
Empty half the Earth of its humans. It's the only way to save the planet - _emacsomancer_
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/20/save-the-planet-half-earth-kim-stanley-robinson
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prepend
I think it would be cool to set up some incentives for greater parklands and
agricultural lands with the goal of high density metro areas and low density
rest.

Although the US already sort of has this with 91 people per square mile-
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/183475/united-states-
pop...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/183475/united-states-population-
density/#0)

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sbinthree
It seems like the lock-in of homes creating anti-density thinking is going to
be a big problem. If I was a dictator of urban design, I would just build 100
floor apartments with 2-3 bedrooms and leave everything else as parkland.

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mkempe
Kim Stanley Robinson's works have been steadily drifting in the direction of
despair and apocalyptic scenarios. By now he probably regrets writing the Mars
trilogy -- his deepest sympathies having drifted more and more towards his few
characters who radically opposed the establishment of human civilization
there.

On a side note, I find it interesting that he asserts that the ideal level of
CO2 is at 350 ppm. I'd like to understand why one should want it so low, since
dipping to 150 ppm would cause massive land-based extinction of plants.

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hirundo
I'm a remote coder who lives in a rural county where the population density is
0.5 people per square mile. Today I made an infrequent visit to a big city
with a density of over 2,000 people per square mile.

It kinda freaked me out, an effect that has grown over the years. It would be
psychologically traumatic to me to be forced to live in a city, to the point
where if forced by poor health or poverty I may prefer to die in place. City
life is deficient in peace and joy by comparison. I pity the bunnies living in
our great rabbit warrens. What a cruel thing to do to humanity, to force them
there.

Here's an alternative plan. Wealth appears to depress population growth. The
wealthiest countries are generally those bending toward depopulation the
fastest. So instead let's get so wealthy that population falls enough that a
much larger fraction of us can have the great privilege of a rural life.

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stmfreak
When farmers force chickens and cows to live in high density communes, they
are decried as inhumane and people advocate for low density farming practices.

Apparently, the opposite is advocated for humans.

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RickJWag
"This situation can’t endure for long – years, perhaps, but not decades."

Time will prove this to be nonsense.

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_emacsomancer_
Yes, that line struck me too. I wouldn't have balked so much at something like
"This situation can’t endure for long – decades, perhaps, but not centuries."

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blikdak
Nah, just stop the greedy assholes who consume way more reaources than they
need to, redistribute what we have, and kill capitalism not people.

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abrown28
I agree. Killing capitalism will result in a massive amount of dead people.

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_emacsomancer_
I think here perhaps not capitalism per se is intended, but something like
corporatism?

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amriksohata
Good point in population being a provlem. Should have told this to the ones
leaving many countries in poverty, who then had to have double the number of
children to ensure their survival.

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spork12
Sounds good. I call dibs on being in the half that gets to live.

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_ph_
Please read the article before making comments. It is not about reducing the
population count, but about creating larger natural areas by concentrating the
population in cities.

