RE: Interstellar Shipping

G'day,

> Population pressure is harder to deal with. We obviously have 
> a population problem on Earth, but it's not universal. 

But its fast heading that way with regard to resource use (you can't
really
sperate the two issues).

>The population growth in first world countries is actually shrinking. 

Unfortunately our resource use isn't and as the third world increases
pressure on those resources only grows higher as you use more as tech
advances (at least to a point).

> It's quite possible that India and China
> would be able to deal with their population problems before 
> colonization becomes feasible. 

China has already, but India has spent a long time pretending its not
there
and has some serious catch up to play. Same with Algeria (if I remember
correctly) which will soon head off to be the most populous country on
Earth.

> Africa, though, may be a much bigger problem, but I don't
> see Africa having the resources to colonize other planets. 

Well it is 200 years down the track and it won't necessarily take that
long
for them to cure their woes, especially since you're tarring an entire
continent with the same brush and not everyone is plagued by the
economic
and social woes that grip places like Zimbabwe at present. Beyond that
the
African nations have already created a "power bloc" that could lead the
way
for the formation of a PAU like that of the GZG-verse.

> Jon hasn't really postulated why the mass colonization 
> effort. A good sci-fi reason would be some super bug or 
> virus that's ravaging the population, albeit fairly slowly. 
> That, however, would go against the whole idea 
> of colonies having close contact with Mother Earth. 

Or the effects of global climate change (be it a natural or human
induced
change). It looks the Antarctic Ice Shelf could be in REAL danger of
breaking up and as a result sea level will rise to the point the South
Pacific and many countries seaboards go under.... OK that'll knock out
some
people, but it also makes the land available to the rest a lot
smaller...
and a lot less able to support them as many agricultural plains are on
the
coastal deltas.

Cheers

Beth