How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?

2009, Society  -   296 Comments
8.08
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Ratings: 8.08/10 from 360 users.

The world's human population is growing too fast for the planet to sustain it. But just how many more people can exist on Earth until it reaches its breaking point? That's the central question of How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?, a sobering BBC documentary production which is hosted and narrated by internationally acclaimed naturist Sir David Attenborough.

The film argues that mankind is inadvertently setting itself up for a supreme reckoning. A series of experts from the United Nations and other global organizations set the groundwork for this dilemma. They conclude that one of the major contributors to our impending peril lies in the many medical innovations which have permitted substantially longer life spans for the human race. As a result, populations have skyrocketed continuously since the 1800s. This presents a fascinating dichotomy: our distinction may be brought on in part by the very same advances that have ensured our longevity.

As the film makes clear, we are already witnessing the ill effects of human overcrowding around the world. Over a billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, food shortages are rampant, and an international energy crisis continues to plague us. With an estimated 80 million new births each year - many taking place in regions already suffering from severely depleted resources - the world is facing a calamitous destiny that will leave no one untouched.

What's the solution? The filmmakers endorse the need for smaller families and increased access to contraceptives. Renewed investments in education are also championed in the film, particularly for women in impoverished countries, because the highly educated are less likely to have multiple children. Attenborough contends that it is only by following each of these steps that mankind can effectively limit the creation of new life and ensure a sustainable future for our species.

Some viewers may find the perspectives presented in How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? to be cold and controversial, but Attenborough's congenial manner and scientifically sound approach makes for an illuminating and persuasive argument. He interprets the human species with the same level of microscopic curiosity that distinguishes his studies of the animal kingdom.

Directed by: Helen Shariatmadari

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296 Comments / User Reviews

  1. Let me say an example to prove that your idea of high population does risk healthy living in the earth is wrong. If someone makes a cage for his dogs he would calculate its size, because he knows that small cage is insufficient for more dogs. Here he is maker or creater of the cage. But in the case of earth God is creator and He exactly knows about occupants strength. So your worry about high population is vain. Allah has clearly describes it in His holy book Quran that one should not kill their children on the fear of poverty, because I am giving them livelihood for both you and your children. Did you come to the point?

  2. Here are a few supportive facts. Of all the mammalian land-based biomass, we are 33% and the animals we raise and eat are another 66%, which leaves 1% wild. We are now 3,000 times more numerous than were our pre-agricultural revolution Hunter-Gatherer ancestors. Were we to adopt a voluntary one child family contraceptive movement worldwide, then we'd reduce our population to the 1950 level of 2.5B by 2,100, which is just barely sustainable going forward. What this retired physician has had to conclude after a lifetime in medical practice is this: Population Density Stress Is Killing Us Now, through ALL of our myriad and rapidly increasing "diseases of civilization", halted only by our heroic medical and public health interventions costing $3.6T currently, but projected to be $5T by 2030. Stress R Us

  3. Surely the figure is 80 million more of us each year, not 80 million births as mentioned in this quote:
    “As the film makes clear, we are already witnessing the ill effects of human overcrowding around the world. Over a billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, food shortages are rampant, and an international energy crisis continues to plague us. With an estimated 80 million new births each year - many taking place in regions already suffering from severely depleted resources - the world is facing a calamitous destiny that will leave no one untouched.”

    1. Correction: 80 million more people per year!

    2. they didn't say bout how many poeple dying each year tho

  4. poor people in 3rd world countries are not consuming resources. even if they had a million kids a day, it wouldn't matter. They do not have the power to accomplish this.
    Rich nations come in and offer to help in exchange for their resources. Then they pay the leaders of these countries for the resources, making them very rich indeed. But the leadera take the rich countries wealth and line their pockets. They never pass it on to help their poor citizens who are starving. But we do have an overpopulation problem just the same. We have too many rich white men and women gobbling up the resources of the world.

  5. There's too many people on this earth. We need a new plague.

    1. You can look into the future!

    2. and we did lol

  6. I read once that if our cities were designed like NYC with public areas for play and whatnot and property sizes like in NYC, the world could fit in the state of Texas. Tight spacing and not enough room but the point is that our poor utilization of our resources and available land is a good reason why we're in this crisis in the first place. Cities are overcrowded, yet you fly over many places in the world and there are untouched pieces of land. I want plenty of beautiful places kept sacred but there are places just outside of cities that are barely touched.

    Look at this statistic: Over 2.2 BILLION tonnes of food are wasted worldwide everywhere, yet kids are freaking starving in third world countries. 2.2 billion tonnes. Half of that waste comes from the USA, where we don't even constitute a strong portion of the world's population. How depressing is that? I learned in my ecology class in college that there are literally thousands of edible species, yet about 85% of our food comes from about 100 and about 95% comes specifically from about a dozen or so from those 100 species. Many of the animals we consume are in fact some of the least sustainable sources of meat. Look at how much water we use for the animals, to clean them and the barn houses they live in, to grow their food, etc. Plus the rainforest issue, don't get me started on how heartbreaking that is, not to mention the soil in rainforests is actually quite unideal for agricultural purposes anyways.

    We don't need to stop people from reproducing, we need better utilization of our resources and start consuming more sustainable species (less meat for sure too). Don't buy into the propaganda made by the greedy elite who want to keep their ridiculous amounts of money and keeping most of the world poor and hungry. We don't need to eat 16 oz steaks, nor do we need a giant plate full of food at every meal. Eat until you're satisfied, not until you're full. Stop convincing the world that death is good for the economy, and life is bad for the planet.

    1. Very nice

  7. The reason for the worlds problems is not the over population. The problem is corrupt, greedy, and often downright evil people who want it all then blame the people. The media are either as stupid as a drunk sheep or part of the evil group. The reason people are so bad? I read somewhere....oh yes, in Gods word to us "The LOVE of money, is the root of all kinds of evil. Politicians are a special breed of evil and i often wonder if they do in fact have souls or conscience? Recent wars, if not the vast majority, are nothing to do with self defence. Its about conquering, arms sales, power and sex. You will ALL find out some day ( i hope it is soon) that the only Hope for mankind is the return of the Lord of peace. Jesus will destroy every corrupt system on earth and set up his Holy Kingdom which will last for evermore.

  8. Boi Hitler basically murdered almost 90 mil people

    like how does weather compete with that

    The ice age was big

    but Hitler killed off or caused almost 80 mil deaths

    he would've succeeded too if he had just planned out a little more

    so just think about that.....

  9. Some good comments. Whenever this topic comes up I always suggest that those who think its too crowded ought to lead by example and remove themselves.

    No matter how pretty they want to paint it, there are groups such as the free masons and likely others, that want to eliminate the majority of the population. Is Attenborough a free mason? I don't know but they seem to have a bit of control over media and have their minions everywhere.

    Now it wouldn't surprise me one bit that many of the same socialist-communist-"progressive" folks that desire gun control also want population control. That might not make sense on the face of it... But it does make sense when they can get rid of many much faster if you cannot defend yourself. Which of course is the plan. Ask Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Hillary, Obama, Democrat leaders, etc.

    From what I understand, the populations of the western countries are not expanding all that much. Not that many families are large any more, many with just 1 or 2 kids, except the poorest who used to (and maybe still do) get a larger govt check the more kids they had.

    One commenter estimated that at some point they may just spray us from above with contraceptive "for our own good". That is already happening. Chemtrails are overhead most days. The toxic nano-metals not only harm humans but all life. It will poison the soil eventually. Reports of stunted crops have already come in. Then there is still the spread/bombardment with radiation from Japan's Fukushima by air and water.

    Genetically Modified Crops will shorten many a life as will the next world war which will no doubt be about money and power for the war profiteering bankster elite who also own the GMO seed companies.

    Then there are the other type of evil wankers who develop and release various new and old diseases... as well as those areas of the world which sleep with their swine which comingle with their birds causing various virus mutations.

    I am not particularly worried about over population. Just feel sad for those that have little or no means to protect themselves from the onslaught and those who still think their govt is good and in general is there to protect them. There is too much evidence to the contrary to believe that ...but they still do.

  10. This is sad, but I have nonsense to add wich to me is accurate.
    Over populated is an issue but an advantage as well. At this point instead of competing on who is richer or smarter, maybe we should be realistic. One the Congress logo Eugenics was a way to implicate Involuntary Sterilizarion, while in gods bible states “Let them multiply”. ( not that I red the Bible or studied anything of Medicine) The best teacher is a great mother and Mother Nature teaches us by our senses and critical thinking. The science catagory knows we can’t survive normally in other planets. Yet we find better way to make life easier because the laws and code of conduct has created this way of controlling the people with their own benefit. Light, heat, shelter, school,work etc. the worl was made to give us resources our choice were given to see if we have good judgement. Confusion is key to wrong doing. Knowledge is the cure. If we were all educated to protect the Earth we wouldn’t be fighting for clicks, as in country and all, if we all spoke one language had one believe and know and act upon what’s right millions of people could survive to protect the earth.

    Unprofessionally writing here.

    We need the animals we need the water we need the plants we have to let go of the money and unnecessary product made by product that are none recyclable.
    God mad rules already there should be no other than that , I don’t think he ever approved for it, yet he sits in the side lines because we only learn from our mistakes. That’s how we succeed.

    Thank you for your time.

  11. I'm not saying that we need to take extreme measures by any means, but we do need to pay attention to this issue. Animals in nature reach their carrying capacity all the time. If we look at deer they sometimes reach the limit of what the environment can sustain. Then nature takes its course such as disease or they outgrow their food source. The population is expected to double again in the next 50 years. Its just a matter of sustainability humans are responsible for many more species extinctions every year and we rely on certain animals and plants for survival ( such as honey bees for example which are also declining because of a disease that the bees get, so its not our fault necessarily). To me its more of a consumption issue. We can probably sustain more people if some countries will stop consuming so much. In my country (United States) we waste over 50 percent of our food and consume more than any other country. Climate change will be another issue. Whether you believe that its naturally happening or not ( I believe its naturally occurring, the earth has changed its environments for billions of years, but I believe that humans are speeding up the process by emitting greenhouse gasses).I do not hate humans by any means, we have achieved so much as a species and have solved many problems throughout human history. We are facing a problem of sustainability and climate change as of now and although it may be a big issue. I have faith in humanity that we can work though this. That's why I joined this field to help eradicate some of the issues concerning the environment today and hope to enrich the future so that humans can inhabit this planet for future generations. Just letting everyone know I'm not trying to go against anyone's beliefs or customs. I am just presenting some things to you all based on the research I have done.

  12. The entire earths population can fit in the State of Florida and still live comfortably. lol. The whole premise that the population is exploding and theres no room is nothing more than the Elite Scum who are not worried about that but are in fact worried that the 99% will wake up and hang them by their balls or tits. So sick and tired of fools listening or regurgitating this lie. No one on this earth should go without food. Also another lie is that humans were around for millions of years on this earth. If we were here for that long, do you really think there would be only 6.8 billion people on this planet? Until you all understand these facts, you will continue to be led astray by these satanists whose sole purpose is to deceive you that there is no GOD. Use you common sense and dont be a recording of what you hear.

    1. Spot on Mate, but can you say "Balls or Tits" without being executed? after all..you must verging on gender agenda?? Keep speaking truth. It is what truly sets men free.

  13. Guys seriously you will all be dead by the time any of this happens so chill out go get yourself a beer and enjoy your life. Peace out ;0)

  14. Does anybody read all this stuff?

    1. looks like you do

  15. WOW, All of you have a manacle of opinion. Great stuff and, well said (for most).
    But, I must say! For those that are GOD inspired. The Bible was not written by GOD, it was written by man, wither you like it or not.
    Don't get me wrong I was raised in Religion and, Baptist! At a young age. However I have learned that a miracle has the same chances as winning the Lottery. That Race is not coming to save you, though it may come and destroy you for stupidity. As has happened in the past. According to the good book. Yet still written by man. GOD may have said "Be fruitful and multiply" but, yet not only did "PAUL & JESUS" afterwards. Preach CELABCEY to stop the practice. In the New Testament. Why do Christians continue with there sinning ways. In multiples! This can be considered an abomination to the word of his way. If you really want to know, I conceive that if you don't have kids, you get to come back and, re-spawn in order too change the World. The way it was meant to be. In the order that is pre ordained. I see this because, Time can be manipulated as Einstein suggested. We may very well be locked in a loop that will continue until we get it right. Be good and good too others! My fellow Humans.

  16. I'm doing a paper on basic human needs. This video focusses primarily on cities and towns being over populated, so maybe its time that people start moving out of the city into the wilderness where they can grow their own crops and raise their own farm animals. Canada has a massive Northern landscape that is barely touched. Every US state has massive amounts of land with not a person or road or lake or tree or farm or anything else on it. I was looking at google earth today overtop of Africa. In the South Africa the population is 52.98 million and the land mass is 1.22 million square kilometers, but only a fraction is used by cities, towns and villages and still only a fraction of that land is used up by farms. Why can't we develop outsite the cities. Why can't families grow enough food on their own lands. Give everyone a pocket of land instead the government, private business or others hoarding it for themselves. In Papua New Guinea a drought wiped out all crops and many people died of starvation and thirst. Why? People were eating clay to retrieve water...why can't they drink they water coming down the river? People need to use the resources they have right in front of their faces, but how can they if the developed world refuses to pass along the information. There is ample evidence showing transfer of information in the ancient world. But at some point between the ancient world and the developed world, the information stopped transfering and its primarily because nations received freely and then decided to sell it instead of give it freely! Basic needs of a developing nation as described by the United Nations is the ability to pay for food shelter and clothing, but this is flawed. Instead basic needs should be: the ability to aquire new knowledge, new abilities and new processes through free information transfer. So instead of the developed world stipping third world countries of all its natural resources, they should be focussing more on showing the third world country how to access it themselves so that third world country doesn't have to borrow from the developed country to feed its citizens. In 3000BC copper was mined in Romania. It took, just 200 years for the technology and information for mining copper to travel 3000 miles. But for that same technology to reach Papua New Guinea, it took 5000 years. Why? Its because the information did not transfer.

  17. :-) I did a calculation and we can go up to 200( two hundred) billion on our Earth. Earth surface is 510.1 million km² and for a family of 5 members I said to have 1800 m2(= A big house 10x10m, a big courtyard 20x50m, surrounded by streets/space all around).

    We have to admit that we have A LOT of resources on Earth which we don't use.

