project urban health
(eyeSIGHT Intl. initiative)
toughest questions
These are the real world questions that need to be answered, in order to ensure sustainability. We invite you to offer insight into any of our posted questions below and create the most needed discussion on the planet. We encourage submissions with answers to any number of questions and any question of your choice. Submissions will be reviewed and posted to provoke further comments and awareness.
Predictions for future: World population will level off at somewhere between 8 and 10.5 billion. But how much faith should you have in this prediction? (U.N. just revised upwards in 2011)
What size will the global population reach during your lifetime? And what will this do to traffic, pollution, general governance….
How many seniors will need to be supported? And where should the support come from?
Is the current quality of life lowered because of large population size?
What are the resources that influence population growth?
Why are humans willing to regulate fertility downward when this should be selected against?
To what extent did group selection influence fertility?
Why is fertility behavior so variable relative to other behaviors that are related to survival?
Can fertility be regulated socially to achieve a somewhat stable population size?
What are human resources/limiting factors and how do they affect population growth?
Is starvation/undernourishment a product of amount or distribution of food, or economics?
What is the maximum amount of human food the earth can provide?
What number of people can be supported on that amount?
How can starvation best be reduced?
Could an egalitarian
distribution be produced without enormous declines in the wealth of well‐off individuals or countries?
How should current conditions be taken into account in determining per capita limits (on CO2 or reproduction or anything else)?
Does greater inequality generally lead to increased environmental impact?
If decisions are made collectively, how should uncertain outcomes be weighted?
How should moral conflicts be decided?
How much weight should be given to unlikely events?
If excessive discounting of the future is the norm, could this be avoided by appropriate political structures?
Does economic development reduce birth rate?
Does a reduced birth rate improve economic prospects?
How does the nature of the economic system (independent of development) affect birth rates and the sustainability of development?
Is poverty going down?
Does slowing growth require government control of reproduction?
Can planning for the future reduce the possibility of dramatic declines?
What limits decreased resource use in humans?
Will it be possible/desirable to increase the retirement age 2+ years every decade?
How much water is available?
How can impacts of agriculture be reduced?
What is the minimum for subsistence?
How many people can be supported?
How does water interact with other potentially limiting resources?
How does water limit population size?
How could future developments change answers to above?
Why should we want the maximal sustainable human population?
Reducing impacts requires giving up some activities, but will enable future generations to have more choices; Is this a good thing?; Should the future generations receive an equal vote in this question?
If it is morally/politically wrong to restrict births, should this be done before population size reaches the maximum or should population be allowed to exceed food supply?
Should we distribute wealth and environmental well‐being according to egalitarian, utilitarian or libertarian values?
Should individual rights have priority over the rights of groups or of governments?
Should the policies of humans regarding population size center on the values of all
people, all sentient beings, all living beings, or entire ecosystems?
If egalitarian, should it apply across countries? Across generations?