Safety glasses on.

[Dan From Smithville]

If the change is gradual, we'd easily adapt.
But if the population continues expanding, this would exacerbate
global warming, leading to massive population migration. That
sure sound worse than coping with a stable or declining population.

Population growth could be that extinction level event that puts us over the edge. Not directly, but for all the reasons you have listed and more. All that is required is that the ability of living things to adapt is slower than the rate of environmental change and it is bye bye. Population growth is part of the environment. I mention this, not because I think you are unaware, but that others are. People often think of the environment as the weather and maybe a geographical position, but it is all those things that effect living organisms including other living organisms and their own biology and impact.

 

[Enoch07]

I am interested to know in what capacity you serve in the EPA. If you do not feel like relating that, I will consider it your choice and leave it at that.

I can't disclose details for various reasons.

But I run 2 labs, I collect and test samples of soil and water amongst other things. I record test results daily and send to the EPA monthly, also collect samples and send to the EPA and 2 independent labs for verification/CYA purposes, also monitor and record certain chemical levels of the air and water.

Sorry that's vaque but its all I can say.

 

[Revoltingest]

Those rank high among the issues that concern me about population growth and excess growth.

When I was 14 and in my first formal biology class, we studied overpopulation and the effects that were seen in rats and a few species of monkey. They were not pleasant to consider. The behavioral responses to overcrowding were particularly unpleasant and in some ways, I wonder if we are not seeing some of that now in the form of human activity highlighted in the news.

Could be.

 

[Revoltingest]

Of course, that also assumes that we would find those Einsteins and they would receive the education that would prelude their genius output that saves the day. Even now, there are probably some Einsteins around the world that are cutting wood or hauling water, largely because their culture has decided they were not worthy of further training. Einstein nearly met that fate.

What this says to me is that we have to find some buff geniuses to better represent science in the He Man International competition. No offense to Einstein intended.

Don't dis the World's Strongest Man Competition.
The guy who won last year is the one playing The Mountain on GOT.
Or at least he did until the last episode.

 

[Revoltingest]

Population growth could be that extinction level event that puts us over the edge. Not directly, but for all the reasons you have listed and more. All that is required is that the ability of living things to adapt is slower than the rate of environmental change and it is bye bye. Population growth is part of the environment. I mention this, not because I think you are unaware, but that others are. People often think of the environment as the weather and maybe a geographical position, but it is all those things that effect living organisms including other living organisms and their own biology and impact.

I don't think overpopulation would lead to our extinction.
As people died off, at some point the population would
become a nice stable level.
A big old meteor could do the job though.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I can't disclose details for various reasons.

But I run 2 labs, I collect and test samples of soil and water amongst other things. I record test results daily and send to the EPA monthly, also collect samples and send to the EPA and 2 independent labs for verification/CYA purposes, also monitor and record certain chemical levels of the air and water.

Sorry that's vaque but its all I can say.

That is quite all right. I did not want to pry, but I am interested. I have interacted with some EPA folks in the past, but mostly with regulators and scientists in the USDA. I take it you have a background in chemistry or some applied environmental science?

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I don't think overpopulation would lead to our extinction.
As people died off, at some point the population would
become a nice stable level.
A big old meteor could do the job though.

It seems possible that the side effects would be the actual cause. Sort of like Alzheimer's or HIV. Those diseases do not kill, but they provide the opening for other diseases that do kill.

What about lots and lots of small, but very enthusiastic, meteors instead?

Though you are more likely correct, and what would happen is our lifestyles would go extinct and we would get to do the whole show all over again. Making the same mistakes despite knowing that old saying about history repeating itself.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Don't dis the World's Strongest Man Competition.
The guy who won last year is the one playing The Mountain on GOT.
Or at least he did until the last episode.

I caught the tail end of one of those contests the other day. The round I saw involved lifting a 410 pound stone up to your shoulders while exhibiting control of it and repeating this as often as you could in some limited amount of time. The stone looked like a giant potato. The winner was a guy from Iceland named Hafthor Bjornsson. He is 6'9'' and 425 pounds. He did not look like a giant potato.

I have yet to see Game of Thrones. No TV. No HBO.

I just looked it up and that character the Mountain is played by the guy I saw in the Arnold Strongman competition.

 

[Enoch07]

I take it you have a background in chemistry or some applied environmental science?

Yes to both, amongst an ongoing education that never stops. Much like a doctor I am required to attend conferences, study in my off time, have a required amount of time in school, and I am licensed so I have to keep up with that.

I have interacted with some EPA folks in the past, but mostly with regulators and scientists in the USDA.

Well then you share my pain in knowing the EPA is.....meticulous to say the least.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Yes to both, amongst an ongoing education that never stops. Much like a doctor I am required to attend conferences, study in my off time, have a required amount of time in school, and I am licensed so I have to keep up with that.

While doing on demand is different from choosing it on your own, I still cannot see any reason that education should ever stop. At least on some level. I had a professor with a PhD in molecular biology that taught himself parasitology to a level more than sufficient for teaching it as a class.


Well then you share my pain in knowing the EPA is.....meticulous to say the least.[/QUOTE]Meticulous I would agree with, but in my limited interactions, I never found them to be capricious and they were very open and communicative. Not conciliatory, but open to communication and discussion. Still, very serious about their work. I appreciate that part, while not always being happy about the hoops that had to be jumped through.