With a human population of, say, one-half billion people, some minor changes in technology and some major changes in the rate of use and equity of distribution of the world’s resources, there would clearly be no environmental crisis. Dr Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, 1968
Today’s world population is 6,876,268,580, just a tad over Dr Ehrlich’s 42 year old recommendation.
The overpopulation discussion came up again yesterday when my friend, David, tweeted this:
I’m starting to think the only thing that will save humanity is a good old fashioned plague.
Someone asked if he meant that as a solution to over-population. He said:
Population and planetary destruction resulting from it, yea. Not sure we can fix it with science anymore.
My response was that, in 1985, An Atlas of Planet Management stated that if the population was 2% of what it was at the time, the world’s ecosystems would be in balance.
The earth was overpopulated by 98%.
Twenty five years ago.
And it has gotten worse.
I wrote a couple weeks ago about a walk I took with my 83 year old neighbor. She said her recycling is for naught, because it won’t correct the base problem of overpopulation. No matter what she does to be an eco-friendly citizen, it does no good when there are too many people using too few resources.
So how do you get rid of a majority of the people? That sounds cruel, but what else could be the solution?
David’s point of the plague wiping out the population does not only have to do with science, overpopulation and the depletion of natural resources, but also how people do not believe the sad state of our environment.
When I mentioned this to another friend yesterday, he said, ‘I just read in a NY Times story this morning that only “48 percent of people in the Midwest agree with the statement that there is ‘solid evidence that the average temperature on earth has been getting warmer.’” (Pew poll) Is it that people willfully refuse to believe anything they don’t want to believe, or is it that the American system of education is so terrible?’ People can google climate change and find all sorts of facts about it, but why don’t they? Are their heads deliberately in the sand, or are we not disseminating the information broadly enough?
There is much educating to be done about climate change. If people are living here and are obviously part of the problem, then they must take responsibility and tend to the earth and her systems.
Take your pick: Do your part, or succumb to the plague with the other 98%.
Do your part:
> Shop for eco-friendly products from environmentally conscious companies (or not shop at all).
> Recycle.
> Conserve energy at home.
> Buy organic and/or local food, or grow your own.
> Call out and stop supporting corporations and non-profits for greenwashing and hypocrisy.
> Stop flying.
> Have fewer or no children.
> Be kind and help others.
While you are googling facts about climate change, google tips for living an eco-friendly and environmentally lifestyle. Or start by reading my Eco-living Tips.
- Stimulus Plan Saves the States - from What?
- Review: Green Design: A Healthy Home Handbook by Alan Berman
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While I don’t think the environment will be a compelling reason for anyone who really wants kids not to have them, I do think we should be fostering a culture in which the decision not to have kids is encouraged or at least not seen as weird, antisocial, or taboo. If we could 1) make effective, inexpensive contraception and sex ed available to everyone, and 2) offer cultural and financial incentives to have 1 or fewer kids, I think we might be getting somewhere! I blogged about this a while ago, if you’re interested: http://noteasytobegreen.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/embracing-ginkdom/
That’s a great post, Jennifer! Thanks for giving the link.
Aside from the choice of having children or not, the medical industry is partly to blame. Their oath is to keep people alive no matter what the cost, financially, personally, or otherwise. My dad was kept alive for an extra 15 years on heart medication. If we let nature take its course, the planet would balance itself out. Our sick, greedy need to control nature has created what we have today, though. So by extending the lives of the elderly, and decreasing mortality rates, we have increased our population.
Now this does not address third world countries where women, like the old days in the US, have children until they can’t have them anymore. There is no birth control, and there is no sex ed, but there is lots of poverty and disease that kill. Despite that, populations grow. I don’t have solutions to those ills. If I did, I’d be famous. lol
But I agree, in this country our perspective of women not wanting children needs to change. Those women, and those wanting to be homemakers, are just as womanly and respectable as their opposites. We all have a place on the planet. We need more tolerance and acceptance, less judgment and controlling behavior.
Thanks, again!
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