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WORLD POPULATION SOARS:
By John J. Moelaert World-renowned explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau called the world's population explosion the greatest threat to human survival and describes "sustainable development" as an illusion. A recent Cornell University study predicts "an apocalyptic worldwide scene of absolute misery, poverty, disease and starvation" if current population trends continue. While scientists disagree on how close we are to global disaster (estimates vary from 20 to 100 years), there is general agreement total social and environmental collapse is inevitable if drastic changes in our reproductive rates and economic policies are not made very soon. There is no evidence that this is about to happen. On the contrary, unlimited human reproduction is not only allowed, but even encouraged by business and religious interests. Population growth means economic growth. It also means an increase in pollution, global warming, resource depletion, poverty, crime and starvation. It is crucial to understand that none of these environmental and social problems can be solved unless population growth is reversed. The Cornell University Study by Ecologist David Pimental warns that unless the global population is REDUCED to about two billion in the next 100 years from the current 6.2 billion the standard of living in developed countries such as the U.S. will decline to what China's standard of living is today. To fully comprehend the astronomical rate of human reproduction consider this: it took about one million years for the world population to reach the 2.5 billion mark in 1950. The next 2.5 billion people took only 37 years to produce. The present rate of increase is about two million people per week! From a purely ecological perspective the fast-burgeoning human population on earth is like a cancerous growth spreading through a once healthy body and ultimately it will prove equally fatal. All current indications are that the world population will continue to grow, yet most governments encourage population growth through tax breaks or cash bonuses for families rather than childless couples.The Quebec Government since 1988 pays parents of newborns $500 for the first child, $1,000 for the second and $6,000 for each additional one. Meanwhile the Pope and other religious leaders oppose birth control while claiming to deplore the very consequences of this Neanderthal policy: poverty, hunger and environmental devastation. Science boosts population figures with fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization that allows women over 50 to give birth after menopause. It is ironic that it is as easy to become a parent as it is difficult to BE one. All that is required for parenthood is a set of functioning male and female reproductive organs, a bit of aerobics and correct timing. If you want to cut hair for a living or drive a car for pleasure, you first have to pass an exam to prove you're qualified. Even if you want to do something as simple as fishing, you must have a license. But for parenthood, the most demanding of all human responsibilities, no license or proof of competence is required. The first and most important part of that responsibility is to determine whether the world today and for the foreseeable future is fit to be born into. In other words the likely fate of a child in that world is far more important than the mere wishes of its prospective parents. Since the unconceived child obviously can't be consulted, it's an awesome responsibility to make such a decision on its behalf. Even though no one can predict exactly what the world will be like in the next few decades, much relevant information is available that deserves to be taken into account. Here are some social and environmental conditions and trends that should be considered: Social conditions in our society are deteriorating rapidly. The quality of health care and education is plummeting, unemployment world-wide is on the increase. New diseases are manifesting themselves and "conquered" diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera and polio are staging comebacks. Cancer is reaching epidemic proportions in highly industrialized areas (In Canada and the US about 40 per cent of all people get cancer and of those about 62 per cent die of it). Our social fabric is ripped apart by violence in the streets and at home. Family disintegration, substance abuse, crime, street kids and the homeless are further evidence of the depth of the social malaise that afflicts us. A preview of the social chaos that will sweep the world can be found in major cities of Third World countries where the doorman of a fine restaurant will walk with you to and from your taxi with a rifle at the ready (See The Coming Anarchy by Robert D. Kaplan in the Feb., 1994 issue of Atlantic Monthly). But one of the most chilling indicators of how intolerable life has become for many people is the growing incidence of suicide: the most unreported tragedy in our midst. News media rarely report a suicide unless it involves a high-profile person or is committed in public view. In obituaries suicides are commonly referred to as "the sudden passing of our beloved...." Suicide in the industrialized world is on the increase in all age groups, especially among teenagers. Suicide among pre-teens as young as nine is no longer rare. In the U.S. suicide is now the second most common cause of death among teenagers. Among adults, both in Canada and the U.S., more women attempt suicide than men, but more men succeed. Stress and despair are the driving forces behind suicides. Stress, because more and more people feel they can't meet rising expectations. Despair, because personal or global conditions make life seem futile and unmanageable. Of course, life has never been a picnic, but for most people the future looks bleaker than the past. When I interview people aged 60 or over, I always include two questions: Did they find their lives worth living and would they have preferred to have been born today. Very few regret having been born, but more interestingly I have never met any seniors who said they wished they had been born now. They readily admit