    What resources we use we overproduce then we don't manage well: So some people throw food and resources away and some people are missing them.

    The conclusion: We have a lot of room on Earth, food and energy for everybody. We have to use our brains to find solutions and our heart to worship God our GOOD Creator.

    Be blessed with no worries!

  18. It's so fascinating to me that people really think that God exist. Stop believing the **** that is being fed to you by people who are portraying to be and stop living in your land of fake-believe.

  19. planet earth will heal itself, if we cross the limit there will be, on a regular basis new deseases are being launched like new clothes & i don't know why do you think USA is the only nation, human population is supposed to cross 10 billion in a very short time (US contains only 4.5-5% of world population) & according to my calculation no nation lasts strong more than 500 yrs in every millennium whorld dramatically changes twice, so not sure USA will last that long, every kingdom fall one day. if we are supposed to be dead let us, mother earth will last longer without US (F****** HUMAN including me )

  20. I agree, for the most part. It is terrible that we alone have caused so much destruction, however I wouldn't say we are a threat to this planet. The amazing thing about earth is it's ability to heal itself. When we overstep our existence, this planet will do what it needs to to knock us back down. Or off completely. I have a strong feeling there will be earth after humans. Unfortunately we're not helping out cause.

  21. Sorry to inform you but the Illuminati want to introduce NWO and reduce world population by 90% with fake wars, man made viruses and weather tampered and other man created disasters.

  22. Another thing to consider is what do you do if you ever had a hurricane and an electrical storm on a REALLY big scale... so many things would be affected, its not like the governments can close the doors and let it pass or go out and do anything about it. They would see it coming, but we've also seen really horrible natural disasters. we even explain one as the extinction of dinosaurs. If ppl dont kill ppl (war,disease,famine), what happens when a really big cloud shows up and happens to fry a bunch of things? basically what happened with the world trade center. not the controversy, I mean that it was part of world finances being offset. only so much they can do with natures forces. A comet takes out hoover dam... all that water is going somewhere.. if they have emergencey drains or not. they might have a way to deal with that as opposed to a catostrophic electrical storm that would fry every computer in the US. sattellites are dead cause theres no access from computer and everything run by computer is "dead". That would set alot of the population back to dealing with how does bread get to grocer if the grocer cant get any shipments?

  23. Age of Ultron people, Age of Ultron. LOL I wouldn't be surprised. Or some combination of The matrix, Micheal Bay Transformers, and the Borg turned out to be real

  24. @Luke Wilson. By the 'selfish breeders' in your comment, I can't help but notice you're referring to Africans mostly. We were living cool in our own small world where we did wrong and got punished by death or other brutal means. We used to give birth, and the children may survive as a result of the usage of the right herbs and may not if the gods - according to primitive belief- choose not to help. There was nothing like poverty, but their was extreme wealth 'cause there was always a farm. We had kings who were ordained by the oracle, Ifá; checked by the priests, Ogboni and the people too, so if any wrong, including dictatorship was found on the king, he'd be impeached and banished. Princes were not made kings after their fathers' demise, but there were families where kings were made, causing suspense like modern day democracy.

    There was nothing like stealing because if anyone stole, the god of thunder, Sango would strike the person. You can imagine an order where goods would be displayed with no one watching it, and a buyer would know the amount of the goods by the number of stones put near them; he'd take the goods, put down his cowries (money) accordingly and set out on his way. Leaders sworn with the gods they worshipped if they wanted to take their position. Nature was allowed to rule, but controlled too. There was morality: you wouldn't walk out of an elder; you'd respect your fathers words; you would have no pre-knowledge of sexual relationship, thereby preventing unwanted pregnancy, and on and on. We traded arts, sculptures, food, clothing with the Ghanaians, Benineses, Portugese, South Africans, etc. (That was of the Yorùbá culture of the Oduduwa nation in Nigeria). But your people came to us with medical supplies that would save our children, a book of the ways of primitive old men of Israel and their God, the God of Israel who purported killing of women and children, but later claimed to be the God of Peace to us.

    You told us that if we believe in Him and Him alone, blessings will be bestowed upon us. You told us tales of the 'wealthy' men of Israel and how their God blessed them. You told us we are Abraham's children when clearly we're not even a bit affiliated. You told us God varied languages in Babylon -with the 250 languages in Nigeria alone-. You said our people were not sophisticated, but I'm still wondering how they crossed the oceans.... Your people colonized our land, taught our people selfishness and our so called nationalist leaders corruption. You led our people with your greedy eyes. You discovered oil in our land, and they started leaving agriculture. Our leaders who you've corrupted left the masses to save themselves, they started entrepreneurship trade, and therefore, they give birth to children to be able to assist them and to help them live at their old age.

    You innovated medical supplies, our people give birth with ease. I know you felt your wisdom a little by deceiving the gullible. Your government invented HIV to discourage sex, then LGBT, for birth control. The US 'ranted' to not supply arms to Nigeria to fight terrorism, which I know is to reduce our population if the Gay Law is not permitted. The Pope supported Gay so as to make Christians worldwide to see no bad in it, unknowingly for him that Africans won't accept it 'cause Catholic's Fathers don't perform miracles, and they are believed to be sinners. The Muslims too accept the law of Muhammed of uncontrolled birth. If you ask a religious fanatic here why he/she gave birth to more than two children, he'll say it was not in the Bible or Quaran to not give birth to a desired number, and that children are the salt of life and reason of existence..... I live among the dogmatic ones who don't think beyond surface, attribute everything to God, say God will provide for him to provide for his kids.

    During an Economics class while I was in secondary school- high school, you call it- I raised the topic on controlled birth saying scientific discoveries did things, but I was discouraged when they said if not for uncontrolled birth, would I be saying that (I'm the 5th and last child). Many read 'population will outstrip resources' and 'birth should be controlled' religiously, write them down in test for marks, but that doesn't mean they don't have it at the back of their mind that they'll give birth to 3 kids.... I know so many strategies that can help to control birth in West Africa, Nigeria to be precise, but it will go nowhere. I doff my cap to whoever invented Ebola, but I'm also sorry it didn't attain the height expected of it.

  25. we will not underestimated that how many people die everyday in whole world and we will not underestimated that how many babies born everyday in the whole world because everything is unexpected.

    and another thing, can you underestimated the population on earth this year? can someone exactly do that??..... I think it's no one exact that. because everyday that have new and loss.. and you know sometimes other people had a sins. you know why? because there so idiot to do that thing so fast. and they didn't know how was affected that.

    overpopulated people? I think that's true but I think the other people on their thrones didn't think that the urban of their country is many people and crowd or should I say... they didn't notice that and they think their negotiate with others and benefits that they will got.

    no offense but that's I notice and take note: don't too much thinking of tomorrow because to much thinking of that is too possibility to happened that I next day.

    and I advised? care the environment from now on if you want to live longer in this world your love ones and other your next generations and controlled the overpopulated because if it's not control... the population was grower than you thought

    and last that video is only a theory okay??

  26. After several years of theoretical studies and cunducting vast studies on humanistic behavors, I've concluded many theorie, some proven and some not. I have created a prediction based off the size and depthness if the earth and inclusion, there would have yo around 64 billion people inhabitating this planet and the pollution to go along with these people, for it to be no more. So figure, around the year 3500.

  27. Long time thinking for most people is what will happen tomorrow or the next day. They use religion to tell them how to think in fairy tales.Even some educated people fall for impossible stories from the bible and Koran.I wish religions were based on science and common sense instead of magic and mayhem .

  28. Overpopulation is a big global problem, especially where too many people are competing for the same space. Overeating might be a still bigger global problem, especially where people have more money then sense.
    It is becoming increasingly clear that governments around the world lack the structures they would need if they are to have much hope of solving their most pressing problems.
    Human migration is currently the most urgent of these problems. So many would-be migrants have already drowned that their desperation is not in doubt. Politicians grappling with huge debts and popular anger about illegal immigrants are reduced to mouthing comfortless contradictions like: “We don’t want you to drown - but we don’t want you here”.
    Again, the Greek dilemma has revealed that there is great wealth within that country which politicians are unable to tax because the wealth is safely stashed away in tax havens. There is much popular anger but a widespread feeling of impotence.
    The most glaring present-day scandal is the fact that the wealthiest nations of the world, not themselves at war, grow still wealthier by selling arms to nations at war or threatened by insurgents. This does not stop their towns from getting gutted or their populations from fleeing to refugee camps. Nobody is currently able to stop the carnage.
    In a globalised world, it is impossible to solve pressing problems like these until action can be taken on a global scale. Unless we are willing to allow the UN to possess strong global structures to impose the universal rule of law in all trans-national areas of government, things can only get worse.

  29. Salem your naivety is staggering. Of course the planet needs smaller families. In the 21st century, families are consuming more resources than entire villages in terms of energy, water, land. And thats just the developed world. Africa and Asia are understandably aspiring to the same.
    Do you think that just because your needs are met as one of a family of 9, theres no cost or consequence, that you arent taking a disproportionate slice of what the remaining population needs?
    The point isnt about your family's ability to live comfortably or what it does to be responsible, the point is its size and just how many families there are.
    As for the hysterical tirade accusing commentators of being eugenic, advise you reacquaint yourself with the dictionary-eugenics is concerned with the genetic/aesthetic qualities of existing populations, not population size.When the oil runs out you can forget 9 child familes anyway, given the energy intensive requirements of feeding America.

  30. Smaller families? i really hope that isn't a suggestion in this film. Already the most developed countries are not even at replacement. There have been massive societies in history before that found a way to inhabit the earth without raping it. If we continue the population control agenda going, the dirty rats that have philandered the earth's resources won't leave enough people around to clean up the mess. How does a dessert heal? When humans build lakes & ponds & start cultivating in a biodynamic way. So someone tell me how population control is completely essential. I am the 3rd of 9 children & I got lectured by this rich bitch about wanting a lot of children. She tried to shame me out of it by saying that large families leave such a large carbon footprint on the earth. Well, my mom was a homemaker & while everyone else on our street had an average of only 3 residents per household, my parents never did (& still do not) need more than one garbage can. Also, this rich lady had 2 kids & was divorced. Her husband alone had 2 or 3 vehicles, she had an SUV & her 2 teen daughters (one didn't even have a license yet) each had their own car. My family of 11 had 2 vehicles most of my growing up. My parents never upgraded to a larger vehicle until they couldn't safely fit all of us. While my mom now has to have a job, she carpools & my dad works from his home office. We don't build new homes because there are so many already built that are vacant (many of which are from the dying baby boomers & their parents). My parents are frugal & have never bought a new car. They always get the most fuel efficient vehicle they can afford. All 9 of us have learned to do the same. My upbringing was key to this. Also, my mom used cloth diapers for 6 out of the 9 of us. I still remember washing diapers out in the toilet. I'm so granola that my little family only uses toilet paper for #2 (& that's only cause we live in an apartment). I bet if someone calculated it, my parents entire posterity has had less of a carbon footprint than the rich bitch that tried to shame me out of having a large family. I'm gonna have as many kids as I can so I can teach them how to respect the earth & encourage them to do the same (have a lot of kids & teach them well). It won't take many generations of this before my posterity alone will have a significant impact on the way things are done in this world. It is creepy that humans would suggest that other humans try to help reduce the population. They are just elitist eugenists that only see other humans as useless eaters. Creeps!

    1. I cannot begin to fathom how you didn't realize the second sentence at the top of the page. We have far more than doubled in worldwide population since 1950 alone... There have been no other "massive" societies of ANYWHERE

    2. I think it is creepy that you are "gonna have as many kids as I can" and that you think your "posterity alone will have a significant impact on the way things are done in this world." I imagine you mean that in a good way, but I think you are starting out in the wrong way.

      Personally, I didn't "go forth and multiply," but that isn't the answer either.

  31. For me it's irrelevant how this world came to existence (God, Big Bang, etc.)

    The relevant part I see is that the moment mankind in its evolution started differentiating from other species in its ability to "to extend its capabilities" through making and using "tools" (sticks, pointy rocks, etc.), this gave humans the ability to "overpower" other species.... Since those days, we're DOOMED.

    Today we humans perceive that it's our right to want everything (TV, a house, mobile, food, services, shopping, etc.). It the consequence of wanting everything that makes mankind destroy the planet.

    It's not a matter of controlling how many people live in the planet, it's a matter of reversing the culture of mankind... getting mankind not to want to everything... Is it possible?... do you think every single human across all religions and cultures would give up everything?... don't think so...

    It's like saying to every family on the planet that lives in a house or an appartment: "Please stop wanting everything... please live in a tent from now on (like camping)"... would people do it? would you do it?.. don't think so :-(

    We're Fu&*d

    1. One way or another it will run its course, whether by choice or by force mankind will have to adapt its lifestyle.

      What your describing in your post is something i have considered, I called it in my mind "as god intended" and would require mankind to live on the planet as part of it not ruler of it, so we wouldn't even have tents, but find natural shelter in caves and the ground. life would be hard, and death will come early, nothing would be easy or taken for granted in such a world.

      It was nice to read someone else's own thoughts and outlooks on the same subject i have considered. It was my love of pogar bears that lead me to this video and making these comments, Money wont save polar bears, it wont save man either, one day giving up everything (even if that be our own life) will be the only way forward.

    2. Actually using tools was not that bad, the bad part was when we learned how to cure sick people and started to reproduce just for the "sex" and to spread our genes, not for the reproduction itself like all the other animals on the planet.

      98%~ of all humans are living now, today this very year. That's crazy, we have been on this planet for so long and now is the time when we reproduce like crazy.

      I fear for this planet unless a virus kills a huge part of our population once again.

    3. Except we've become so advanced its hard for a plague to take effect and one that can take effect will probably be outrageously hard to cure posing a whole new threat. I think the only plausiblle and legal way for population control now is the Earth will have to purge itself by means of natural disaster. That is if outside interference doesn't happen first, I mean like something from outer space hitting the planet.

    4. I agree, for the most part. It is terrible that we alone have caused so much destruction, however I wouldn't say we are a threat to this planet. The amazing thing about earth is it's ability to heal itself. When we overstep our existence, this planet will do what it needs to to knock us back down. Or off completely. I have a strong feeling there will be earth after humans. Unfortunately we're not helping out cause.

    5. I wouldn't mind living in a tent and hunting or fishing if I had to but you are right, people are used to having electric and flushing toilets. It would be hard to just give up everything. People are spoiled from birth, hell most of us have our first day on Earth is in a Hospital, compared to the old fashion days of just dropping the kid out in a cave or the forest somewhere.

