I found this to be infinitely disturbing and equally hypnotic. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the numbers (hopefully the figures will become part of any ensuing discussion), but if they are accurate–in a word, baby: whoa.
Play around with the time buttons (year, month, week, day, and now). Simply click on “now” and watch how fast worldwide births start to outnumber worldwide deaths. It’s a sobering moment. Then click on “year” and watch how fast cardiovascular diseases rise. You might also want to take a look at the column on the left hand side (near the bottom) and watch how much/fast oil is being pumped out of the ground. What do these totals have in common?
They both go up, up, up.
Again, I’m being a lazy blogger today. I did no investigating whatsoever into the numbers. To you seasoned statistical (and budding!) scientists out there… is this thing for real?!?
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Oh my goodness, especially on how fast births outnumber deaths. This only reinforces my professor’s comment in my Environmental Science I or II class, “To control world population is to have 2 children.” If every one of us have 2 children, children will replace two parents and not multiply. Once this happens, it won’t be as alarming as we are witnessing now. That or just adopt!
On the other side - look at China and see what their “1 child policy” has wrought. Twice as many men as women. And in about 100 years, the population will go down to a minus zero growth rate.
Wow… that is amazing.
What struck me is the number of deaths being unable to keep up with the number of births. Ouch, soon the resources will be wiped out and then we’d suffer. We really should be listening to the the environmentalists. Even Al Gore whose movie clearly explained the impact of carbon dioxide on the earth… that like the world clock, it goes up, up, up…
You will find population growth statistics showing that population growth rate is significantly higher in the developing countries, mostly Islamic countries, than population growth rate in the developed countries. I mean really way higher. I am amazed the death rate in the Sudan is being outdone by the country’s higher birth rate. WTF?!
the environmentalists are very elite, very Ivy educated and liberals. AL Gore (who quit every graduate programs he was admiited and went to) has 4 kids. Why didn’t he had less than 2? And feminists applauded the theory of Princeton’s Peter Singer to abort all fetus with disability. Deaf people need to be more involved into the abortion debate since conservative Republicans have more experiences raising kids with disabilities. I see that in the IDEA debate on Capitol Hill.
*snort* What’s wrong with being educated and being liberal? I’m an educated liberal and I don’t see anything wrong with that unless you’re against the idea of receiving an education, which you do seem to be.
And you can’t use a broad brush regarding feminists and reproductive choice. There are many feminists who have children with disabilities, as there are feminists who have made the choice to terminate their pregnancies due to medical problems.
You have no idea if there are more conservative parents raising disabled children then there are progressive parents raising disabled children. I’d like to see the statistics on that. Back your assertions up, buddy.
Please explain how conservative Republicans have more experience raising children with disabilities when they generally have tried to strip the ADA of its powers…and succeeding bit by bit. Contradiction much?
And the ADA Restoration Act of 2007, was introduced by Rep. Steny Hoyer, a (GASP!) Democrat! How to explain this? I sense a cognitive dissonance coming on. I’d better excuse myself.
Noelle, you’re excused from the table. ;-)
In all seriousness, Michael, I don’t fathom your rationale at all. Why was it important for you to throw in about Al Gore’s education from way back when? If memory serves me right, Dubya didn’t do all that great at Harvard.
Yale — BA.. Harvard was for grad school (business school) and to get out of the national guard.
George W. Bush is the only U.S. President in the history of the Presidents to have a M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School, reputed to be one of the toughest business schools in the Western hemisphere. According to some sources, Bush was a B+ or B- student there, depending on which M.B.A. courses he took.
Don’t forget Rep. James Sensebrenner, a Republican, who got the process going right before Congress went into recess for August, just in time, and gained a lot of co-sponsors for Rep. Hoyer. Please give credit when credit is due.
Back this up with proof, please.
Right here, the very first person who sponsored Hoyer’s bill is Rep. Sensenbrenner. Have a nice day.
Most of those co-sponsors are Democrats. Have a nice day as well.
That world clock thing? Purely speculative based on previous trends while extracting those numbers into the future. With the advent of proliferation of nuclear weapons, it’d be a matter of time til deaths out number births. It’d be a matter of time before we get hit with a virulent strain of virus hitting us globally, a true pandemic event.
Also, we wouldn’t know exactly what our main source of energy will be like 50 or 100 years from now. It may not be oil. It may very well be oil but science has discovered a way to make it into a clean energy source.
Whatever.
I wouldn’t worry about the world clock too much.
The skeletal corpse of Malthus must be all giddy now. Didn’t he posit that humans would strip earth bare of its natural resources not through mismanagement, sprawl and gluttony, but simply through population growth?
as for breeding too many to a set of parents, isn’t the alternative of “Children of Men” as depressing? Then again, I’m a new uncle and so I’m somewhat biased in thinking all babies are really cool.
And then when the earth’s population starts bursting at the seams, what release will it find to ease the pressure?
…Outer space, where else?
Maybe this is just our destiny since the first cells started fusing together to form complex living beings…
Outer space, eh?
Then that means Women set up shop on Venus, and Men blaze new trails on Mars! I know, cheesy…
Yeah, the world clock is real…but although the numbers are sobering, what really stops me in my tracks is the Doomsday Clock.
Yup, there is such a thing as the Doomsday Clock. It’s currently set at 5 minutes before midnight (as of January 2007).
The idea behind the Doomsday Clock is that if it hits midnight, that’s when nuclear war has struck and wiped out the world.
Check it out: http://www.thebulletin.org/minutes-to-midnight/
Wow. Never been more than 17 minutes away since the late 1940’s.
1953. 2 minutes to midnight. US and USSR both tested H-bombs. Wow, that close!
My prediction: 3 minutes to midnight in less than two years.
Well, Pakistan’s president, Gen. Musharraf, stepped down as the military chief and I don’t know how it would affect the military and nuclear powers in Pakistan. So it is something to watch for.
Thanks for sharing the Doomsday Clock. Interesting! I sure hope that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are not planning to take advantage of this “Doomsday Clock” :o/ .
Interesting!
~ LaRonda
The numbers are not accurate. They are based on an algorithm programmed in the website. It is probably an estimate based on a statistical average. Notice the numbers are increasing on a steady manner. Over time, they would be way off unless they modify and update it.
Like I said, there is no way they could track everything accurately in real time.
thought your link to world clock was interesting!!! One thing about the World clock, seeing abortion rate going up is particularly disheartening…
so uncalled for…