Re: Energy, population (and AIDs?)

[Bob LaMontagne <rlamont@POSTOFFICE.PROVIDENCE.EDU>]

Given the technology available to us today it's criminal to
encourage people to stay in those conditions. They should
be counseled to abandon the village and move to a city
where they can find jobs. Their children will have access
to better health care so they don't have to face an 80%
infant mortality rate. Their old land can be taken over by
agribusiness that can grow genetically modified crops that
need less water and pesticides so the people in the cities
can be fed. I get angry to think of parts of the world not
taking advantage of the wonders technology has to offer and
how the exponential growth crowd would condemn these poor
people to such brutal existences just to keep them from
breeding.

Bob at PC

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 7/31/2004 at 8:25 PM Pamela L Gay wrote:

> I recently saw an interesting mathamatical simulation used
by a UN worker
> to
> explain the multi-variable nature of helping a small
village to high
> students.
>
> Say you start with a community of 500 where the infant
death rate is 80%,
> available water is fixed and just enough to serve the
community, and food
> comes from farming -- and they aren't using modern
methods.
> Pretty much anything you do to help these people will
increase population
> and
> pretty much nothing you can do will increase water. In a
few years the
> small
> town that you tried to help will be suffering from water
shortages. Because
> water is getting used to drink, water won't be available
for farming, so
> the
> increased population will also lead to famine. Death
returns with a new
> face.
>
> The only solution is to teach people they don't need to
have 10 children to
> garruntee that two will make it to adulthood. If people
learn from
> experience,
> this lesson will take one generation to learn - but that
is too long a
> timescale for this.
>
> Has anyone seen (or done) a calculation of energy needs
that takes into
> account both population growth as well as deaths due to
AIDs?
> Cheers,
> Pamela