  32. God created the planet, it is for him and him alone to decide who lives and who dies. The planet will resolve the problem naturally...

    And when your time arrives you will stand before god each in turn and answer charges on how you behaved here on earth...

    man can not control its masters regardless of what each person may think. Now you may not be religious or believe in such affairs, so...

    It gets even more simple to deal with, Every animal species on the planet will breed out of control and beyond its limits, and the only thing that keeps each in check is the natural events of the planet itself and the cycle of life it creates.

    Mankind may be the top of the food chain, but the planet controls the 2% of fresh water that feeds you all. The planet has already got its own safeguard against the human population.

  33. to keep balance on planet earth we should be 1 billion people not 7 billion

    1. Oh wonderful, lets reduce numbers of human beings to dangerous levels. down to a billion you say, that should fair well against the number of human life claimed against natural disasters.

      I suspect you been reading too much of agenda 21... lets factor in accidental deaths, disease, infertility rates, you have to get an entire picture.

      When a species death toll outweighs its reproductive values that is what is consider by us as endangered. I suspect that figure is not entirely the maximum and I also doubt in my own mind it was researched in as much depth as it should have been.

      We are at 7+ billion now, half that would make a huge difference and even that would be much higher and sustainable than the UNs 1billion figures.

      lets just not mess around with mother nature... start fixing the global impact of humans by all means, but leave the decision of life to the planet itself.

      Money wont save you, try waving a dollar at a hurricane heading your direction

    2. We have been on this planet for a very long time and 1 billion is a lot of people if they are living in different countries.

      Today we are so many and so different that a change is impossible, we wait for the worst to happen first. And not just +4 celcius, we want to watch people die before we act or try to.

    3. And you suggest handling the 6 billion others how????

    4. Wait for a Natural Disaster, thats how. We can do all the planning in the world for as many scenarios as we want, but the fact of the matter is, we're like ants on a ant-hill and nature is the kid with the doc martens. If it wants to wipe out a chunk of humanity, adios.

  34. Plant based diets would have a profound difference. Most of our agricultural land is used to feed meat production animals. Our animals bred for meat/dairy/eggs outnumber humans by 3:1. There is more than enough grain on this earth to feed the world where many people are dying of starvation. 13lbs of grain is used to produce just 1lb of beef and 70% of the deforested amazon land is now used for feed production and pastures...Please look up the numerous health and environmental benefits before posting an uneducated, negative response. We will learn this one way or another; that unless a drastic change a occurs a meat based diet will be one of the leading causes of our premature demise.

    1. The guardian newspaper released information that annalists claim half the worlds food production is simply wasted. I would agree that better food management across the spectrum should be taken more seriously.

      I tried a vegan only diet in light of viewing a documentary on the slaughter of animals, and whilst your figures are correct based on data from meat.org, eating meat is a natural part of earths eco systems. and happens in much of nature.

      It is also part of the balance of the planet and what helps keep many variety's of animals alive in addition to other factors. this said better food management is something of a viewpoint i share with you.

      Not too mention the obscene amounts of non required packaging used with it.

  35. We are running out of fresh water, acidifying our oceans, decimating our fisheries, desertifying our arable land, slashing and burning our vital forests, and aggressively blowing poison into our oxygen supply.
    Overpopulation is connected to every major problem humanity faces.
    Contraception needs to be free and freely available for all human beings
    world-wide. What keeps an inexpensive and easily applied answer to slowing down global warming via over-population? The religious and their archaic and fear-based dogma. Visit SIECUS,org to discover the reproduction education curriculum in your county. (or lack thereof)

    1. "Overpopulation is connected to every major problem humanity faces."

      No, communism/dictatorships are. If you disagree, show me the last time a democratic government had famine with multiple deaths

      History is repleat with examples though of the opposite.
      Democracy and capitalism keeps the modern world fed.

  36. Of course he's in a room with 3 lamps and 2 candles...way to go using more than your fair share! Bet he's wearing more than one layer of clothing as well...talk about hypocrite!

  37. Baron Evelyn de Rothshithead and Ted Turner are the largest landholders in the world. These land whores could fit all of humanity on their land. So give it back to the people you stole it from, this is not your planet, is it ours and humans, evolving through the conveyor belt between Hades the place, (Lagoon Nebula) and Earth, have had their fill of your type. I love humanity, they are chill and groovy, when not disturbed by war for profit from drug dealing despots not divinely appointed by any god of heaven in the front row of creation.

  38. Post Judgment, post War in Heaven that was won by Zeus, with the help of Demeter/Durga and Persephone/Kali; Shiva/Uranus/Hades rising from the dead; the overthrow of Eros, death on two sticks, who tried to usurp the kingdom will not rise from the dead. Ganesha fell in the War on Earth with Eros/Lucifer and Cronos/Caplan and the other fallen. Humans made it, the tenth race, but barely. So who cares, the only ones not returning are the likes of those who tried to take over earth and seed hate groups, like this bloke. Bye.

  39. By DEFINITION, if we are not living sustainably, we are overpopulated. Stop breeding so danged much. Adopt!! (and cease the deplorable waste; other people will have to use this planet some day).

  40. The planet earth can only hold so many people. Currently we have 7,056,000,000 and keeps on going up by the second. If we dont do anything to stop world population from growing then we will eventually run into many problems in the future at some point. I would strongly suggest that every country in this world should put a BAN ON BIRTH for 30 or 40 years. If that would of happen then that would reduce so many problems such as crime, theft, rape, CO2 pollution, less jerks to deal with etc.

    1. good luck enforcing that one

    2. You would also lose a lot of the economy and industries that cater to children. You would lose jobs like teachers and anyone associated with education. Some small countries could barely even survive that long,. A better solution would be like what China tried in 2001 with the limited birth control, only allowing a limited number of children. Zero population growth occurs at two children per couple, just enough to replace the parents. If each couple had only one child for 30 or 40 years, the population growth rate would decrease, you would have to base it on the the present population size because some countries would become too tiny.

    3. Actually, what this has led to is mass abortion of female fetuses. By 2020, (in China) there will be upwards of 30 million more males than females looking to get married. So really, it is not a better solution, especially highly sexist cultures.

    4. All of the problems you just said are to do with class, the lack of equality, and most importantly environment .including rape murder theft. times have changed and we still grow food in fields. 2d thinking. also if every single person in the world moved to Australia every man woman and child would have one acre of land each.

    5. Ian Ludwick
      i would double check your math. Australia is 7686850 square km or approx 1899462001 acres divide that by 7 billion (approx world pop) and that equals .27135 acres /person. these are rough numbers and some sites vary on the land mass a little but not 1 acre/person. totally agree there are class problems among many others but getting the figures wrong doesn't help the cause.

    6. If you've seen Australia, or looked at a map of it, you'd see that there is a very big difference between what patch of land you'd get. (Edit- not you, but anyone looking at it. :)
      There's quite a lot of land, but much of it isn't very productive for human habitation, the way we do it now. Every time I go bush here I'm amazed at the skill the original peoples had, to not only survive, but thrive. I understand the point, there is room, but some rooms are better then others. One has to consider that some land supports more then others. (On a side note, because of changing climate cycles, different patch's have been better at different times. The Sahara was once green and lush. Check out Milankovitch cycles anyone that's interested. Climate change, lol, it's always changing, it depends on what time scale you're looking at.)

    7. docoman
      agreed. that did cross my mind as well. thanks

  41. Stupid copyright laws, this should be accessible to anyone. Here's doubting bbc worldwide even has it on their own page. Money wins out again...

  42. i actually agree with bob your either scared of death or your just ignorant and a fool humans have become too much if we continue to populate think about all these animals which would get extinct about %60 of all sea creatures have been wiped out in the past 100 years we are cutting down forests on a massive scale humans need to be 'reset' and nature needs to recover from this problem or maybe even wipe us out

    planets like ours are very rare and its hard to say how rare so why should we kill off living things on this planet its just not right humans shouldnt be this size in population

  43. solution: We need a global pandemic to wipe out 2/3 of the world population. A global population reset would solve so many problems. If we won't initiate a 3rd world war to solve the problems,, hopefully nature will. i pray there's a scientist out there somewhere in some lab working on this, You call it a disease, I call it a cure.

    1. Bob, you're an id**t. Hopefully you'll be among the first to contract said pandemic disease. Use your brain. Something that swift would collapse social and economic structures. There are plenty of well thought out plans that could be instilled and yes it would take time but to maintain sanity in a global population down growth that will be necessary. We are an intelligent race, not a bunch of barbarians like you apparently are. People like you make me shudder.

    2. intelligent race?? are you mad mate look around you. tell you what go to tesco buy a piece of salmon and slap yourself with it. we cut down the amazon which takes up 70 percent of pollution on earth, we start wars over oil, we pay footballers 180 grand a week when firefighters, police,nurses cant buy food let alone pay there morgage and have to go on strike. we let a bunch of conmen and liers control our country and steal from the tax payer, we murder, abuse, rape ,steal i can go on all day E.G you can go to war and kill someone at the age of 18 but you have to be 21 to buy a alcoholic drink. i mean come on you serious?????

    3. Amazon does not soak up 70% of all pollution that is a mis conception and a pile of cobblers, Oceans soak up way more pollution of all sorts than all the Forests on Earth combined ten fold.
      You say policmen, firefighters, nurses i say bollox to them, we lived without them for 100K's of years but we can not live without heat and water and food but you dont mention Water workers or farmers the people we really cant exist without , odd world.
      If you think Homo Sapiens is not Intelligent i suggest checking a dictionary for its meaning as your reasons for why we are not have nothing to do with the word lol.

    4. "nurses cant buy food let alone pay there morgage "

      ridicul0us

      I am married to a nurse, she only works 3 or 4 days a week and owns her own home and very nice car.

      For the most part you vote your station in life with work and given ability and inteligence.

      Life is NOT some cruel lottery, it tales a bit of work. Vote to select a differerent station and pattern to your life.

    5. what utter tripe. Plague of Justinian, Black death etc wiped out huge amounts of people and in many areas completely depopulated them but guess what we grew back stronger and more Humans appeared, you see problem is after all these Pandemics humans breed ten times more after so the Global population is only destroyed for a few Generations before getting even larger than it was previous to the Pandemics, smallpox alone killed estimated 500 million people in the C20th before been mostly wiped out and thats just smallpox but our numbers have only increased.

    6. Who would you like to start with, Bob? Your mother? Your child? My mother? My child? My partner, yours? Or just people you don't know or don't like very much?

    7. I don't care who it starts with make me the first. But something needs to happen and no matter what happens birth rate wont decrease just because someone said how many kids can be born someone will always not lessen. natural deserters that wipe out a good amount of the population has happened before it will happen again.

    8. Fortunately there are less drastic and more moral ways to achieve this goal. We can simply stop at two children, or rather, one per parent. This tends to happen of society's own accord when it reaches a certain level of development, when food and medical care is readily available and women gain access to education and economic freedoms, ie able to get jobs themselves.

      In this we can find a win/win solution, one I'm happy to say people like the gates foundation are working towards...

    9. Does this include you, yourself being wiped out?

    10. Agreed, and I vote that you be one of the one infected with the disease first.
      Thanks for stopping by and visiting the living though...
      Life will always find a way. It is mans brain that provides the solutions.

      We will again we just need to remove govenment limitations on mans discoveries and inovation.

  44. This documentary points out three problems but addresses only 2 of the issues.
    1. population
    2. water
    3. consumption in developed world (USA, Europe)
    I didn't hear any points of views from common people in the developed world about point# 3, especially from USA who happen to be the largest drain and cause of conflicts and wars on the world's resources.

  45. LoL, I'm dumb!

    1. we know

  46. Firstly, I don't think that "god" or whatever you call it has much to do with the way that man is raping, and destroying, the planet. In the Bible it says that man was given "free will". The Bible is Holy, so it must be true.
    It is greed, pure and simple. Earth is pretty well ******...biosystems are hanging by threads around the world. Watch and see...it's a great time to be alive.
    I sincerely hope that the perpetrators drop dead realquick and meet their maker; who I am sure will be wanting an explanation for their total disregard for anything resembling stewardship of Earth. Actually, I think that many are going to find themselves in this position sometime really soon, like in the next 12 months....so you better think about what your story is. I've got mine.

  47. What we need 2 do is 2 kill at least 5 billion people of our population by wars,diseases and starvation.If our kind hope 2 survive the next 100 yrz,if human kind fails 2 heed my warning i will take it upon myself 2 act more drastic than i suggested.

    1. My thought is that you (Antichrist6) should be included in the 5 billion killed off. If your "kind' are allowed to survive, and god forbid procreate, we will have a planet full of idiots. What kind of planet would that be. And for the record, 2 and to are not the same, just as yrz and years are not.

  48. Frankly, it's sad to see so many opinions and statements made about Australia from people that clearly have no idea and probably base most of their "knowledge" about Australia from antiquated and misleading ideas.

    1. If you love Australia, who gives a **** what others think. What other people think is their baggage...just thank the Creator that theirs is not yours.
      I love Australia too. But as it was 1000 years ago. The Aborigines had it made then...until white man screwed anything they could.

    2. What kind of a "creator" provides the basic necesseties of life to some, but not others?

  49. we need more from Mr. Attenborough

  50. Great video, he is completely correct, we have to change our ways and stop being so selfish. I personally believe that the human race is the worst thing to ever come to planet earth. We are greedy, we kill for no reason, we take up all the land, we only care about ourselves, and we start wars and conflict.
    I also don't know why people are bringing God up in all these comments? Maybe there is a God, maybe there isn't, but heres the complete truth, God isn't going to be able to change our ways, the only person that can do that is yourself. So leave religion out of this, the video has nothing to do with religion or GOD. If you want to bring up religion go to another video on the internet that has to do with GOD or JESUS because neither one of those people or things are going to be able to change how we live on this planet.

    It is kind of pathetic how people fight for no reason in this world; over money, land, and religion. I don't think religion is a bad thing at all but some people in this world take it way to far and start conflict over nothing. I personally have never seen GOD and I don't think anyone else has, so why are we fighting over him? That's what makes our civilization so weak. Like the 9/11 attacks were because of religion. So i think I made my point, stop bringing religion into important videos like these because nobody cares about what your thoughts about your religion.

    For starters the government has to set a law that you can only have 1 or 2 children, we need to rely on renewable energy and we got to use our technology to our advantage because it is all right there in front of us all we have to do is work for it and we will achieve our goals. If we do all of these things that this video has told us to do than the human race will be around for ceturies to come.