the advantages of today's modern conveniences and technology, but all believe the social and environmental costs are too high a price to pay. They commonly worry about the future their grandchildren face. Environmentally, the situation is even worse than the social problems we face. For one thing social problems only affect people, but environmental degradation affects all forms of life. Secondly, while social problems can usually be resolved within a matter of years, environmental problems often take centuries to correct and in some cases--such as species extinction--can never be corrected. Some forms of pollution are irreversible and pose a growing threat to life as time goes on. For example, there are now millions of tons of radioactive waste in the world. Some of it has been dumped in the oceans, while the rest is stored in landfills from which it leaches its lethal legacy into soil, rivers and lakes. This in turn allows its cancer-causing elements to work their way gradually up into the food chain in which humans are at the top and thus most at risk. To appreciate the immensity of this problem and the horrendous risk it poses to future generations consider this: radioactivity can neither be neutralized nor stored safely for the periods of time necessary. E.g. plutonium requires to be isolated from the rest of the environment for about 250,000 years. To put this length of time in perspective consider that all of human civilization spans a mere 6,000 years! Nuclear power is less than 60 years old. Some of today's environmental problems are so incredible that few could have imagined them as little as 20 years ago. For example, garbage disposal has reached crisis proportions in much of the industrialized world. Who could have foreseen that today vast quantities of garbage are shipped from the U.S. to the Philippines where the poor and desperate sift through the disposable diapers and other filth in search of something useful. Europe is shipping its surplus waste to impoverished African nations. The current popular use of the term sustainable development shows that few people, and virtually none in government and business, understand that an expanding economy and a healthy environment are mutually exclusive. The reality is that what we call development (E.g. clear-cutting and paving farm land) is NOT sustainable. In our world, where the economy is driven by greed and based on waste, the rapid environmental degradation all around us should surprise no one, but alarm everyone. For example, global warming caused by millions of tons of airborne pollutants is increasing the temperature of the world's oceans. Although these increases are very small, they are enough to increase evaporation and intensify air-currents, hence significant increases in precipitation, floods and destructive hurricanes. Record temperatures are reported from many parts of the world. In England the highest temperature ever recorded happened August 8 (37.5 degrees Celcius) of this year: 2003. Lack of foresight is the principal reason for the social chaos and environmental degradation which manifest themselves around the world. This myopic tendency was in full bloom at the much-ballyhooed Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The world's largest conference ever was a perfect example of stupidity triumphing over common sense. A debilitating deal was struck between the underdeveloped south and the industrialized north before the agenda was finalized. The south, aided and abetted by the Vatican, demanded not to be criticized for its lack of effective birth control programs in exchange for not criticizing the north for its wasteful consumerism. Thus the conference was doomed to failure before it started, because the two most critical problems the world faces were simply ignored: overpopulation and over-consumption. Up to the middle of the previous century population growth was not a serious problem. Until then human fecundity was offset by a high infant mortality rate and low resistance to rampaging diseases such as the plague, cholera, smallpox and typhoid. For example, in three short years from 1347 to 1350 some 60 million people died of the plague alone in Asia, Africa and Europe or about 20 per cent of the total population in that part of the world at that time. Until about 1870 two of every three children died in infancy. As the world's population continues to increase, global food production continues to decrease, because the amount of arable land diminishes each year as a result of erosion and new construction. The specter of mass starvation, already familiar in Somalia, Ethiopia and the Sudan, is but a precursor of things to come on a much broader scale with the notable difference that the world's principal food-producing nations will no longer have any surpluses to send to the hunger-stricken nations. In other words continued population growth and environmental destruction will irrevocably lead to total social and environmental collapse. It is merely an academic question--and an irrelevant one at that--whether this will happen in 20, 50 or 100 years. In view of this global emergency it is amazing that so few people have significantly changed their lifestyles to help avert the disasters ahead. Lip service and tokenism abound. Saving newspapers and bottles for the recycling depot, while driving a gas-guzzling mobile home or motor boat does a lot more for one's peace of mind than for the environment. Most people live in complete denial of the consequences of the social and environmental realities that surround them. They know instinctively that as long as they can deny reality they don't have to deal with it. This in turn allows them to live as though nothing has changed. They are partying on a sinking ship. But those who recognize and respect environmental realities live ecologically responsible lives and remain childless by choice. They love children too much to expose them to the fast-multiplying miseries that lie ahead for our already overburdened planet which unlike the human population is NOT getting any bigger. These as yet all too rare people are the ultimate environmentalists. See world population statistics at: US Source More detailed information at: UN Source |