I spend almost all the time in these blog posts talking about Climate Change and the challenges it will present but if you go to the home page, you will note that in ‘Our View of the Situation’, population growth sits at the bottom of an inverted pyramid and drives everything that we humans are doing to the planet. My point here is that Climate Change is a result of there being too many of us (although I do believe that the planet could support as many as 10 billion but that would require huge and perhaps un-attainable cooperation) competing for finite resources. So, even if we can ultimately control emissions, we will not have won the war. This excerpt is from an article written in 2016 but remains very relevant today:
At Napoleon’s time, only about one billion people lived on this planet. By 1960 it was three. Today we are more than 7.5 billion. Like rabbits on an island with a seemingly unlimited food supply. The human race has, within just a fraction of its existence, increased more than sevenfold. And no scientists are able to provide a precise estimate on how long these trends will continue. Each additional person however requires water and food, housing and electricity, a school and a hospital – and they want cars and to be able to travel. But why is the challenge of tackling high population growth so pressing? Because it constantly increases consumption levels and depletes natural resources often quicker than the rate of regeneration. Because it generates vast quantities of non-biodegradable waste. Because it has driven deforestation and produced massive amounts of CO2. Population growth thus has a central influence on resource depletion and anthropogenic climate change – and these three pressing global challenges cannot be separated from one another.
I came across another site recently which further demonstrates the problem:
What it is basically telling us is that by country, we are consuming the natural resources at a rate that is much faster than their ability to be replenished. So, for example, the USA consumes its share of natural resources by early March of a 12 month year and if we were to come into balance, we would have to reduce by 3-4x our consumption on a per capita basis.
So, not only do we have to convert to a non-fossil fuel based life style/economy, but we need to reduce / come into harmony on our consumption of resources.
Says a lot about our future and the challenges that lay ahead.
SZ