Sedna, space probes?, colonies? what's next?

G EddieA95 wrote:

Ok, how about giving me a compelling reason for doubling the population.


Because the alternative to *letting it double* (no one wants to purposely
raise the P that much, but it will get there), would be a tyranny such as the
world has never seen. I for one would rather see a few more wildlife species
gone than live in a world where infanticide, euthanasia and mass executions are
used to keep the P down.

The world saw several tyranies of that magnitude just in the last
century. Draconian population control measures have been employed in
China in recent years, and if the world's population doubles, we may see
them employed other places too. But such measures are not necessary.
Many countries in Europe have stabilized their populations without
draconian measures. All it requires is the proper incentives.

And we're not talking about a "few" species, we're talking mass
extinction on a scale that has not been seen in the last 65 million
years. We already lose more than a few species every year. Destroy the
rain forest on a single mountain top in Central America and you can
destroy a dozen species found nowhere else on Earth. We destroy species
without even thinking - without even knowing they existed in many cases.

(Actually, there are people who would like to see our population
double. There are some powerful special interests who profit from
population growth, and I don't recall any of them saying that we really
should stop at X billion. Promoting population growth is one of the
more important drivers for public policy in this country.)