Quote:

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, a major review of fertility legislation, repealed the 2001 Cloning Act by making amendments of similar effect to the 1990 Act. The 2008 Act also allows experiments on hybrid human-animal embryos.

I can't wait for my human-animal hybrids.

Also they could probably clone humans now but there's just the "laws" and "ethics" of the situation. If the situation ever became on earth were there was a serious food shortage i would not object to cloning of animals. Hell i don't see the problem with cloning animals now. However i wouldn't release them into the wild as that would fuck up ecosystems. I guess it wouldn't really matter too much anyway, there isn't much nature left on earth, though it would be best to avoid that eventuality.

UsaSatsui wrote:

Alowishus wrote: Also they could probably clone humans now but there's just the "laws" and "ethics" of the situation. If the situation ever became on earth were there was a serious food shortage i would not object to cloning of animals. Hell i don't see the problem with cloning animals now. However i wouldn't release them into the wild as that would fuck up ecosystems. I guess it wouldn't really matter too much anyway, there isn't much nature left on earth, though it would be best to avoid that eventuality. Human cloning is probably not too far off, but I don't think it could be done now. And remember, right now, cloning is very hit or miss. The one success takes hundreds or thousands of horrific failures, and the clones don't always have normal lifespans or livelihoods.

Very true.

LeshLush wrote:

Cloning animals would actually be detrimental to a food shortage. Animals raised for slaughter eat more food over the course of their life than they provide. I'm all about eating meat, because it's delicious, but as the world's population continues to increase we'll probably have to enact laws limiting meat consumption. Vegetarianism, and veganism in particular, is really good for the planet. Not to mention your colon. That being said, I'm cooking steak tonight.

Yeah, i just love mah meat. I actually wasn't thinking of overpopulation i was thinking more in terms of food shortage for existing population. Talking in extremes of population. The highest projections by the UN are 25 billion by 2100. The lowest is 7 billion after an increase and recession. What it will probably be is about 10-15billion by 2100.

It's difficult to say the implications that this will have. Arguably vegetarianism is just as bad. Indeed you need to feed animals and animals need space to graze unless you carry out battery farming. The production of crops also requires a large amount of space.

If population was to reach 25billion then there would be less graze-able/cultivatable land. If it was anything like the urbanisation during the industrial revolution then cities would enlarge increasing this.

It would also depend on the economic situation which i can't particularly comment on as i can't predict the future but if there was a large population increase and lack of jobs then movement to the city would be likely.

Then again it depends on other things such as city planning. The Le Corbusier model of "utopia" may be needed. A lot of system built housing were everyone is sufficient within their own block. Not a particularly nice way to live but it's viable.



Space is important and the reduction of sprawl would be needed to allow space.

Also with crops what if GM crops were depended on? GM crops are extremely susceptible to disease. So whole populations could be fucked if a crop fails.

I think that both have their pros and cons. Indeed a healthier lifestyle is lead through vegetables as well.

Went off kind of on a tangent there.

EDIT: Overall overpopulation isn't something which is easy to deal with. It's worrying for me. As someone who will soon graduate with a degree in Urban Planning it's kind of scary to think that in the future i will have to make decisions regarding city/regional/national designs for overpopulation. Indeed it's not something they teach you how to deal with either in your studies apart from think outside the box and use lateral thinking which unfortunately currently in political systems there isn't a lot of scope for.

I'd be more worried about water than food to be honest, especially with climate change.