    1. Brettzsky,
      I got onto the computer today because after walking my dog and seeing (everyday) plastic waste everywhere, waste that in the 1000 years it takes to break down will work it's way into either the sea or the soil. Disaster either way. My heart was almost breaking due to man's careless ways. I was feeling utter dismay and telling myself that I cannot do anything about it . So I am very glad now, after much searching, to find a like minded person. Stay your way.

  51. We do not have an over-population problem. We have an evil heart problem. We need a change of heart. We do not love others as we love ourselves. All our wisdom, and all our knowledge just make us more efficient, and faster at making a mess of things. Being wise in our own eyes, we became fools. We worship the creation, rather than worship the Creator.

    1. Yes, let's just sit back and pray to god...he'll solve all our problems so we don't have to take personal responsibility and make some sacrifices for the good of the planet. You do realize it's your backward fairy-tale thinking that holds society back, right? Prime example teaching creationism in schools as scientific theory w/ not even a hint of scientific evidence, or limiting stem cell research because "god" wouldn't want us to. If you seriously think that there is no over-population problem and that it's an "evil-heart problem" whatever that might mean. Then I feel sorry for you, and anyone who actually believes like you. And also for me, because I have to live on this over crowded planet w/ people who think like you.....and who's vote is equal to mine....Stop waiting for a higher power to solve your problems and take responsibility

  52. This government stooge NEVER tells the truth..only the government line of propaganda.
    He was a top executive of the BBC, which is the propaganda wing of the UK government & the EU.

  53. When I was 14 my parents spent my college money on beach front property. Having selfish parents did wonders for extinguishing my own personal birthrate. Today, I can only afford 2 kids, being not highly skilled. (The more selfish the parents, the less likely their offspring can suitably reproduce...)

    1. take responsability for your life and stop blaming others.Be the person god has created you to be ,only if you want and believe.first you must believe and then read mark 11:24.

  54. I believe there are less people today than there was before in the past .. ( So if it used to be for example 20? billion, then it dropped )

    1. @Sudhakar Narra,

      Who told you that?
      The Iranian President maybe?
      Just as there ain't not one homosexual in Iran?

      Pierre.

    2. Yes that is quite ridiculous to think we had more ppl in the past than now.

    3. If you believe this, then you would be wrong.

  55. Maybe this has all happened before, but as it was so long ago we have forgotten. Apart from hints which may NOT be fairy tales in writings such as the Bible . . . . "be fruitful and multiply" . . . yeah, we did that one REALLY well. Evidence shows the human population once got down to less than 50,000, so in those times that exhortation made sense. It sure doesn't now. Except to certain religions who trust in a God who apparently prefers human misery, disease, starvation, wars, suffering and eventual extinction to the use of the brains which presumably were also bestowed upon us by that same God. Pity we are too dumb to use those brains to control our numbers, as we collectively breed, consume, rape and destroy our environment past the point of no return. But don't worry folks, as we edge ever closer to the next mass extinction - ourselves - nature will surely take its course. Just as it does with plagues of insects, rats, mice, lemmings - you name it. Planet Earth will still survive. It always has. We probably won't.

    All very Darwinian, isn't it.

    Quincybones

    1. Of course religion LOVES human suffering, televangelists thrive on it as they exploit and bilk idiots out of their last penny. And I believe that you are referring to the Toba Catastrophe of around 70, 000 years ago when a super volcano erupted in what is now Indonesia. The theory points to a near extinction event where humans may have been reduced to a few thousand breeding pairs. Interesting stuff.

  56. Great Doc. This is the reason why I won't have any kids till I'm in my 30's or 40's, and when I do, I will have just one - as my father did before me.

  57. I've got news for you Allan

    Selfishness and Ignorance are the problem here. Many people are just plain ignorant. Of those who know the truth only a few are willing to be selfless enough to live according to it.

    Ignorance: Please do not be offended by what I'm about to say but it's the truth. Truth is not common, it's rare. It's hard to swallow for most people. I do not know about you, but here goes.

    I'm sure you know a lot of things but there are many IMPORTANT things that you do not know about. But you are about to.

    1. God is there. He runs the show, but then He gives people like you freedom to choose to believe Him or not. You can't scientifically prove that He is not there, but I have evidence that He is there! And the news is, He is coming to town. You heard me right, God is gonna step out from behind the scenes very soon (Ask me for the evidence)

    2. There is more religion in modern science than you'd think. A good part of it subjective not objective and hence deceptive. Like evolution for e.g. DYK that it is UNPROVED and UNPROVABLE. It takes more faith to believe in evolution than to believe in the bible. If you don't believe me go and try to prove it. Most people believe that simply because they are indoctrinated in our "enlightened" atheistic schools. ATHEISM is a religion that believes that there is no God and it has completely hi-jacked science. (It is responsible for the rot that we see in humanity today)

    2. i) There is more to the religion of the Bible than you know. I'm sure you've never studied it, and you may not even want to. But tell you what, that's not "scientific". Science is about proving things, and how can you label the Bible as false or problematic when you have not proved that the things in it are false/problematic. DYK that TRUE bible religion is NOT practiced at all bt most modern "CHRISTIANS", so chances are, CHRISTIANITY is not what you think it is.

    ii) What does the Bible really teach and how does this impact on how people live? There are many things that you do not really know.

    DYK that TRUE bible religion is:

    a) Pro-science. It's in harmony with OBJECTIVE science (linksavailable)

    b) Environmentally friendly:

    - Discourages wastefulness and greed and materialism

    - Teaches followers to care for the planet. (it says that God will destroy those who destroy the earth)

    - Teaches responsible reproduction.

    - Teaches people to be honest (Imagine a world with Honest politicians: sound like heaven on earth)......................

    -THE LIST IS LONG . Maybe a full article will do.

    Bottom line is:
    ONLY THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT THE TRUTH WILL STAND.

    1. Thank you! First person I've ever seen in comments sections who has a logical view of the truth - which can't BE without God.

    2. Hi Vince,
      Have you read the book 'Letter to a Christian Nation' by Sam Harris. There is some real truth in there. Well worth a look.

    3. Hi Vince,
      Have you read the book 'Letter to a Christian Nation' by Sam Harris. There is some real truth in there. Well worth a look.

    4. I belive in GOD but follow no religious books as they have been changed by humains.I've done bible studys and read the bible aside from the studys about 5 times front to back,and also have read the Koran.Islam at the begining belived they could pray in a church of Synagogue or anywere,and were origionaly supposed to respect people of all religions.But as time went by humains changed the way it is intended to be practised.I ask GOD through prayer to guide me and belive thats the best way faith don't cause war religion witch no book names does.GOD is love and will not forsake people because of the religion practised were they are born and belive it is GODs world as much as people from other religions.We have whats needed to support the people and more but do to the so cxalled ellite and there evils we live abouve whats needed to be happy and healthy.God is the creator of all and i do belive there is much to learn from holy books but they are not GOD.I belive there is much GOD would agree with in holy books but also much he would not.I've looked at the Bible the Koran and could not get trough the evil Babalonian Talmad that is defenatly not from GOD but possibly from the devil himself.God gave every humain a moral compass that tells use right from wrong and I belive thats what we will be judged on.Christianity in America alone has over 2000 different interpitations and all claim to understand you need the holy spirit but all claim they are the ones with it.To pick the right religion given the different denominations and different religions is pure luck.Thats a huge reason aside from the fact everthing man has toached can't be trusted.GOD would not dame all people and I belive if you repent and really mean it and change your life and do what your mind and heart tell you is right he will forgive you for past mistakes our sins.I don't belive we are here by chance and it to me proves that there is a creator that is the father of use all.I also belive there are many evil people that could be forgiven but would only want it to save themselfs and not out of love and appresiation but out of fear.And because GOD would no your thoughts they are past being forgiven.I also belive what the bible says that the punnishment for sin is death not eternal suffering in hell.In the first scrolls that before being edited and shown to the world were in the Rockefeller institute the Vatican and Israel for many years.Edit is to change and get ready for publication.The Chief editor was a man named James Strugnell look it up youself don't take my word for it.So some of the most evil and the people with the most reason to want the Scrolls to match the bibles hade them.And they used them to there advantage to foll the world into beliving they matched the book that have been changed how nows how many times.I really belive the holy books are man made but like many things can not prove it.Beliving this has no influence on my strong belife there is a GOD that has no cast system and loves us all the same.We I belive will be judged fairly unlike the way we are in the world with all it's ungodly corruption.

  58. "They All" are much too busy bleeding off others.
    As history teached us, they'll go up to the very last minute.

    Beside, this whole thing is someone else business since I'll be long gone by then.

    Pierre.

  59. It is a bit scary this idea that we will have to deal with another 2 billion people and reach 9 billion before 2050. We are going to have to be very smart in terms of our management of resources. The fact that we can drink only 1% of our water on Earth is our main concern especially for us living in dry countries. I believe smart water policies is our greatest challenge

  60. When you fly over the world you seen many towns and cities and whole countries full of many, many people. It's like the old Christmas story - how are we going to occupy all these people tonight? There's another lady out in the stable having another baby to sleep in that spare manger! More people to feed also means more people to work if the world employers get up and GIVE new jobs to all the new people being born. It is a very very big planet and there is a lot of room for all the people to be born in the next century and all the world recreation places that will be nominated as hunting free and only for fun, like the oceans of the world. Don't be selfish. This is the first generation to be born in a century of very strong immunity to infectious diseases and the ability to be survivors of cancer. They can not only be more healthy than any people ever born on this planet, but can be born and grow bodies in bigger sizes. They can have better looking bodies with better educational opportunities for all. Be nice. For Christmas forget about over-population and worry about the mother elected to give birth to the next baby in the manger when the inn is occupied.

  61. Corporations and governments are the reason for this. Industrialization has pushed us into cities where you need a vehicle(oil smog) and two parents working(latch key kids) to be a competitive employees. We've all been made into worker bees trying to serve a make believe version of the real God of the bible. Everything from the Gregorian calender and daylight savings was created in the name of extracting the most from the masses for a few. We used to go off the lunar cycle for our calender in the bible and sunlight to sunset. People for the most part try not to destroy the environment but corporations in the name of profit act with no conscience. I'm ranting so I'll call it a day.

  62. The New Dallas Cowboys Stadium? can hold 110,000 people. It is 3 million square feet = .107 square miles. So you take 6.7 billion divided by 110,000 which gives you 60,909 (6,090.9 sq. miles). It would take 60,909 Dallas Cowboys stadiums to contain every human being in the planet. What does this mean? You could fit the entire world population inside of New Jersey (which is over 8,000 square miles) and still have 1,000 square miles left over in N.J. alone! (Look at how small N.J. is on a map).

    1. I bet there are stadiums in other countries with much more packed seats than the nice Dallas Cowboys statium; but what does that has to do with food production, water pollution, air pollution, etc? You are totally missing the point...

    2. more michelle bachman nonsense. what "study" is being repeatedly cited on this "you can fit all of the people on the planet in one large big room" mentality? and who funded such childish reasoning?

  63. The planet will billions of years as it has done in the past.
    The human race will be extinct if continue the same way. So what one might ask as many species have perished in the history of planet.
    can we save ourselves is the question. Perhaps we may never know.

  64. The concept that each "family" should want to have kids so that the sons would take care of them in their "old age" is insane. This is a never ending exponential cycle of population explosion. Sometime it needs to be nipped in the bud. Someone needs to say, "This misery ends with me; there will be no offspring; I shall have no lineage; the cycle of poverty ends with me; there will be no one to take care of me in my old age, and after I'm dead,
    I won't care anyway. "

    1. the concern is not after death,it is getting there,is where people need offspring to help them.hell,the streets would be full of dying old timers

  65. I wish that people would take care of those that are already here on Earth,
    instead of birthing new humans. It confounds me, to see that people, who are keenly aware of all their impoverished neighbors, should say to themselves, "Well, our neighbors are poor, hungry, & broke, but, let's have sex anyway, and create 3 more additional children who will also be poor." I'm in my 40's, have never had kids, (since I myself am poor); I do not desire to have offspring; I think that it is more important that each individual should strive towards self-improvement instead, and to have compassion for your neighbors and help homeless or impoverished kids.

    1. have you looked into Buddhism?

    2. You have a great thiking about life in general... I am pleased to see someone with such mindset

  66. Well, here's the deal.
    We are all biological construncts with ther hard wired mandate to procreate. Short of that, auto -destruct. (cancer, death)
    So, if you're not having sex; you die.
    Republicans, the Pope, The Koran etc. say you can't prevent pregnancy and Voila! Population explosian!!
    Could it be simpler?

    1. The "procreation' gene propagates itself. Those that have no desire to procreate are left out of the equation and do not pass on their non-procreation gene.
      Hence the "non-procreation" gene, if it exists, is extremely rare.

      This need to multiply is further enhanced by culture and media, which
      pressures men to "find a woman". In China, where women
      are suddenly rare, this is going to be hilarious. Will the men start pretending to be females when females are hard to find?

    2. don't have to go to china,this country is the gayest

    3. The hormones of mammals do create a sex drive. But unlike animals with limited frontal lobe brain development, we can control whether or not to bring a child into a world that is becoming increasingly difficult to live. It is called contraception and effective reproduction education, for all human beings, globally.

  67. Here lies the problem: Free choice, like it or not most people feel it is their right to have as many children as they want.
    Whether this is right or wrong is a debate fuelled with passion. Was it right the Chinese only being able to have 1 child per household and having a baby girl was seen as a disaster. usually resulting in the baby being thrown into a river or left to die, is this right?
    I am offering no opinion here just stating facts and pros and cons.
    Some people argue that people should have to pass a test in order to prove they are able to support their children before they would be allowed to have another child, without relying on hand outs from their government. What do you think about this?
    Another argument is that people in the developing world are having way too many children and that we should pull out aid as without the first worlds aid these countries would collapse because they live in regions with little or no water and other natural resources to support the millions of people we have falsely given life to. Pulling out aid would mean that millions of people would starve to death and the responsibility for this would be ours, is this fair?
    The statistics show that in order to live in a sustainable manner the world can only support around 4 billion people worldwide, so something has to be done and it needs to be radical, the problem is that nobody can decide what.
    It angers me that so many people want immigrants in this country sent 'back home' this has got nothing to do with the population crisis as back in their countries of birth; for example Hungary. there are not enough people there to support the young, elderly and sick and the country is on the verge of collapse.
    If you want somebody to blame, please don't blame the people who come here wanting a better life for their families but the government that has allowed this to happen with poor policies and a nation living on handouts. If you look at the figures there are 20 times more English people who have never worked a day in their life than immigrants relying on the benefit system. We need to look to ourselves for the answers here.
    Yes the government has made it this way with many eastern europeans, people from the middle east etc working here and sending money back to their families where as the average working class english can't afford to support their families on these low wages and so live on benefits which make them 'better off'. Please, please I beg you don't blame the man next door who has different colour skin, look to your failing and corrupt government!

