Ted Turner: The World has too many people

[FrankRep]

Ted Turner: Global warming could lead to cannibalism
Billionaire environmentalist says world has too many people

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 3, 2008

Failure to address global warming will have us all dead or eating each other by mid-century.
...

One way to combat global warming, Turner said, is to stabilize the population.

"We're too many people; that's why we have global warming," he said. "Too many people are using too much stuff."

Turner suggested that "on a voluntary basis, everybody in the world's got to pledge to themselves that one or two children is it."
....


Full Story:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/news/stories/2008/04/03/turner_0404.html

[Kotin]

great!!

they've always practiced population control, now they are preaching it.

[Andrew-Austin]

I happen to agree that there are too many people, given the characteristics of our dysfunctional society.

Don't jump in my face for saying this, I'm not for population control.


great!!

they've always practiced population control, now they are preaching it.

Notice how he said "voluntary basis"

[Uriel999]

Actually I saw this as a warning...

"Failure to address global warming will have us all dead or eating each other by mid-century."

I think this was code for saying the zombies are gonna come mid century. Think about it...change "us dead or eating each other" to "us dead and eating each other" and there you have it...zombies. He just didn't quite want to come fully out on his knowledge of the coing zombie horde!

Besides we all remember that fateful day when Bush gave his speech on the challenges of the 21st century which highlighted the immiment threat of the zombie invasion.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoXgRtDysLY

This threat is more dangerous than Iran, China, or Russia ever wanted to be...Oh and Darfur...I bet you didn't know that fighting among the Christian and Muslim fighters was a large zombie minority fighting for their freedom to practice eating human brains.

[Truth Warrior]

Hey Ted, why not lead by example and just "voluntarily" drink the red kool aid yourself?

"Think globally, act locally". :) Every little bit helps!

[DAFTEK]

I agree with Ted Turner, we have way too many of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whhbPVrb5KM&feature=related also and i cant wait to see them eat each other....

[Truth Warrior]

Factoid: All of the people on earth would comfortably fit into a space the size of Texas, with about 1,000 square feet each. :)

[coyote_sprit]

Factoid: All of the people on earth would comfortably fit into a space the size of Texas, with about 1,000 square feet each. :)

So 7,494,271,488 total could get 1000 sq feet of Texas each? I think I did that math right.

[Zolah]

Factoid: All of the people on earth would comfortably fit into a space the size of Texas, with about 1,000 square feet each. :)

I was going to post that :)

[acptulsa]

Hey Ted, why not lead by example and just "voluntarily" drink the red kool aid yourself?

"Think globally, act locally". :) Every little bit helps!

After all, he consumes as much in the way of resources to heat his mansion and fuel his private jet and etc. as, what, any two hundred of the rest of us? He could really make a big, big improvement swallowing the red stuff...

[Truth Warrior]

So 7,494,271,488 total could get 1000 sq feet of Texas each? I think I did that math right.

I didn't figure it that way. Perhaps we're saying about the same thing, differently. The last that I heard the world population was in the vicinity of 6.5 billion. Divide the area of Texas in square feet by 6.5 billion. How does that turn out?

Thanks! :)

[Truth Warrior]

I was going to post that :)
OK. I'll give you partial credit. :)

[Truth Warrior]

After all, he consumes as much in the way of resources to heat his mansion and fuel his private jet and etc. as, what, any two hundred of the rest of us? He could really make a big, big improvement swallowing the red stuff...
Maybe Al Gore should sign on too. :)

[Truth Warrior]

Message of the mysterious and cryptic Georgia Guidestones:

Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature
Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
Unite humanity with a living new language.
Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a one world court
Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
Balance personal rights with social duties.
Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

I'd say someone has a pretty severe and aggressive human population reduction agenda.
Is it just a coincidence that Ted also lives in Georgia? Hmmmmmmmm? :)

[Hiki]

Well he's just right. There are way too many people on this earth. And you don't need population control, i'm sure that earth will come up with some viruses to cut down the population.

As terrible as it sounds, one nice virus or war which would kill a lot of people... It would be for the best of the planet. And I'm sure that sometime in the future the population will start to drop dramatically, if you read biology then you'll know that the current curve (J-curve) doesn't work.

[Truth Warrior]

bump

[ronpaulhawaii]

ISTM, the population control arguments are some of the most arrogant and/or ignorant of topics. The fact is that there is a LOT of room on this planet. I imagine someone is working out the numbers, but the Texas example is close enough. Here is an excerpt from a 1999 Walter Williams rebuttal to the over-crowding nonsense (http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/99/Population-Control.htm):



Idiots like Erlich and organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the State Department's Agency for International Development (AID) and NEPRHA constantly sound nonsense warnings about how overpopulation produces disaster and poverty. There is absolutely no relationship between high populations, disaster and poverty. Population control idiots might consider Zaire's meager population density of 39 people per square mile to be ideal while Hong Kong's population density of 247,501 people per square mile is problematic. Hong Kong is 6,000 times more crowded than Zaire. Yet Hong Kong's per capita income is $8,260 while Zaire, the world's poorest country, has a per capital income of less than $200.

