Was Africa saved by AIDS?

[pipelineaudio]

Africans in power, armed with guns (obtained from Europeans) and other weaponry were complicit in the slave trade but the trade itself existed because Europeans including Americans (even after Europe ended the trade) provided the money and the work for slaves. Trafficking in humans continues until today, not a subject people like to talk about.

I heard at LC or some other factual site that arabian slave traders had nothing to do with it

 

[dogbite666]

Africa's problems are not basically the result of overpopulation, but of political conflicts and corruption

If anything Africa's problems are mainly due to cronic under population, or at least a low population of middle aged adults. As Bob Geldof said there are many reasons why Afrian countries are so poor, they are:

1. Under population.
2. Desertification/Faminie.
3. AIDS.
4. war.

All of these lead to an unstable social system and lack of wealth. Non of the above can be blamed directly for the problems of a whole continent or country, take the Arabian Peninsula for example, it's one big desert yet one of the richest regions in the world.

 

[Starthinker]

I've always thought that something should be done about the world's population. In natural systems there are checks and balances that help keep populations in check but humans have found ways to overcome them all. Not that I want anyone to die, but 7 billion people are just too many. Not a cheery thought, but something will happen sooner or later to bring the population down. I think it's inevitable.

 

[Jimbo07]

7 billion people are just too many.

What?

Why?

 

[CFLarsen]

Africans in power, armed with guns (obtained from Europeans) and other weaponry were complicit in the slave trade but the trade itself existed because Europeans including Americans (even after Europe ended the trade) provided the money and the work for slaves. Trafficking in humans continues until today, not a subject people like to talk about.

Let's talk about it, Steve.

 

[CFLarsen]

Malawi Population by Year including future predictions (courtesy of Sylvia Browne) are here:

What does Sylvia Browne have to do with this?

 

[Hellbound]

What?

Why?

Actually, I recall reading somewhere that there has been work done to determine the "maximum supportable population" the Earth can sustain. Last time I looked, the limit (considering food production using all current and all future predictable technolgies for farming and production) is somewhere between 1 billion and 10 billion.

Can't recall my source, and not sure how accurate that calculation was, but I'll see if I can find any more info on it.

 

[Hellbound]

Found some sources:

http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~bramblet/ant301/sixa1.html
"The maximum human population that earth ecosystems can sustain is estimated to be about 12 billion people."

http://www.rpi.edu/dept/envsci/pop.html
"Despite these many variables, scientists and others have made numerous predictions; 65 factually based calculations have a low median of 8 billion people and a high median of 16 billion, with a mean of about 12 billion. These values are of immediate concern because many demographers have calculated that the population will plateau around 12 billion sometime in the second half of the twenty-first century."

There are other sites, but I just picked the ones where I could easily find relevant quotes I used a google search for maximum sustanable population earth limited to .edu sites and .gov sites.

 

[Starthinker]

Found some sources:

http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~bramblet/ant301/sixa1.html
"The maximum human population that earth ecosystems can sustain is estimated to be about 12 billion people."

http://www.rpi.edu/dept/envsci/pop.html
"Despite these many variables, scientists and others have made numerous predictions; 65 factually based calculations have a low median of 8 billion people and a high median of 16 billion, with a mean of about 12 billion. These values are of immediate concern because many demographers have calculated that the population will plateau around 12 billion sometime in the second half of the twenty-first century."

There are other sites, but I just picked the ones where I could easily find relevant quotes I used a google search for maximum sustanable population earth limited to .edu sites and .gov sites.

In my previous life I don't even think we broke a billion yet, and I gotta tell ya, there was a lot more land available.

 

[AWPrime]

I think that afrika needs a severe culture-change, and I'm not sure if they are able to do this.