  68. Question is which is better...

    a) Live more people for less time ..Means after sometime there may not be enough resources and life on earth is going to end..

    b) Less people on earth leaves resources for many generations to come..

    I don't know which is better..

  69. i have to say bleek but everyone has to realize that the only reason why the world's population has been able to increase so easily is because major wars haven't been happening, thoughout the history of the world its not been anything else other than war to limit the world's population, while things like the black plage or other major infections have done a lot they have not killed nearly as many people as wars, take ww2 it killed over 100million people in just 5 years, if you want to limit the world then its simple start a war that will wipe out a large part of the worlds poulation

    1. that is not true at all! War creates baby booms.

    2. Actually, cheap oil (which is now peaking globally) has been the primary enabler of massive population growth via global transport, intensive ("green revolution") agriculture, etc.

      It's quite possible that the peaking of oil and other fossil fuels will reduce the available energy and stifle population growth, often via starvation. It's already happening and food production is tenuous.

      High population projections assume that enough energy and food will be available in the future, but renewable sources are unlikely to match the scale of oil, coal and gas. We can already see Peak Oil prices stifling mindless economic growth, which is a good thing, sanity-wise.

    3. hopefully you will be in that part,wiped out.

    4. Jacob, we have had effective, reliable contraception since 1964.
      To suggest that the only way we can maintain a sustainable population is through the violence of war, is quite shortsighted.

  70. we need to change agriculture, especially the western view of agriculture, and that will be very difficult I went to Agricultural College and saw first hand the Farming youths' interest in preserving and adapting the world we live. They felt hounded by conservationists, and complained when prices for crops were low. They also enjoyed large tractors, and the larger the better. Because this technology agriculture is the norm, and advance on it would simply be more technology or GM etc. they would never think of embracing holistic agriculture, even organic farming has had a rusty reception. On the point that we can only access 1% of fresh water, it is worrying to think that one holding pool for water that has been processed in a tar sand plant, leaks around 60 litres of water a second. This water is free to run it's course brimming with heavy metals, maybe a future money maker would be a plant to remove mercury, lead, cadmium etc. from fresh water, a fully operating bio-remediation plant. There is hope already, I am 21 and do not want to spend my working/living life fixing problems that ignorant businessmen or governments created. Fingers crossed

  71. Modern agricultural methods = unsustainable

    Plowing the soil until all the life in it dies and dosing it with tons of synthetic fertilizers gives you massive crops for a few years. Afterwards, the land is desolate and the water is poisoned. Good job.

  72. CF! (you're welcome)

  73. It is quite depressing seeing what Earth and humanity is like. Most humans, no offense intended but, are stupid idiots - a fact that is sad but true.

    Here's a little something (I can't think of ANYTHING more important): NOTHING has a meaning. But since it happens so that we do exist, we might as well take a purpose for ourselves, and the most logical one is survival as a species (as humanity) for as long as possible (it isn't really that simple, considering what humans are like, how we work the best). To ensure our survival we MUST do whatever is necessary, even if that would mean killing say 4 billion humans. If the population is nearing a critical point, you do something about, you start thinking of ways to reduce population, birthrates, and if you fail at that you do the previously mentioned. Of course population is not the only threat, there are massive solar storms, meteorites, extremely lethal mutated viruses, and many, many more possibilities. Since living only on Earth is so dangerous for us, we must find new places or find ways to prevent apocalyptic events. For that we must advance science, technology as fast as we can, the sooner we can create a colony on another planet, in another solar system, the bigger the chances of our survival are.

    There are people who think that "GOD" will save them, well I've got news to all those - there is no GOD, never has been, never will be, and even if there were one, he/she/it would be far too smart to protect us whenever we face even a slightest trouble. HE/she/it would know better, "GOD" would leave us to ourselves, would let us manage on our own, would let us become smarter, stronger, tougher, more advanced. If something goes wrong, something bad happens you learn from it and next time you know better. At one point you are smart enough to foresee the consequences of some actions, as it is with the overpopulation. Some persons actually see where it is leading (unfortunately not enough, otherwise something would have been done already).

    The more you know about science, the more you think how everything works, and the smarter you become.

    For religious people: instead of blindly believing what a 2 thousand year old book says. PLEASE use your own brain for thinking. Blindly believing something and not thinking if it is true or not keeps you stupid. People have been kept stupid, have been manipulated with that book for 2 thousand years, no wonder why we are where we are - Earth is overpopulated and a very small amount of people actually care about it.

    Not many can see Earth, humanity as it really is. Luckily I am one of those unfortunate ones who can and seeing it and seeing that so far nothing has really been done, makes me sad and angry.

    Sorry for grammar mistakes.

    1. if you think there is no god than you have nothing to fear about life always being around the cosmos are massive and if life came from some where other than god then life must be some where else and we need not worry......you claim to see what others cannot (because we are stupid) well what have done about it except whine i say you are nothing more than a coward

    2. Your primitive grammar reflects your primitive beliefs. Nothing personal. There are millions, if not billions who "think" just like you.

    3. who are you to say,that i am not GOD!

    4. Well put. It can be truly depressing to see the general apathy and denial of so many environmental problems; overpopulation being the main driver of them all. People just mope along and party on, as if nothing really matters. I can't stand being around average people who have no capacity to think beyond "what's in it for ME?"

      It comes down to most people only caring about CYA or "I got mine" and ignoring the big picture at great risk to their own future. If/when the bleep hits the fan, they'll just find someone else to blame, usually starting with the government (which they voted in). Those who keep voting for Creationist Republicans are particularly annoying. Dumb and dumber.

      A lot of people are functional and can be trained to do rote jobs and make decent money, but beyond that they are just breathing through their mouths and living in a self-centered bubble. The dreary city scenes in "Koyaanisqatsi" are how I envision humanity more and more.

    5. how dare you,I AM GOD!

    6. Well that's odd I am god too, there are many gods running around here.

    7. Your right on some points but tottaly evel to sugest killing 4 billion people to leavel thing out.I sugest you let you and your familly to be the first culled.The entire earth population could fit in Ontario Canada with over 1 acre per person.And even thjough I agree we should controll the population it woul;d have to be done in humain ways.So called experts claimed we were over populated hundreds of years ago before the industrial evolution.Stupidist thing I've heard muder 4 billion people.Shows how smart you are.

    8. You weren't paying attention when the documentary was talking about Malthus who's concern was the population growth in the 18th century was out-pacing food production. It was the advent of biotechnology and mechanized agricultural technology by Norman Borlaug and others that was able to delay starvation in the third world. In the 1960s, President Johnson sent over 900 tons of wheat and sorghum to India to prevent starvation. Obviously, this is not a sustainable practice.

  74. Why do people who believe we shouldn't be having kids and that we are over populated stay alive and have sex. Even if you are sterilised having sex is hypocritical seeing as it is really only for procreation and why are you still here taking up resources? Bloody hypocrites. Also If we don't have kids who are we saving the planet for?

    1. To me, sex is enjoyable, sans the spawnlings. :P
      We save the planet for our species, for the many who decide to have one or two children.

    2. they should implant barbed wire,in vaginas.see how enjoyable sex would be then.

    3. We should have children offcorse but not so many. 7 Billion is way to much. I think the line should be 4.5 or 5 Billion.

      We are not the only one's who life on this planet. There are billions upon billions of animals that life here too and have same rights to Earth as we do.

  75. put your d*** back in your pants and step away from the woman... >_<

  76. I find it hard to understand why some countries (like China) are actively trying to decrease the birthrate, but in our own country (Australia), couples are offered cash incentives to have babies. It's called the "Baby Bonus" and is worth thousands of dollars as a lump sum as well as the money the government then "contributes" throughout the child's life. Why are we encouraging people to INCREASE the birth rate when in global terms we have a clear mandate from the earth to do the opposite?

    1. Australia wants first-world status.

      $$$$: The foundation of all that is phucked.

    2. Because someone has to take care you when you get old and the only way that happens is when there enough young people to pay into the pension pot through taxes. China has a completely different set of issues.

    3. Australia is exceptional, they are not overpopulated. Lots of hot deserts there, kangaroos and other wildife, and not much else.

    4. True that we are not overpopulated in comparison to the size of the country however, we are still the same as all other developed countries - Our city centres ARE over populated and the wrong types of people are reproducing.

      Educated women choose to follow a career rather than mother multiple children as their main priority and girls from poorer communities (apologies for the large generalisation on a demographic) are falling pregnant younger and younger and raising their children to follow in their footsteps (have their hand out for financial support from the government & are not focussed on important things such as family planning, education and up skilling)

      Our government gives the WRONG people far too many incentives to reproduce, for instance, in 2002 the Australian Federal Government introduced the "Baby Bonus" scheme and paid the parent(s) $3000 for each child born as a means to increase population by offsetting the costs of having a child. In my opinion this scheme is utilised far more in less educated, poorer communities and the cash incentives don't necessarily go towards the child but rather material luxury items such as TV, Xbox etc. or other addictions like gambling, drugs & alcohol.
      This Baby Bonus incentive is revised and INCREASED on the release of almost every federal budget and as of 2010 this incentive is around $5300 per child.

      We are creating a society that is less educated with fewer skills, I believe that these poor decisions in how to increase population as a whole and not focussing on helping and encouraging the more educated and skilled people to reproduce will eventually become the demise of mankind as we know it today.

      As we breed in more and more genetic defects into our offspring, mother nature may find her own way to stop us reproducing as the rate of infertility increases. Natural selection is part of nature to ensure the health & integrity of our species.

    5. You ever see idiocracy it depicts what your talking about

    6. You're skipping over the fact that people live in the most desirable (wetter, greener) areas, which do get overcrowded. The Outback can't support very many people for lack of water. I've read a lot of concern about Australia already being beyond sustainable carrying-capacity.

    7. Oh yes, I believe there is something else, increasing desertification due to drought brought on by overconsumption of fresh water supply, and let us not forget the wildfires.

    8. you have to maintain supply of crocodile tucker

  77. and why do starving people in the 3rd world have alot of kids <.<

    1. Because they have a different culture to the western population.

      the more kids they have the more money they can make to feed themselves. the more kids you have working for you helps them survive. i know its not what we are used to but thats why it is like that.

    2. The main reason people in poor countries have more children than they can feed, is because they have no access to contraception.
      We can thank the Republican party for that.

    3. Cause the pope says that they must not use condoms and are too poor for sterilisation

    4. Because kids are their pensions. They have kids to work the land and look after them when they are old. Also more children die at the point of birth or don't live beyond five so a woman who has 10 children would only expect 4 or 5 of them to survive.

  78. Im not having children, Im either adopting or just not raising kids.

  79. i really don't have any idea on how many people there should be but in my own opinion.. it should always be balanced on the numbers of adequacy of the basic needs of the people living...
    with the advancement in the field of medicine... for sure that will add up on the census of planet earth.. we can never know if Earth could sustain that "growing number of the human population" lucky for Earth if those number thinks about preserving her ... not yet done with this i will be back in this topic.

  80. Pretty amazing documentary, I have seen a lot of these facts and figures through other sources, but it is summed up really well, and pretty difficult to contradict. No climate change and if it is a myth arguments, simple logic. We were a global population of 1 billion in 1800, and today we are 7 billion, same amount of water, same amount of farmable land.

  81. Maybe … we should all become $cientologists & work in the Sea Org!

    that way, we are all mind controlled [even more than normal] AND we can't have children.

    Maybe … David Miscavige will be the NWO leader.

  82. Here's the REAL concern:

    Let's say that this documentary is absolutely true and accurate. Only the critical thinkers of the world would put enough thought into listening and researching this concept, in the first place. That leaves the intellectually inferior people to continue breeding, believing in god, being superstitious, and whatever else they do. Then, you just end up with a bigger population of morons to breed and kill themselves off eventually. How did that help anything? Of course, our planet Earth is happy--got rid of the surface nuisance, but there's not much in it for humanity, as a whole.

    The way I see it, there is no need for a solution at all. The Earth will be here after human kind is extinct anyway. Problem solved.

    1. Sadly your understanding denotes you as a mere animal then.
      All of creation was designed and created with a purpose. Humans do not have the ideals of eternity in their minds by chance. God designed it that way. Rather we focus on how to treat one another and come up with effective solutions than blow it all of because its all chance aways?! Evolution is false. The law of entropy stands against it. Absolute Truths stand against it. Out of chance cannot come design. I hope you receive revelation to understand that you are not just an accident product of a meaningless explosion, but rather, that you were magnificently designed by a supreme being that chose to create you in his image. With a mind of endless potential, a body of inexplicable mystery and a hunger and desire to love and be loved. Your life is beyond chance and unwilled destiny. Your life is a gift whether you face troubles or joy. May you root your identity in the origin of life.

    2. don't worry you can't bullshit me... I know all your lousy arguments... everything that cannot be answered by science must be God

  83. Finite resources, infinite poplulation growth. Just do the math.

  84. I am having this good feeling that day after day there is more people who understand that our Home has a limit. Pleased to read what people like Hambone Littletail and Kevin Yoder have to say about it.
    How about that! Saying that this may be our last century is not far from reality, but only if this alert message doesn`t produce the expected action from the new world leaders.
    One more thought:
    Througout my life I have been in many beautiful places and now they are gone. Yes, in my short life I have seen places change from wonderful palm forests next to a clean tropical beach to a place where you can hardly walk through so many buildings and people. I saw it change and my sons could not enjoy that beauty. What are my grandchildren going to miss?... It is too fast! We must stop changing the world without control.

  85. How many more documentaries featuring common-sense geniuses such as David Attenborough, Michael Ruppert, James Lovelock, Paul Ehrlich, Terence McKenna, Peter Joseph, etc., does this comatose populace need to get it through our thick collective skulls that overpopulation, combined with its evil twin overconsumption, is the underlying cause of every single environmental problem threatening to destroy life on this planet, including our own species?

