The Biggest Issue

This is not going to be popular but then I’ve never worried much about being popular. I’m sure others are saying this too but this is my take.

All the problems of this planet are caused by over population. Not of rats or Japanese knotweed. Not of cockroaches or termites. Of HUMANS. Various estimates put the maximum population that this poor planet can accommodate at between 1.5 and 4bn. We are well over that now and growth is unfettered and exponential.

We see a starving child on the TV and our hearts go out. The personal tragedy is heart rending. We phone up and pledge money and maybe save that child. For what? To salve our own conscience? Certainly partially. Is there actually such a thing as true altruism? Doubtful. But that is a separate issue.

Back to that starving child, see the flies crawling round its mouth, its distended belly, crusted eyes and skeletal limbs. We save that child with a dribble of gruel and a shot of vitamins. Project forward twenty years, perhaps that child has fathered another two, three, four children it can’t support, perhaps another drought or famine or war has occurred in the area. Never mind, the ‘altruists’ step in again and off we go for another round.

Meanwhile in a prosperous western country every year the older generation just gets, well, older. Advances in medicine and care keep people alive much longer than their three score years and ten. There are fewer still births, prosperity encourages people into large families, social support encourages people into large families. People who should die from diseases don’t.

Even modern wars don’t encourage wholesale killing like wars of old.

But why is this important? Why should we care? Every human on the planet creates more demands on our finite resources, creates more waste and leaves less room for nature's systems to function. One day those systems will cease to function and the Old Testament will read like a holiday brochure.

So there we have it, unfettered breeding, more people living longer and nature’s traditional culling methods being over-ridden at every turn. So what is the solution? Can anything actually be done? As far as I can see the only thing we can hope for is personal responsibility. Replace yourself and nothing more. But will this happen? No, of course not. Lack of comprehension of our situation, lack of education, lack of giving a damn.

Our time on this planet is running out.