Planet Earth is loaded with room. We could put the world's entire population into the United States. Doing so would make our population density 1,531 people per square mile. That's a far lower population density than what now exists in New York (11,440), Los Angeles (9,126) and Houston (7,512). The entire U.S. population could move to Texas and each family of four would enjoy 2.9 acres of land. If the entire world's population moved to Texas, California, Colorado and Alaska, each family of four would enjoy nine-tenths of an acre of land.

So-called overpopulation problems are really a result of socialistic government practices that reduce the capacity of people to educate, clothe, house and feed themselves. Poor countries are rife with agricultural restrictions controls, export and import controls, restrictive licensing, price controls, not to mention gross human rights abuses that encourage their most productive people to emigrate. The most promising anti-poverty tool for poor people and poor countries is personal liberty.


I wonder if most of the proponants are city-folk... Hhhhmmmm...?

[crazyfingers]

Communist sympathizer Ted Turner doing his best to link global warming hysteria with population control hysteria...big surprise. The problems of the world are caused by the failure to strictly limit government in all of its capacities, nothing more.

[acptulsa]

I wonder if most of the proponants are city-folk... Hhhhmmmm...?

Don't know, but I'll bet they fly, not drive or ride rail, if and when they travel! Beautiful land we have. You ought to come down out of the clouds and get to know it. Lots of good people along the way, too!

[coyote_sprit]

I didn't figure it that way. Perhaps we're saying about the same thing, differently. The last that I heard the world population was in the vicinity of 6.5 billion. Divide the area of Texas in square feet by 6.5 billion. How does that turn out?

Thanks! :)
According to the Texas state site Texas is 268,581 square miles.

http://www.texasalmanac.com/environment/


Texas occupies about 7 percent of the total water and land area of the United States. Second in size among the states, Texas has a land and water area of 268,581 square miles as compared with Alaska's 663,267 square miles. California, third largest state, has 163,696 square miles. Texas is as large as all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina combined. The state's area consists of 261,797 square miles of land and 6,784 square miles of water.

There are 27,878,400 square feet in a square mile. So Texas is 7,487,608,550,400 square feet. Dividing that by 1000 you get 7,487,608,550 people. If there are 6,500,000,000 people on this planet thats 1152 feet rounded to the nearest whole number for everyone if we were all put in Texas. Some of that is water though lol.

[ronpaulhawaii]

Don't know, but I'll bet they fly, not drive or ride rail, if and when they travel! Beautiful land we have. You ought to come down out of the clouds and get to know it. Lots of good people along the way, too!

Yep, I imagine the ones who push this kind of crap are the same who call the whole of America "fly-over" states. They just hop around in their own little world, with their warped little ideas of what success means (or feels like), prattling on like fools, dressing like clowns, oblivious... Sad.

It is a great, BIG country. Filled with great BIG-hearted people. :)

One disturbing thing about population control is it's double meaning...:eek:

[Truth Warrior]

According to the Texas state site Texas is 268,581 square miles.

http://www.texasalmanac.com/environment/



There are 27,878,400 square feet in a square mile. So Texas is 7,487,608,550,400 square feet. Dividing that by 1000 you get 7,487,608,550 people. If there are 6,500,000,000 people on this planet thats 1152 feet rounded to the nearest whole number for everyone if we were all put in Texas. Some of that is water though lol. :cool: That works for me!

Thanks! :)

[angelatc]

great!!

they've always practiced population control, now they are preaching it.

The fascist Republicans also talk about this. I heard it on Fox one morning. Made me wish I had a DVR.

This is nothing new. The progressive socialists have been harping on this since the 60's. It is probably the strongest argument to make abortion illegal in my mind.

I was fine when women had a choice, but no way should that choice belong to the government.

[Truth Warrior]

Perhaps it's merely being floated as a "final solution" to the impending massive boomer retirements. :D

[Roxi]

I happen to agree that there are too many people, given the characteristics of our dysfunctional society.

Don't jump in my face for saying this, I'm not for population control.



Notice how he said "voluntary basis"



im not jumping in your face because i used to think the same way... we are not over populated and i came to that conclusion based on my own experience... i have visited 28 states since november. I had always known that there were large parts of this country uninhabited but i was appalled at how strong that really was (and i didn't even visit wyoming or montana) i drove through HOURS of Utah that didn't have a person or building for hundreds of miles, same in kansas, nevada, NM, AZ and many more... i just kept thinking, the amount of empty land i have covered in the last hour could have inhabited thousands of people...

we aren't overpopulated, its just that given our current economic situation its really hard for the average joe to move to a rural area like this, we have to be able to commute and go to the grocery store so unless there is some sort of mass project to establish communities in these remote areas it will never happen

the US has enough land to comfortably hold us and all the citizens of china... we just dont use the resources we actually have, (I was also appalled at the amount of this land that was owned by the military)

[Truth Warrior]

Some group in the 50's ( I think ) established that the optimum population size for the USA land mass was somewhere around 150 million. We're over twice that now. Perhaps that, in part, accounts for a lot of our present day problems. Who knows?