    We do not need a planet-wide two-child or one-child policy, we need a planet-wide ZERO-child policy. We don't need to aim for a zero-percent population growth curve, we need to aim for a MINUS NINETY PERCENT growth curve. The number one item on the human agenda for this century (quite possibly our last century) is to reduce this planet's population by 90 to 95 percent... you know, down to somewhere between 500 million and one billion people, which is where we lived in relative balance and harmony with our Mother for the first 200,000 years of our existence.

    Meanwhile, while we are waiting for the space aliens to show up to run this population reduction campaign to save ourselves from ourselves, we can ALL take some personal responsibility as consumers to start examining our own personal consumer and lifestyle choices, to start figuring out ways to step more softly on our Mother. Wake up, Planet Earth!

    1. You at least need to replace the population but not grow like it has been.Experts say we will leval out at around 11 billion as most of the western world is sometimes not even growing but shrinking.Without young people being born there is no one to do the work and take care of the older population.You and most comments I've read so far need to educate youselfs.Infact if you belive thats the solution you and your familly should willingly be sterilized.

  86. EDUCATION is the key to happiness. Understanding what it means to DOUBLE. If we have DOUBLED our population in the past 35 years, then that means in the past 35 years we have acquired the same amount of people it took us millions of years to acquire before. And the population at that time had DOUBLED the amount that was 75 years before that. Look at the TREND people! It MUST stop! NOW! Not 30 years from now, but NOW!

  87. @ achems razor..and george st pierre

  88. Dear Paul:
    Yes, I tend to be optimistic about the capacity of human kind to achieve great goals.
    In order to answer the question of How do we control population, I can tell you I am a civil engineer and I believe in the truth of mathematics. Again i`d like to travel a little with our minds and picture ourselves traveling in an big intergalactic ship. Once again, we count with all the needed resources but in limited quantity.
    The only way to survive in a sustainable manner is to control birth rates. I think it becomes just a matter o common sence when you understand that the only way you can assure your children a life like the one you had and have, is to conceive, for example, only two.
    With all the technology we have, it is no big task to calculate these numbers. If we begin just teaching and explaining people why our spaceship can only give a good life to a limited number of inhabitants, then I believe we would be on the right track.

  89. @Rodrigo Vidal Làzaro
    I am less enthusiastically looking toward the future. You say humans are great administrators, however are we really? While the world is full of great example of achievement it is also filled with failures of equal proportions. The old "tragedy of the commons" is in play here with no over arching authority monitoring the health of the world, and the story of the ancient fertile crescent now being a desert (believed to be due to over exploitation).

    In order to control the reason for the problem, which i'm sure we can agree is over population, we have to stop the people from more children then necessary. Now the question: HOW? Do we simply encourage it through condoms and taxes like India? (Epic fail occurring there BTW) Do we become an authoritarian regime like China to enforce it? (In which case have we sacrificed too much? How do we deal with the problems of an aging population then?) It is a crisis without easy resolve, or even resolve at all.

    1. We could stop marketing the joys of parenthood in false sentimentality in order to sell more goods and creating a false sense of "fitting in with everybody else".

  90. It is not difficult to imagine the perfect island. One with enough forests, water, and all resources needed for survival. Then you need 2 things to accomplish a sustainable island: Good administration and a stable number of inhabitants.
    If one of this conditions is missing, the island would be in trouble.
    Now, translating the scale island to earth,I see that history shows us we are capable of progress. We have almost abolished slavery, we are on our way to finish racism and to achieve man-woman equality and our technology is advancing for the better of mankind at a speed never seen before. All these facts account for administration. History tells we can be good enough island-managers. But this good manging is only posible if the second condition is met: Stable population.

  91. Also the Green Revolution spoken of in this movie is known for its catastrophic role in increasing debt to 3rd world countries through WB and IMF loans. I like it how the most important things in the life like food, water, money and means of exchange, health care services, prisons and justice systems, are all private businesses. As long as it remains profitable to make people starve, freeze, and kill each other through market externalities, it will continue to happen.
    Just because Capitalism is our traditional economic system doesn`t mean it is the best, for some reason it seems only a handful of humans ever actually think about the world they live in. Most people go to work everyday at a crappy pointless job and feel entitled to everything without ever thinking about the kid porn in Afghanistan who is dead just because he was born there. lol, people are and will be completely irrational, it is depressing.

  92. If the world was vegetarian or vegan the carrying capacity could reach up to 130 billion. If the world today ate as much meat as the USA, all petroleum resources would be depleted in less than a decade. There are many perspectives related to carrying capacity and population. What I see as the problem is not just population growth, rather a poor judgement of resource allocation and poor policy by larger groups of people. Also capitalism as we know it is based on the assumption that perpetual and uncontrolled growth is good, turning the Western Family unit into a unit of consumption and not production. I could go on and on, I just hope these films make some people think when they normally would not, because there are solutions to this problem and many many more, people just need to think...and leave their egos at the door, read some Plato, read some Shakespeare, open to change and discussion.
    ``You can choose to accept reality as it is, or you can decide to become a member of society, a cooperative meant to alleviate and provide creative solutions to difficult circumstances.`` I choose to be a problem solver, not a problem creator like the adults before me.

    1. @ Limduul ,the best and most accurate comment here

    2. With the current ~7 billion doing so much damage to nature, how can you possibly think 130 billion (engaged in any lifestyle) would be feasible? Food is just one of many issues. What about basic elbow room, wilderness and quality of life? It's crazy to even mention such a large number. It gives the Catholic nutters even more excuses to ply their myopia.

  93. Stop reproducing and eating like pigs! Its as simple as that.

  94. @Luke Wilson

    Population growth rate takes the death rate into account. Apparently you didn't hear him say there were about 2.5 Billion people 60 years ago and now we're near 7 Billion...and you're claiming that there isn't much growth and that it's propaganda?

    "I hate how he says the only way to attain a sustainable future is to get the population growth under control but nothing about the huuuge inequality about the distribution of wealth" Read the title of the documentary and you'll see why the issue of wealth wasn't mentioned.

  95. This Alarmist docu blames the increase in population as a systemic cause for all the world's problem. More people means more resources consumed. Logic somehow follows, right? Apparent solutions are simply to curtail this increase thru contraception, sterilization etc. However, the problem is that the needed resources are price-pegged by unscrupulous individuals behind corporations controlling most of what we read and see and make to believe. Facts show that some governments are paying farmers to produce less and protecting their own markets thru tariffs and legislations. Emerging economies are cautioned to fend off the use of oil to fuel their vast industries. We didn't hear about this during the Industrial Age which benefited most of the first world nations today. Thru the docu, it seems a cheap stride to gain moral grounds.
    Alarms are usually heard by unsuspecting people. Like cattle on their way into the slaughter house, uninformed people tend to rally behind entities in guise of saving the planet. However, noble they may seem. If their only solution to these crises is lip service, they need to do more.

    1. Actually he said that it was education that would curb the growth rate, and he said that mass sterilization never worked, and was unjust. Are you sure you watched the same movie as me?

    2. Discover the reproduction education curriculum in your county, go
      to SIECUS.org. We need effective reproduction education that is age-appropriate in our public schools. The religious have hi-jacked many school boards, and insist that human males at the height of their testosterone level, remain abstinate. Does that make sense or work? Planned Parenthood is also an organization that (under attack from religious right) provides education and contraception to people.

  96. I agree with Attenborough that overpopulation will make things harder for us down the road. As he pointed out, there are already 1 billion people living in poverty and lacking safe clean water, and the reason for this is that those poor people are multiplying when they cannot afford to do so. *But the reason they do so is that they want to increase their chances of having their lineage carry on. Reproduction plain and simple, by whatever means.*

    The answer to this according to Attenborough is to increase education and self-sufficiency for women, as we all know, the more educated a woman, the less likely she will have more children and will probably marry later in life (which also decreases number of children). Not only will this make the women more liberated to do what they want in life, they will be able to provide better for their children.
    *Here is the dilemma, to get more educated, one needs to be in a more stable and richer environment. As Africans will have the most increase in population, they need to become more sustainable. On the one hand:
    - to get better standard of living, they need a population growth. I disagree with Attenborough easy dimissal that any population growth for Africa will ONLY mean more despair. They are already there. Population growth will give them the chance to get more manpower to build richer economies. Population growth is their chance to better their current situation and then that prosperity will do the decresing of population.

    But doesn't that contribute to the population growth, and the pressure on natural resources. Yes it does. But what other choice do they have? Because the only other choice is:
    -to decrease their population.

    *Here is the dilemma with that for Africans. They are already a minority in the world arena, 15% just a billion to Asia's 60% population. And with Asia adopting the greedy, over-consuming habits of the West, Africans will probably have more hands picking at its resources and food.
    Should Africans be the first to adopt this decrease in population? When it is actually the rest of the world, in particuarly the Western countries that are consuming most of the worlds resources.

    If they do not decrease their population, they will suffer. Well, Attenborough states that it is water that we will become scarce with overpopulation, which will start a vicious cycle of all things that rely on water. And we all know nature is an indifferent bitch. Many people responding to this documentary take the assumptions of - 'let nature take it course, it probably the poor (mostly Africans) that will suffer; its their own fault for having so many people'. Well, it will not be only the poor countries that lose water, nature is indifferent, and it will most likely be the places that use the most water that will run out of it first (e.g. Mexico City). So if nature takes it course, its the rich countries that will suffer as much as the poor. So stop this "pass the fault bucket to the poor" game!

    The solution is hard. It actually requires that people co-operate. It requires for the greedy to be the first ones that say 'enough is enough', as they are the ones inflicting the most scars on our planet. Stop over-consuming and then looking over the fence with your big bellies and fat bums, and saying, 'those piss poor people need to stop breeding'. Maybe y'all need to stop eating.

  97. So in effect, if not enough "useless eaters" quote Ted Turner, leave the Obama bread lines, then what machinery will have to be implemented to kill off the undesirables, or unwanted decenters in other words. This type of think-tank rhetoric is common in the "new socialist" community organizer friends of the Obama admin. As if reading from the George Soros diary, or the OPs plan for downsizing the population.

    Maybe Pharma0chem spraying from the air, or just simply biological terrorism through pandemics, might bring the worlds population down. You can just see the NWO brains spinning these thoughts, and H. Kissinger, and Obama czars sift through the options. "If only we could just eliminate those useless eaters" V. Jones says.

    Whats the most interesting thing is, is to see the sheep themselves, understanding the "problem" and not seeing the inevitable downsizing that would have to follow.
    Hitler could easily help them with the how, but their to self absorbed to see that they are repeating history, not inventing it as they go along.

  98. yeah, considering some estimates say 150 to 200 thousand deaths a day too.

  99. @ Luke Wilson

    It's called empathy or compassion, do these words ring any bells?
    The ever widening gulf between rich and poor is not the topic of this film, they didn't mention the lincoln assassination either. There are probably sufficient resources to provide everyone an adequate standard of life, of course if you think necessities should be distributed more evenly you're labelled a communist, and are then by definition, evil.

  100. This video is preaching to the converted. The western educated countries have very low birth rates compared to 3rd world countries or countries with uneducated and religious people (they go hand in hand). Extremist religious cultures can have 8-10+ kids per family. (That being said the western world is still EXTREMELY wasteful and needs to be changed so fast that it hurts). This video should be translated into every language and shown to everyone on Earth.

    A quick way to solve the problem of over population would be to let nature take its course and by that I mean that if communities don't act responsibly they shouldn't be helped. As in You have too many kids and not enough resources in your area to provide for them, too bad. That's how it works for animals and how it's worked for people since the inventions of all these modern conveniences.

    Bottom line, if you're gluttonous, wasteful and lazy you shouldn't be here (natures law, not mine) and I for one don't feel obligated in any way to help you other than to educate. In a word, be RESPONSIBLE or face the natural and logical consequences of your actions or lack thereof.

    If your waiting for divine help, that would be the most irresponsible thing to do and I'd advise you not to hold your breath. Because why would a god reward you for you're gluttonous, wasteful and lazy behaviour and trashing his/her planet?

    1. what have you contributed to society?

    2. Following this line of thinking...we should not give tax breaks to people who have more than one child. The more trash people accumulate and do not compost, the more they should be charged for waste removal, catch the line of reasoning?

  101. All creatures that every took a breath of life on this planet have disappeared, extinct. Seven Billion huh? Human beings? Good luck with that. Government?
    I was s@#$ on by a seagull so I called Homeland Security. There was no answer so I left a message. Terrorists everywhere don't ya know...

  102. It looks like we got a lot of new visitors to this site, why did i say that you may ask? I think if most of the above comments placed by people had looked at some of the videos on here they would have a better understanding of what is happening globally. The planet can sustain way over 7 billion people, it's a global agenda to reduce the population of third world countries firstly and secondly the elite who owns most of the resources and corporations want it all for themselves. Still think its propaganda? then continue being the sheep that you're.

    No one has the right to say who lives and who dies so that they can have a better planet for their offspring. If you believe the planet is being over populated and cannot sustain us all then do us a favor and remove yourself immediately. This world is built on greed purely, how could one person be worth billions and another cannot even earn $1.00 a day? Are you trying to tell me they're so much more intelligent? or did they violate others to get such wealth? God cannot help us nor can religion, you were taught to accept that sin is the downfall of everything evil.

    Thereby making it a good excuse for non christian countries to be poor. Christianity has blinded many for centuries, luring them into giving away their liberty, wealth etc. Want to go to heaven? then just pay your church pastor/priest and you're guaranteed a spot in the good book which eventually will lead to heaven. Back to the population topic, like I said... if it's a problem then do us all a favor and leave please.

    Don't try to convince us who knows the truth about the phony Al gore global warming crap. It's bull$hit. They're setting you up to tax you for the very air that you breed freely in the future. Peace!

    1. Appears as though another lover of humanity is advising people
      who believe in the reality of the detrimental effects of overpopulation to "remove yourself immediately" .

  103. Stop trying to save the 3rd world.
    Reinvent the Darwin Theory and let nature to take its course.

  104. No kids here and passing my prime to have them, by choice. Have a friend that says it's sad because smart women they know aren't breeding but that's how it goes. I just don't have an interest in the burden and have always thought there were too many ppl around already.

  105. Save the world. Wear a condom.

  106. Hey good people, read my humble opinion to this article.....

    This documentary has some facts and some wrongs in it. But i cant go into deep detail, it's true that the worlds population has risen significantly within the past years, and death rates from wars, deceases, accidents, terrorism, fimine, poverty, old age etc, has equally risen within the past years. China and India have taken decisive steps on their growing over population concerns and other countries would have no option than to do the same should the concerns arise.

