrogance and our delusional sense of superiority and dominance over the natural world."

Covid-19: A terrifying glimpse of a future where overpopulation and climate crisis overwhelm Earth

[PoliTalker]

"The world has been shut down by a minute virus (0,000065mm in diameter), and we are at a loss about the way forward."

Covid-19: A terrifying glimpse of a future where overpopulation and climate crisis overwhelm Earth

[PoliTalker]

"Our current predicament offers an opportunity to “build back better”, and to acknowledge our interdependence with one another as well as the natural world.

If we fail to heed the lesson, future pandemics and climate breakdown will make our current Covid-19 pandemic seem like a bit of a walk in the park."

Covid-19: A terrifying glimpse of a future where overpopulation and climate crisis overwhelm Earth

[Jack]

Some want America to have billions of people, all smashed in together. Rabbit hutches like Mumbai, Beijing, Jakarta.
Usually these are Capitalists that just want MORE Consumers to sell shit to, but some are the PC Fascists that just want to 'be nice'.
(Nice and Stupid)

[PoliTalker]

Good morning Jack,

Try explaining that to the Bluntskulls here in America that want to import every Third World Laborer into America.

Yeah, some people have a problem listening to reason.

If they have no respect for themselves it is impossible for them to respect others, nor really listen to anything they have to say.

[Jack]

Good morning Jack,



Yeah, some people have a problem listening to reason.

If they have no respect for themselves it is impossible for them to respect others, nor really listen to anything they have to say.

I think the Problem is ... they 'can't see beyond their nose'.

[PoliTalker]

Hello Jack,

Some want America to have billions of people, all smashed in together. Rabbit hutches like Mumbai, Beijing, Jakarta.
Usually these are Capitalists that just want MORE Consumers to sell shit to, but some are the PC Fascists that just want to 'be nice'.
(Nice and Stupid)

Well, it's hard to exploit lots of people if there are not lots of people to exploit.

[Jack]

Hello Jack,



Well, it's hard to exploit lots of people if there are not lots of people to exploit.

Capitalism is based on increased Consumer Consumption. I can understand why the wealthy Capitalist, who can move and live anywhere, would support MORE CONSUMERS, but why would the average thinking person? Why would the person that thinks 'Climate Change' is due to Human activity. Why would the person that knows the Earth has a limited 'Carrying Capacity'.

[PoliTalker]

"Our current predicament offers an opportunity to “build back better”, and to acknowledge our interdependence with one another as well as the natural world.

If we fail to heed the lesson, future pandemics and climate breakdown will make our current Covid-19 pandemic seem like a bit of a walk in the park."

Covid-19: A terrifying glimpse of a future where overpopulation and climate crisis overwhelm Earth

[PoliTalker]

Hi Jack,

I think the Problem is ... they 'can't see beyond their nose'.

Even this might be assuming too much.

[Blackwater Lunchbreak]

"Our current predicament offers an opportunity to “build back better”, and to acknowledge our interdependence with one another as well as the natural world.

If we fail to heed the lesson, future pandemics and climate breakdown will make our current Covid-19 pandemic seem like a bit of a walk in the park."

Covid-19: A terrifying glimpse of a future where overpopulation and climate crisis overwhelm Earth

nobody wants your fearporn.