[ItsTime]

If everyone who believed in global warming or man made climate change would kill themselves it would solve the problem! /sarcasm

[Smiley Gladhands]

Any 'symptoms' of too many people, can be blamed on our monetary policy (anr/or government incompetence). Too much pollution? Fix monetary policy, which currently enables war after war after war (lotsa pollution). Food costs too much? Stop forcing people to put subsidized food in their fuel tanks (and don't start never-ending wars which use lotsa fuel). Too many people around you? Get the hell out of NYC; monetary policy has encouraged a lot of people to pay crazy high prices for crazy small apartments so they can work 60 hours a week creating worthless pieces of paper to peddle to foreign pension funds.

What's funny is that the same people who think that world population growth at 1% is too much, think that money supply growth of 20% is reasonable. HA!

Almost every problem, real or imagined, can be traced back to our idiotic monetary policy. If we ever have to enact some population control, let's start with the international bankers. :)

[tmosley]

It's not population density that's the problem, but each person's footprint that's the problem. How much farmland is required to sustain a person, how much water (and how quickly is that water replenished)? How much oil is required to make the things they need and/or want? I mean sure, we could pack everyone together so that each person has 1000 square feet, but where would we raise the crops, etc.

It's all a moot point though, because as nations industrialize, people naturally start having fewer children due to higher costs per child and decreasing child mortality. Basically, the world market takes care of itself here, so long as it is allowed to do so.

[PatriotG]

Hey Ted, why not lead by example and just "voluntarily" drink the red kool aid yourself?

"Think globally, act locally". :) Every little bit helps!

Ted should volunteer to be sterilised.

[Truth Warrior]

Ted should volunteer to be sterilised.
That too! :D

[coyote_sprit]

Ted should volunteer to be sterilised.

The man already has had 5 that would be a waste.

[OptionsTrader]

Regarding cannibalism...

Years ago in highschool debate, my debate partner and I had to debate solutions to homelessness. We wanted to shock the other side into fumbling due to unpreparedness so we argued in favor of cooking the homeless into pork rind type nuggets and feeding them to the hungry people that have homes. We called it the HomeRinds program and we argued it with a straight face; all of the benefits to society and such. I think we won but we received a reprimand from our debate coach.

[hypnagogue]

Just did the math on the "all people fitting in texas" suggestion. It holds. However, a human being would have a hell of a time sustaining themselves with a mere 1000 sq ft to work with. We must consider the infrastructure required to support ourselves as well.

To address the greater issue. I believe responsible reproduction is important just as the rest of a responsible lifestyle is. I intend to have no more than two children in addition to working to reduce my energy requirements and my waste production. Working to make our societies productive and sustainable is everyone's responsibility. Ted Turner is likely a very poor spokesman for such principles, on account of his lifestyle, but the principles are still sound.

[coyote_sprit]

Just did the math on the "all people fitting in texas" suggestion. It holds. However, a human being would have a hell of a time sustaining themselves with a mere 1000 sq ft to work with. We must consider the infrastructure required to support ourselves as well.It was just a simple math problem to roughly say over population in this day and age is crap.


To address the greater issue. I believe responsible reproduction is important just as the rest of a responsible lifestyle is. I intend to have no more than two children in addition to working to reduce my energy requirements and my waste production. Working to make our societies productive and sustainable is everyone's responsibility. Ted Turner is likely a very poor spokesman for such principles, on account of his lifestyle, but the principles are still sound.
I do agree that you should responsibly have kids but I think Ted Turner is an idiot.

[FindLiberty]

Interesting how this all ties together... Times change, but history repeats itself.

I found this little gem:
Suicide bombers get too many virgins for martyring themselves to Allah and this
causes a virgin shortage that hampers volcano god appeasement...
http://www.belch.com/blog/2007/07/10/virgin-shortage-hampers-volcano-god-appeasement/

Mankind does not learn from this folly. "So the gods took it all up a notch."

Today, instead of volcano gods, it's global warming (or cooling as of late) as the
government paid fascist scientists sell their credibility to spread fear and support
for global control and a carbon tax. Ted adds population control to the circus of
ideas, while it's the sun's output that is slowly cycling and changing that causes the
Earth's climate to change (and even the ice caps on the planet Mars to recede, etc.).

I think it's not the general population that is the "problem', it's the government/elite
and their plans and schemes to manage, control and manipulate through coercion, force,
insane laws, dishonest financial policy and endless supporting lies that are fully supported
by the media and perpetuated via mandatory government youth propaganda camps
(otherwise known as the publik skools).

The lie that it takes central planning to make life better is the link that needs to be broken.

Everyone may fit into Texas, but that would never happen by free choice. (Why not also
calculate the combined additional human BTU load - it would never cool off in winter and
there could be outbreaks spontaneous human combustion in the summer if the population
isn’t first culled by disease.)

If there is too much of anything, it's too much government.

ALL these problems, (too many people, too much governmental coercion, endless wars and
global warming caused by the angry sun gods) can be solved* by packing up Ted and all those
who reject freedom into a rocket and sending them all directly into the sun as a sacrifice to the
gods who have apparently moved from the Earth bound volcano and into the sun.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
* Of course, it would be "on a voluntary basis".