    We all know that the problems facing humanity needs devine intervention and there is only one way out "A World Leader" not the one America's planning to introduce "the new world order" America has lost its credibility in the world and would find it extremely difficult to achieve their unGodly goals. There is no doubt in my mind that Democracy is here to stay, but the question is are we practicing the true meaning of Democracy in the world of greed and economic competition of today?

    Only few people understands the actual system of Government in the world, Democracy is practiced differently in all countries of the world, most especially Africa where people lack its benefits in all aspect of life. Cant you all see that everything thats happening on this planet has to happen if you like it or not. I foresee a new world, where all the problems facing humanity will be solved by that devine individual. The honest truth is that we lack leadership in our world and those who have what it takes are all affraid to come forward. God bless you all....Peace am out of here..............

    N.B By the way all religions of the world except Atheist must understand that we worship one God, though we human are different in so many ways, but we are chasing a common goal on earth..................

  107. In the vedic chakra system the connection of the whole is the path to awareness. In our society today sex is a business and it's touted as personal goal and sign of success, not a means to an end. Until or unless we change our perception of sex, we will smother ourselves with it. The earth will survive us, make no mistake.

  108. Just how long will it take for us humans to stop thinking we are above natural laws and beyond causing our own disaster of the planet before we become a human plague! We are on the cusp of the Sixth Extinction process, caused by humans. Surely this alone should ring alarm bells loud and clear. Some people think animals aren't important, but without them we won't have functioning ecosystems, and a dead planet.

  109. The next time you encounter an overpopulation-denier, get out a piece of paper and draw a small island like Easter Island. Could its economy and population grow forever? Of course not. Easter Island is a famous case of carrying-capacity overshoot. It's a microcosm of what's happening around the world and keeps getting pushed off as someone else's problem (borrow from Peter to pay Paul).

    Continuing in this mode, draw a larger island like Cuba, and ask the same question. The answer is the same. The only difference is the time it takes to reach critical mass depletion.

    Then, scale up to Madagascar, Australia, and so on until you represent the entire Earth as a spherical island. Even very large is NOT the same as infinite. But people have tricked their minds into thinking so, just because they can't stand on a mountaintop and see it all at once. Many photos are available to cure that delusion.

    Still, finitude is a hard sell to so-called optimists who can't face reality. Many are tempted by financial schemes and forget why usury was once considered a sin. The lending of money with interest violates natural balance because it allows people to profit from money itself. The financial world keeps trying to outrun the physical world by pretending that money has intrinsic value.

    We need some sort of steady-state economy (much closer to pure barter) where people can only spend what they actually take in, and the whole finance industry is scaled down to a realistic level. A severe cap on interest rates is one idea. Tough luck if people can't have everything they want on impulse. Oil gave us the illusion of far more wealth than actually exists on the planet. We're burning through millions of years of energy in a few centuries, like someone on a massive binge of steriods and cocaine. You can get really big and feel really good but you inevitably crash. The primary denial is to put off that day of reckoning indefinitely because it's unpleasant.

    Even if we could support countless billions more people, what would be the POINT, aside from seeing how much more wilderness we could destroy, or how crowded our roads, parks and beaches could become? Think, people, THINK! Denial on this issue is futile and insane. Be happy with what you have and stop chasing bling-bling to Perdition.

    1. I really like your comment and agree.we as humains need change to stop the evil in this world and learn to live without killing the planet for future generations.Just to do the things you said and get are energy from natural things like the wind and son.Them are the things we need to invest in not continued illegal wars of profit for the very few.

    2. Good ideas, in the meantime, we can implement an inexpensive and immediate help in allowing free and freely available contraception for all human beings on a global scale. SIECUS.org

  110. Commenter "Luke Wilson" claimed that some figure on death rates was being withheld, but then went on to agree that overpopulation exists. Make up your mind what denial route to take! You can look up the figures anywhere if this documentary was vague on some points. Global annual net gain is about 77 MILLION per the CIA. Other sources show higher or slightly lower figures.

    I see a lot of mindless denial in these comments, like the claim that people are being "culled" and that overpopulation "can't be" a problem to begin with. Notice that Man has no problem culling animals, and defines overpopulation as just a few hundred extra wolves or cougars in an entire State.

    If deniers fear culling of humans they can just keep pretending that nature owes a living to an indefinite number of people on a rock only 8,000 miles in diameter. Nature is already doing its own thinning with no help from evil cabals. It's called malnutrition and starvation. Just because it's not happening (yet) on your block doesn't make it a myth. Wealthy nations are literally eating oil with modern agriculture, and Peak Oil will show the folly of that.

    Peak Oil may already have triggered the recession (remember the 2008 price spike?) by exposing the fragility of oil-based global commerce. The expectation of perpetually cheap oil to enable international trade is mostly based on blind faith. We're burning capital and calling it income.

    The scariest thing is that people are unwilling to comprehend the stark math of the situation, or that the Earth is actually finite. No wonder there's so much insistence that the economy can grow forever, and that we can keep borrowing and taxing our way toward Utopia.

  111. It's funny that when I watch on this site, all documentaries seem to have some problems, like bad audio quality/slow loading and so on.

  112. This is nothing more than a propaganda film for the Eugenics Movement,.. and like Mr. Attenborough says, 1 billion teenagers alive today are all that is required to create another 3 billion offspring in the near future, he is totally correct with this accurate observation.

    Maybe this is why teenagers are targeted with so many food and pharma products which contain chemicals that are well known to cause reproductive system damage.

    Research : MSG, Taurine, Aspartame, Thimerosal.

    Wake up sheeple, your shepards have been actively culling you !

    1. Those who claim there's a conspiracy to control the population always ignore the carrying-capacity overload that people are perpetrating on the physical, natural world that allows us to exist in the first place. You act as if all the documentation of environmental damage and species extinctions is meaningless!

      Do you think people in ever greater numbers are the sole reason for Earth's existence? Is it some giant ant farm we're trying to emulate? WHY don't you care about nature's plight enough to bring it into the discussion? Any overpopulation denier is welcome to answer those questions.

      Note: If there IS a conspiracy to control population, I say bring it on faster because it's not working!

    2. Why does common greed and the will to power need to be packaged as a conspiracy?
      Teenagers are targeted by corporations because teenagers spend as much money as possible attempting to feel good about themselves. Targeting teenagers for profit is nothing new. There is no secret conspiracy to kill off the human masses. It is just our own human ignorance and desire for instantly gratified pleasure at all costs. We must begin to take responsibility for overpopulation and stop blaming secret conspiracies. Can we stay on topic here?

  113. The issues have arisen after almost two generation, of world-war survivors with a mindset of "we deserve it". Doing nothing but lend them selves to over consumption. We are the last of the super-consumers, and have to prove yourselves by giving up luxuries taken for grated. I had no idea, how much water a simple burger took! Why are there no laws governing marking of goods? Who would or could ignore that?

    Sadly.. sadly indeed, the world seems to look at America for a plan of action in all aspects of life. The jig is up, peoples need to start thinking independently again and the colonists' descendants to rot in their filth.

  114. @jk
    I look forward to a world in which everyone plays their part within their local community

    And WHO dictates what that is?
    You filthy communist, communism is dictatorship far worse than democracy or even the crude form we currently have.

    1. Please! If you can not appreciate or understand the intelligence behind this documentary, then please, go and watch reality TV, or some other "viewer friendly" simple to understand, perhaps ultra-violent, movie. Please don't call people "filthy" because they have a different opinion than yourself. You might learn something, other than your already set opinion, which by the way, proves your ignorance.

  115. I look forward to a world in which everyone plays their part within their local community and people realise that material gain and excessive wealth is no longer desirable but a selfish act of the ego.

    Think Globally, Act Locally.
    Groups are forming everywhere, consciousness for this expanded way of thinking is growing.

    Bring on 2012...

  116. Here's a solution. Put down the Bible and pick up a science book! WE are in control

  117. ... or maybe a man-made super virus will leak out of a biochemical research lab.

  118. Don't worry nature will come-up with another super virus to shed a bit of excess baggage at some point.

  119. The Prophet Mohammed (PBAH) will save us.

  120. I cannot believe you people bought this bull c***. I will say this once you are being manipulated, into thinking that you are a plague. Do you know what Bill Gates idea was for handling this problem?

    I'm not even going to tell you i will challenge you instead to find out for yourself. I have do idea why people think that humans are not accounted for in the perfect system nature has developed.THE EARTH NOR THE UNIVERSE DOES NOT NEED YOUR HELP TO SAVE IT.

    It has been around for a long time and will be around for a long time after were gone. I cannot believe you actually let rich douche bags who hate the middle and poor class convince you that your a plague and for the sake of the earth cannot bare children.

    HAHAHAHA you people will buy anything. Hey relax we will all be dead 2012 anyway right or Jesus will save us ya know what i change my mind you guys without question need to wear rubbers or we will have millions of people who give all there money to billions thinking it will save the economy. OH Wait.

  121. Soylent Green is.....people. Fiction will meet truth sooner than you think.

  122. Eric Howe - one quater acre = about 1011 square meters. A 150 x 150m plot comes out to about 5.56acres (22,500 meters squared). Even @ 80 x 80m (6400 meters squared) you weren't even approaching his figure. The population density of Hong Kong is 6.2 persons/1 meter squared). 16,102 people to one square mile! Even freakier is Hong Kong Island has @ lest 45,000/square mile. Those numbers are from 1999 btw. I think you missed the point mike_74 was making (it was grounded in fact) and the math he was using (which was correct - with land to spare). And finding a place to park your azz (or useable land) wasn't the entire issue the doc was touching on. I believe the delegation(or misuse)of resources that we already have, should be the topic of concern.

    Personally, I think the figures used in this doc may have been a bit skewed to serve the scare tactic feel of it. And I'm not 100% sure on this, but the "Green Revolution" didn't quite pan out for the Indians in the long run due to lack of infrastructure (irrigation/equipment) and money (for those GM seeds and the ton of chemicals it took to sustain those huge yields). It was an excellent way for the west to turn a dime off of them though. And Barack Obama took away all the prestige of the Nobel Prize in my eyes.

    This topic will definately need to be sorted out. I hope our hind-sight society does wake up before the "highly destruction resource wars" do kick off. If we could only tivo American Idol one night and flesh this puppy out. I wish I had a sure-fire answer to this problem. But, Mike_74 had a good suggestion in thinking before you waste and being mindful of who you support when buying the things you "need". Oh, yeah and wear a rubber....Thanks for posting this doc!

  123. @Mike_74, you need to do a bit more math.

    If we assume that we have six billion people then everyone gets a square of land about 150m per side. That sounds like a lot, a couple foot ball fields per person. But, lets say that half the surface of the planet is non-habitable (deserts, mountains, too cold, too hot, swamps, ...), that drops us down to about 110m per side, that still sounds like a lot. We'll be generous and set aside half of what's left for wilderness and now we're down to a square about 80m per side per person. However, we have to set aside space for industrial use, transportation, food production, waste processing, resource extraction, power generation and distribution, ... and pretty soon we're stacked on top of each other and engaging in highly destruction resource wars.

    1. Let us remember that people, and the livestock they consume, need fresh water to drink, as well as clean oxygen, and huge areas of arable land for crops, and vital oxygen producing forests.
      Equating the idea of per person per land space, smacks from so-called "studies" and "papers" released by Koch Brothers&Co.s "think-tanks" and released to Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, and AM talk radio.It is more of the Michelle Bachman type logic for the untie crowd. brilliant!

  124. We are only led to believe that we over-populate this planet because it becomes harder to control us. Every human being on this planet could fit in Australia and be given over a quarter acre of land, leaving the rest of the planet empty of our species. Do the math. The earth is massive and plentifull and it is the select few that squander and hoard its resources for power, control and greed. Yes, we live in a world of ego and waste but it is their hands that have molded this system for their own personal gain. We need to loose our wastfull ways and nurture our planet but little will change if we continue to allow these people or anyone else to profit from the resources of Earth.

  125. @V: I agree that space is the place. Sooner or later there will be an extinction level catastrophe that will wipe out humanity and pretty much everything else on this planet. Maybe an asteroid or comet impact, maybe ecological collapse, maybe a gamma ray burst from a nearby star. Humanity needs a backup.

    @Randy: The extinction of humanity would tragic. As far as we know — not guess, not hope, not believe but know — humans are it, we are the only things in the universe that can wonder at the night sky, the only things that can understand how the universe works. We are how the universe knows itself (thank you Carl Sagan), our extinction could lobotomize the universe. Maybe something would evolve to replace us but there might not be enough accessible resources left for them to rise to our level. As flawed as we are, we're all there is and that makes humanity something precious and worth protecting.

  126. @Yyoung, Eric Howe, and V

    All excellent, and well taken points. I concur absolutely.

    This planet was never intended to support such a vast population of large, land mammals, like we (us? I believe we would be the correct usage... feel free to correct me...)

    But, when we have finally become extinct, within a short amount of time, perhaps 10 or 20 thousand years, the planet will heal and renew itself. So, no worries...

  127. The fact is that all our cities are built on the best agricultural land.

    WW3 will solve the population problem eventually - but the environment will already be wrecked. But really African/Middle-eastern countries really need use china's one child policy - that right there will solve a lot of the world problems. Less Islamist insurgents, less third world immigrants brining their feudal belief systems with them... ect.

    Personally I think Self sustainable space colonies is the way forward because this planet is going to the hell that so many people secretly desire... but for those who think this planet and the people on it should be saved Biodynamic Permaculture and 1 Hectare sized family farms, and promotion of agnostic humility may be the way forward.

  128. Show me someone sitting on their couch wishing someone would do something and I'll say that's a man not doing any harm to anyone.

    The motivated people are the ones you got to worry about.

  129. No just kidding. but really something needs to be done and it starts with you and I!

    "THERE IS ONLY HOPE WITH ACTION! NO ONE CHANGED THE WORLD BY SITTING ON THEIR COUCH WISHING THAT SOME ONE WOULD DO SOMETHING. BE THAT SOMEONE! STOP WISHING FOR ACTION AND BE ACTION" -SPEECH AT THE END OF THE SONG SQUISHFACE BY SOUND TRIBE SECTOR 9

  130. a huge number of people must die!

