"Drooling Superstitious Freaks"..

Amazing. I have to concur with Dr. Pianka, the world is over-populated, which does make it very dangerous for simple flus/viruses to become pandemics (see H5N1, aka The Avian Flu)

And he's definitely being taken out of context by the right-wing publications, and that's just poor journalism the first article that's quoted.

Meh, not much we can do, but thanks for pointing it out, I thought it was interesting.
 
Over population does not lead to overcrowding per se (you had overcrowded cities even 2,000 years ago when the popul;ation was a fraction of what is is today), but since there are now 6+ Billion people all living here, you have many MORE such overcrowded places. Combine that with the ability to literally travel around the world in a day or two and the mind boggles at what could happen. AIDS in the US was tracked back to a SINGLE vector- a gale male flight attendent that had many partners that flew between Europe, Africa and the US. Over the course of several years he infected a few dozen people, who then in turn infected others in turn... Now imagine that that same flight attendent had a virus that was airborn and infected 40% of everyine he got within 10' of in the crowded heathrow airport. Or JFK. Or Atlanta. I can see why my friend that works at the CDC can't sleep at night...
 
**cough****cough**I think you guys got me sick...i'm going back to bed with a couple of beers...i'll be better in no time
 
Klink said:
Amazing. I have to concur with Dr. Pianka, the world is over-populated, which does make it very dangerous for simple flus/viruses to become pandemics (see H5N1, aka The Avian Flu)
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Over-population is a big load! What everyone seems to forget is that there is no set amount of people we can have on the planet, because there really is enough in the way of resources to keep everyone set. Plus, if you look at countries like Japan, cmon. They have 125 million people (about half of America) fit into a country 4% of the size. And last I checked, ebola, or pneumonia or smallpox within the last eternity. And avian flu? Didn't like....40 people catch that somewhere in Europe?

And he's definitely being taken out of context by the right-wing publications, and that's just poor journalism the first article that's quoted.
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I don't really think those count as "right-wing" publications. They're more like simple Christian newspapers that Jehovas hand out...

There aren't too many big right-wing publications, but I am yet to see a "why everyone who isn't Christian is going to hell" article in the Wall Street Journal.
 
spudlyff8fan said:
Over-population is a big load! What everyone seems to forget is that there is no set amount of people we can have on the planet, because there really is enough in the way of resources to keep everyone set. Plus, if you look at countries like Japan, cmon. They have 125 million people (about half of America) fit into a country 4% of the size. And last I checked, ebola, or pneumonia or smallpox within the last eternity. And avian flu? Didn't like....40 people catch that somewhere in Europe?
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Spuds is right about there not being an issue of overpopulation. Some areas have more people than their land can support, like Tokyo. And like Spuds said, you don't see ebola breaking out there. Africa isn't overpopulated and they have the nastiest diseases. China has more people than anywhere, but they have plenty of land that they don't use.

Although Nazis have used Jewish overpopulation to justify the holocaust, and Hussein thought they had too many Kurds a few years back.
 
Darth_Jonas said:
Spuds is right about there not being an issue of overpopulation. Some areas have more people than their land can support, like Tokyo. And like Spuds said, you don't see ebola breaking out there. Africa isn't overpopulated and they have the nastiest diseases. China has more people than anywhere, but they have plenty of land that they don't use.

Although Nazis have used Jewish overpopulation to justify the holocaust, and Hussein thought they had too many Kurds a few years back.
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Yes you DO, dude. Ever been overseas in Africa? I have. You cram too many people together and mix in bad sanitation and you DO get outbreaks of Ebola and such.

Know what invention saved more human lives than any other single thing in the entire histpry of mankind? Sanitation. Sewers. Before that, cities were breeeding grounds for every kind of sickness imaginable, and it did not stop until people discoivered basic rules like "thou shalt not walk in steams of your own waste- thou shalt route it underground and not touch it". "Resources" have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

The only thing stopping something like Ebola in an outlying areas is that it's so lethal that it drops you before you can walk the 5 miles to the next villiage. Now put that Ebola victim on a crowded subway- he could infect 5,000 people before he vomits up blood and gets quarantined. Then those 5,000 infect 100 others just getting groceries or going to the movies or riding on the bus... Do the math. THAT's wha tthis guy was saying.., that we're setting ourselves up for the next nmutated virus or bacteria and that people that routinely jam themselves into crowded subway cars with 600 people will be the first ones to drop.
 
ImagoX said:
Yes you DO, dude. Ever been overseas in Africa? I have. You cram too many people together and mix in bad sanitation and you DO get outbreaks of Ebola and such.

Know what invention saved more human lives than any other single thing in the entire histpry of mankind? Sanitation. Sewers. Before that, cities were breeeding grounds for every kind of sickness imaginable, and it did not stop until people discoivered basic rules like "thou shalt not walk in steams of your own waste- thou shalt route it underground and not touch it". "Resources" have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

The only thing stopping something like Ebola in an outlying areas is that it's so lethal that it drops you before you can walk the 5 miles to the next villiage. Now put that Ebola victim on a crowded subway- he could infect 5,000 people before he vomits up blood and gets quarantined. Then those 5,000 infect 100 others just getting groceries or going to the movies or riding on the bus... Do the math. THAT's wha tthis guy was saying.., that we're setting ourselves up for the next nmutated virus or bacteria and that people that routinely jam themselves into crowded subway cars with 600 people will be the first ones to drop.
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Sanitation really helped out with that whole black plague thing too. I don't think the issue is overpopulation, though. It's over-crowding. You can take a town of 500, pack them in tight, give them poor sanitation, and most of them will be passing around germs in no time. Just look at what happens when one kid goes to school sick. Soon everyone is sick.
 
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