• Lord_ofThe_FLIES [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Already we are taking up pretty much all the usable land on the planet

    mostly for animal ag btw, eating plants we'd need about a fifth of the land afaik

    • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
      ·
      3 years ago

      What's to guarantee that the population wouldn't just keep expanding until we hit the carrying capacity with only plant-based diets?

      • Lord_ofThe_FLIES [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Because that's not how population works. Developing countries see their death rates fall with improving infrastructure and the birth rate only falls 1-2 generations later, leading to population growth, but it eventually tapers off. Most developed countries have negative population growth, why would new developed countries be different?

        • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
          ·
          3 years ago

          We see this happen when healthcare and education improve, and having more children is no longer a compelling solution to the risk of losing a child.

          The tapering effect happens especially in urban areas, as opposed to rural ones, where birth rates tend to stay high.

          Maybe the solution is to make urban areas attractive enough that everybody wants to live there for noneconomic reasons, so that whatever crowded-environment effect that takes place is not resolved by simply spreading out.