  131. Attenborough is a member of OPT, Optimum Population Trust, a think-tank that works for population reduction. I'm not saying that is evil, just that he is not objective.

    1. Experiencing the side effects of global warming, will not be an
      "opt-out" program for humanity, with a plan b, or a money back guaranty if one is not satisfied with product. Over-population is most definitely the main cause of over-pollution and the over-usage of a finite supply of natural resources. Nature, does not care about your religion, your ideology, or how you feel.
      Don't believe it? argue with a violent storm, extensive and prolonged draught, shortage of fresh water and skyrocketing costs for food and gasoline. The religious will be the first in line to cash their FEMA checks! Thanks for reminding me of the name, "Attenborough". I will now research this courageous, and obviously very compassionate individual.

  132. yay nationalism durrrrrrrrrr

  133. well Pacha34

    I agree, but what the message stated was making fun of the Canadians on this very commment page. However, it seems ok for them to say and joke around and belittle Americans however they feel. I agree that there seems to be some contradictions and a little bit of a hypocrisy there, but I can admit that what I wrote was way more offensive than what they have posted thus far. What can I say though censorship sux!

  134. Me too charles.
    I find it kind of ironic getting censored on a documentary website.

  135. its all depend many wives many children :p

  136. rob, god has nothing to do with anything. We all make our own decisions and thinking ''god'' makes choices for us and plays a role in the world is just total ignorance, no offence but all the worlds problems are to do with these so called ''relgions'' they dont help nor are they an answer to anything its just a bunch if fairy tails in my mind

    on the same point i dont belive the numbers and predictions of documentarys like this, we know alot but i dont think we can answer this question as so many diffrent things need to come into count

    nobody tell me to go study about god or any religion before i talk please, there isnt nothing to learn without evidence to back it up you mayaswell tell me to go read about unicorns

  137. Ahh man my other post got moderated and pulled

  138. Many countries have too low birthrates, this is actually a problem, low birthrates and ageing population.

  139. yeh but we're due a new plague or pandemic, seem to happen every 100 years or so...

  140. Yes, people that live crammed together like Chinese, Americans, etc:
    get a little scared when they come across wide open spaces and freedom, Agoraphobia anyone??

    You did not say to live here though, did you???!! Charles.

  141. Charles B.

    Imagine our solar system, You have a planet, then millions of Kilometers of nothing, then another planet, and so on, that's pretty much what Canada is like population wise.

  142. I know where Canada is, but I don't even know what a "Mukluk" is! I did teach Chinese students near the turn of the 21st century, and they often came back from Canada out of fear! They couldn't take the "peoplelessness" of the country, espeically after dark. Seriously. It was a big deal to them.

    Sounds nice to me, however. I'm a great concervationist AND a conservative Republican Christian! Do you guys want me to come on up the next time I'm Stateside??

  143. @ young:

    LOL, I was in Texas a number of years back, a woman asked me where I was from, "I said Canada", and she said, "where's that"??

    And they do not even know what Mukluks are!!!

  144. Earth can sustain a lot more people, if resources were efficiently managed. Also the people would have to have a change of heart and start serving others instead of serving themselves. People would also have to start working together instead against each other. Also we would need to live more in equilibrium with nature. So all that nasty propaganda and brave new world style conditioning we are bombarded with everyday would have to go. We would have to stop acting like Pavlovian dogs trapped in the American bad trip and face reality in my opinion.

  145. Well if America wanted to F with Canada I suggest they learn how to locate it on a map first.

    I could see it now, Obama giving a speech in front of a sign that reads "Mission Accomplished". Little does he know all they did was destroy Michigan and Maine :P

  146. young

    Well, next time, I'll try to stoop down to your level so it can be a worthwhile for you.

  147. Thanks for the heads up Christpuncher.

  148. @joe_nyc

    lol, look at you, talking like what your saying has any actual meaning.

  149. education is the problem, and that is it. if you dont have a self aware society then how can the society care about itself as a whole?

    and to the people that say that the bible warned us about this Genesis 1:28

  150. Well, I do not know about that!

    We do have "one" tank! don't forget.

  151. Ah you Canadians. You guys have no idea what's coming to you. You became too complacent enjoying free annual dental checkups. Why do you think we pollute and abuse our natural resources?
    You think we are fools? No NO. You Canada is our backup plan. Comprende?

  152. Shhh! Why would you want to tell them that, if you start a major influx into our beloved Canada, will blame you!

    At least I am glad , you did not mention our free health care, whether you are employed or not. And we don't have to look over our shoulders all the time to see if big brother is watching.

    Of course they would never stomach our winters, where it gets to be sometimes 90 below zero with the wind chill!

  153. Loving all this major space reserved for us canadians :D not to mention alll the fresh air from our millions of forests, and 1/3rd of the worlds total drinking water :D All of these benefits for only 34 million citizens, which is pretty much the same population as California alone.

  154. @Philip Van whatever - learn to type correctly so that we can understand what you are saying.

    One thing that is extremely intersting is the propaganda side of this doc...and yes there is a propangda side to this. Do your research.

    1. Please invest in a handy dictionary, or take the time to check spelling and use of grammar whilst expressing your ideology. I am always a bit taken aback to discover the more uninformed one's comments, the more religious or conspiracy based are their comments. Bad spellers of the world: untie!

  155. y are there so many wanna be celebrities using celebrity names one here? I wish they would go away!

  156. ; ) @ Shwan

  157. are you hot and a female shwan?
    if so yes

  158. we reaaly lack good comparative data on life spans of aborignal peoples , who did not have to over come DIS -EASE's like small pox etc. and plagues of the econoically/TRADE ROUTE and plague tied worlds stretching from afirca to eurpe to china ... these assumptions by science foster dependance on thier system .

    huanity found a population balence in aborignal lands also , built upon the natural cycle , which of course did include life and DEATH of course death( transition is nothing to be feared )

    if we have usch a higher QUALITY of lie then how come more peopel are not wanting to share this LIFE with a next generation ? in fact .
    The more westernized stressed and depressed people become the lower the birth rate is , look at the figures to the point of negative ates where by the only population increase is realy happening from imagration and first generation reproduction .

    the issue that needs to be explored is why human get sutffed inot small precentages of the over all land mass of a country while ...cows get and lumber interests get the majority ,,,, already slashed annd burned to make industiral use of that land . The US has 2.3 billion acres of land of which about 350 million is used for growning crops , 503 million acres for forestry land , 587 million acres of pasture/range land ( meat for the king wine for the church - Masanabo Fukuoka ) 108 million acres for housing/city land the balence is park land. With a population of about 350 million there is more than to much land to go around if it were used in a permaculture manner . Using SFG technology etc and the concepts of Instinctualism.org 5 acres of land can comfortabley support 10 people providing food and fuel and fun. The land mass of the United states could support 4 billion people itself alone , all living in a HARMONY with nature , unlike todays life stlye. ( ohhh what about Europe? well an old world country like FRance with a dense population trapped in citys . THE fact is , the 261,000 square miles of France is in reality over 120 MILLION acres able to maintain a population of 240 MILLION RE_RURALIZED peoples , current population of france is 65 million )

    there are many examples of 1/4 permaculture parcells producing , like 6000 lbs of food , MAKE THE RAINS DO THIER WILLING DUTY is the call of Mollison .... he shows evidnece int he KAlahari with a 3 inch rain fall , the SARAHA is arid only 20% that sand dunes tuff in fotos ... it has on avage about 6 inch rain fall . 6 inches over a 1/4 acre is a lot of water that RUNNS OFF .. test it for yourself , pour water on dry desert ground in rolls away . ... this is where HUMANITY becomes the steward of the Garden of EDEN .... and the 2 billion arid acres of the Saraha can house everyone right now .

    solar distiller .. The total amount of surface area determines the yield of the solar distiller. Dennis Lemon, author of Pure Water Nature's Way (see "Distiller Sources"), says on a sunny day, for every 1,000 square inches of cover surface, the solar distiller will produce about 1 gallon of pure water. An efficient 4-by-8foot distiller should yield 2 to 4 gallons , the un says a human needs a bout a 1/2 gal of good drinking water day . the us produces 41 billion glas bottles per year .not to mention the building glass just look at the sky scapers covers head to toe in glass city after city ....

    so distill or make rain vapor from coast lines around the Saraha transport the VAPOR only a few 100 miles ..... inland for condensation on a distribuiton path , thru natural rise effects of heated air transport is almost passive plus wind enenrgy electic aid .

    sinple ideas simple techonolgy with things we al ready have and just suing recyceld wastes for 1 year of US glass production .

    BOOKS . make up the metaphoical brick wall in heaven where infinite possibles END .....

  159. Condoms. The pill. Not screwing like rabbits. Not having an expectation in society to reproduce. Adopt.

    People just need to stop being selfish.

  160. Will anyone have sex with me?

  161. NASA get your backside in gear and go make that planet habitable!!

  162. The only viable solution is MARS!!

  163. @ Hate_Machine. Yes you said it. No matter how you look at. Up, down, left or right. The poor will be the 1st to go as they work there way up the socio-economic ladder. Then in come the lower classes, then the middle class and that will be me on that train then the elite will have the world they always dreamed off... Then David attenborough can have the whole of africa and the amazon as his own back yard where he can go and stare at the animals without anyone bothering him... Yes that is why he made this.... HE WANTS 4 BILLION OF THE POPULATION GONE! yah in 2050 there will be like 10 billion... OH MY GOD!!! LETS ALL SCREAM!! Yah attenborough you forgot to mention you wont be 1 of those 10 billion so you wont have to live through the nightmare!!! So why do you care so much??

    Am sorry that was harsh!!

    1. Facing reality is painful, for all humans. But to accuse a man of attempting to commit genocide because he is bringing the root of our destruction to our global awareness, shows how fearfully aggressive some people respond to reality.

  164. after reading the broad concept i was expecting to head David Suzuki. Instead you find a bloke talking relative sense without made with if's with no relevance.

    Thought provoking and interesting over all

    whoopi goldberg let the sheep graze, ps loved u in sister act?

  165. Obviously no boogie man in the sky is in charge, or if there was, that god is a sadist to have let this world be as it is with all the war, torture, starvation, etc. Its man and man alone, which is US, who must control our breeding and our greedy behavior. We must quit waiting for so called gods to correct our mistakes.

  166. Hitler was working on a solution in the 1940's. Wasn't a very popular one mind you.

    1. Please do not equate free and freely available contraception for all human beings with the psychopathology of A.Hitler.

  167. i was working on a solution way back in 1996

  168. why the hell do they keep having kids if they cant feed themn agggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

  169. anyone that thinks its all in gods hands, its people like you that caused this, we don't take care of it because "its not in our hands, god will take care of us", when we aren't here anymore we will most likely thank religion, and no i am sorry it won't be from the rapture. it will be from humans not being able to grasp something more complex [like yourselfs]. Thus leading to a ton of different possibilities however i would be willing to bet perverse religion will have its hand around the cause !

  170. First of all, God has nothing to do with population growth except for the fact that religion is propagating birthrates to just gain followers. This is WRONG and immoral.

    Second, education is being continually downplayed especially for women. The more educated women there are the less babies because these women want a life rather than being vagina clown cars, and they usually get exposed to contraception and that is empowering for them (no need to be controlled and owned by men).

    Second, Some of you here need some critical thinking skills. This is not propaganda but is reality and it will be touching you soon.

  171. There is lots of room, as long as they stay the hell out of Canada!

  172. @HaTe_MaChInE

    By "cancer" by no means was I advocating suicide or anything of the sort. Just some type of species self-awareness...I totally agree with the bit about the robots btw haha.

  173. @whoopi goldberg - pff this coming from a person that stared in to moves as a nun

  174. @Luke Wilson - Yeah, Sir David Attenborough is out to get you man. We all know he is part of the global disinformation network to make you... ah... ah.. Educate women? Provide access to contraceptives to anyone that wants them?

    Yeah I hate how the hole BBC/Horizon multinational corporation has become so... ah .. neutral.

  175. why are there so many christians on this site now? go away.

  176. Wow what a bunch of human haters. Maybe if everyone that thought people were cancer biopsied themselves from the planet the situation might start to improve.

    I for one am not a big fan of the human race but I wouldn't go so far as calling us a cancer. I think there will be a give and take when it comes to the earth. We have used up the windfall and are now reaching for the low hangers. When it becomes hard we will adjust. People will have to learn to control themselves a bit... or they will most likely starve to death or die in a war to prevent their families from starving to death.

    The strange part is that you still need a growing population to keep a growing economy. Until the population uses more resources than they can create (resources including skill and labor) the more people you have the better off you will be.

    To maintain a economy with 1 child per household each child would need to contribute as much as both parents combined. With the average american working 60 hours per week you would only need 1 or 2 generations before it would be impossible to maintain the economy.

    That is of course unless each child had a horde of robots to do there bidding.

    Biggest problem is pollution. Its really hard to stop pollution. I figure the next really big wars will be fought over one country "polluting our air" or "polluting our water".

    So when we start running really low on oil the poorest will starve to death. When we start making global laws to control pollution the poorest will starve to death. When we start fighting wars against other countries polluting our resources the poorest will die. Then i figure there will be some kind of global aerosol contraceptive that will just get sprayed on every one "for their own good". Then the robots will revolt and kill us off anyways.

    I look forward to the future... looks like it will be interesting.

  177. I dont trust anything they said here. I think he gave us only one side of the equation. How any people are being born. Why did he ignore how many were dying??? Yah 200000 born everyday, how many ppl die everyday? why did he not say? He is trying to manipulate us the viewer by only giving a fraction of the information available. Typical.... I dont trust this! However i do agree the world is getting quite over-populated... I hate how he says the only way to attain a sustainable future is to get the population growth under control but nothing about the huuuge inequality about the distribution of wealth... THIS DOCUMENTARY IS NUTHING SHORT OF PROPAGANDA! Just my opinion.

  178. It is just a matter of selfish breeders incapable of realizing that our species is the cancer of the earth. - no god hokus pokus required.

  179. Really?

    To save people time:

    24:5 The earth is defiled by its inhabitants,
    for they have violated laws,
    disregarded the regulation,
    and broken the permanent treaty.
    24:6 So a treaty curse devours the earth;
    its inhabitants pay for their guilt.
    This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear,
    and are reduced to just a handful of people.

    Inhabitants of the earth don't disappear. We are growing... It just a matter of how much we can grow.

  180. I agree, remember God's in control.

  181. Here's a solution, stop breaking Yahweh's Laws Isa 24: 5-6