The thing about that though, is that to reduce the population in the least invasive, most peaceful way, is progress. And I mean progress in the geographical locations that are currently being kept from progressing. Human rights and progressive ideas, better healthcare, worker's rights; these are all crucial to achieving lower birthrates. It's an intersectional problem, always has been, always will be.

I worry that with declining birth rates capitalism will fall. OK maybe that is a good thing.

I totally agree, it’s alarming to see the projections of population growth. It seems unsustainable and I fear the consequences will be catastrophic. I think about this every time I see a news piece about declining birth rates or countries incentivising procreation.

I recently watched this Thoughty2 video on YouTube that touched on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRN2p7sSL_Y

He essentially concludes that, at this point, technology has been able to mitigate the overpopulation fears that have existed up until now.

I full agree with you. Just because we can exist on the planet does not mean we're better off. We're already living with the consequences of over population.

The first thing we need to do is change our eating habits. The over-farming of land is increasing the need for chemicals to grow food - not to mention climate change. Bird flu is coming. The manner in which we have to raise animals is atrocious and leading to pandemics. Everything is full of antibiotics so farmers and ranchers don't have to throw away "bad stock". Which of course is due to the increasing need to produce more food.

I think the worst part is that when this is brought up people blame the corporations and the governments. They're right that legislators should do more about this but, in America at least, the people are the one's who are supposed to have the power. We're supposed to make choices and cast votes for the world we want to live in. Instead, we keep making the same choices that give corporations more and more power.

America is torn between wanting all the freedom to make their own choices while complaining that government isn't doing enough.

I have goodish news. We aren't going to run out of helium any time soon.

Based on current rates of helium consumption the US alone has something like 250+ years of stored helium. We pumped a porous mountain full of all the helium we could back in the 60s and it's been kept stable since.

We still have no alternative to helium in a few of its most important use cases, but there is price where the helium we haven't bothered collecting will become cost effective to go get. Those untapped reserves are estimated 3-10 times what we have ever used.

I'm also fairly certain that we will have figured out a way to produce helium in the next hundred years. We know how it came to exist naturally it's really just the matter of someone being crazy enough to try and replicate those underground conditions and spend the money on the project.

I have faith that helium is a solvable problem for the human race.

Not just obesity, but also the loneliness epidemic, since mental health is boosted as much by the weak relationships of the people that one sees regularly, day-to-day, whose name one might not even know, as it is by close, intimate relationships. (And even the latter are suffering the loss of social contact.)

One of the reasons I don't think I'll ever want to live outside of NYC. I walk every day. Sometimes take a bike. It's much nicer than the car world of the suburbs I grew up in

You’re trying to find a problem for your solution.

The obesity epidemic actually due to the increased availability of ultra processed foods.

As a lifelong bike commuter who's fifty pounds overweight and prediabetic, this isn't the cure-all you seem to think.

It'd be great, but it won't be enough.

That might certainly be one factor, but my intuition is that the primary driver is still todays diet. Things like soda drinks that let you consume teaspoons of pure sugar in an instant without appropriate feedback simply didn't exist in the past.

Or walking. I've been to a few US cities, and the common denominator for all of them is that walking anywhere isn't really an option. Sure, you can't always walk A to B in most cities, but at least European cities have public transit to cut down on the distance, necessitating only two short walks to and from a transit station.

Observation: Saudi Arabia is heading down a Houstonian path. There was one pedestrian bridge near me, and outside of that one, getting anywhere involved strategic jaywalking to cross freeways. At least they seem to have a decent bus network, though.

Speaking of real, the USA is not a law of nature. It's only been around for a short time, historically, and it took a bloody civil war to keep it going this long. The warning that we have to vote for the correct color every time, or the country falls apart, is wrong. Voting for the correct color and the country still falls apart is possible if that color can't make the fundamental changes needed.

STAR and RCV is growing among some states and counties. Have hope.

Don't worry (/s), I think you're down to one now.

Especially the devoid of empathy billionaires who are just growing parasites, sucking the blood out of the planet and all of us.

Which is stupid, since unisex bathrooms already exist. It shouldn't be hard to install those in every single new building everywhere.

I thought female birth ratio was higher than males

By itself this is not that big of an issue. A much bigger issue is the gender imbalance that you find in certain localities due to local governments, universities and companies not taking this gender imbalance into account. But I'm glad that you brought up this issue.