by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Some people don’t mind living crowded together; some people do. But the aspect of population density is not very important.
There can be no doubt, however, that the quantity of resources on this planet is dwindling, and that is true for everything. There are clearly less fish in the ocean, less virgin forest to lumber, less ore to mine, less oil to he pumped and possibly most important of all, less clean fresh water available. To dismiss the connection between human population and these dwindling resources as conspiracy theory, or as a political, racial or religious issue is truly the last straw.
When it comes to trees for wood there should be no virgin forests used anyway but only sustainably managed forest sources. The last vestiges of virgin forest, whether in the tropics or the boreal ones in Canada, should be left alone. We should be able to work with what we have – if we but reduce our impact. Why do we have to have more, and more and more?
As regards to population a smaller human population has a smaller impact on the planet. This is simple logic, not subject to research or opinion, and no huge multi-million dollar studies and research papers will be required. Mind you, they are going to write them anyway.
The common denominator of all the world’s problems, human and otherwise, is simply that there are too many people chasing ever dwindling resources. This is not the same as too many people for the planet to support at this time or in the next number of years, but too many people for the planet to support without a negative impact on everything other than humans.
Healthy habitats are disappearing at an alarming rate. I am not just talking about the human environments that are in bad shape, such as Mexico City or Cairo. Respiratory illness in Los Angeles is on the rise. The Colorado River is now a polluted trickle emptying into the Gulf of California. We have viruses and bacteria that are mutating beyond existing medicine’s ability to keep up. Not only that, but we also have the speed of jet travel that allows a person carrying a disease to spread it before even coming down with the symptoms.
You don’t have to take my word for it, or even that of some “expert”. Do your own homework. Try to find one body of fresh water on this planet that a human dares drink from without first filtering and what have not. Go talk to fishermen all along our oceans, not only in the USA, but everywhere. Talk to a building contractor about the quality of lumber from today’s trees vs. what was available only two decades ago. Go to Africa and talk to the people who live in the deserts, who have watched that desert grow beyond their village in one or two generations. Don’t pass on the words of some “expert” just because he or she is telling the world what you want to hear and ignore the words of those that are telling you something that you do not want to hear.
We all have to lend a hand to try to fix the situation, and the first step is to acknowledge the true cause of the problem. If we had half of today’s world population we would have half the pollution, half the draw on resources, and be twice as far towards a healthy planet again. I am not suggesting that everyone take a number and all those with odd numbers march over a cliff. All children – all people – are precious. We can’t halve our population but we can take steps to limit its future growth.
The Lord may have given mankind dominion over this Earth, but He did not say to trash it.
Reducing the amount of people on this planet could be done simply by the “stop at two” program, as far as children are concerned, for in our modern day and age childhood mortality in the developed world is so low that large families are, in fact, not just a burden on the Planet but anti-social.
This must also mean, as far as children are concerned, that there is no hunt on in every family to have a male heir, and in the process producing many girls simply because girls, to some, have no value. This is something that must stop, period. For our very survival's sake and that of the Planet.
Still there are religious zealots and bigots that claim the we cannot be the judge and also that many children are a blessing from the Lord. Mind if I disagree. The likes of the Duggard family with their, how many are they now, kids and others of the same “ilk” are an anathema in today's modern world, and are a burden on the Planet if not on society. It is time that a stop would be put on such over-large families.
Industry, obviously, and other human activity, has to also take a great deal of responsibility for the destruction of the Planet's healthy habitats and our exploitation, for greed, of the natural resources, is another not to be forgotten culprit here.
We cannot get enough, can we, and while we pursue the more, more and still more, we destroy the very foundation that makes life possible. But we have the attitude that we can carry on. We just have to find the technology to do something about it or, if all else fails, go and find another planet in our solar system to trash.
The problem is that there is only One Earth and we discovered that already in the 1970s and the slogan against pollution was that “Only One Earth”. What is taking us so long that we still have done absolutely nothing about improving things for us and the Planet? Greed, that's what is causing this delay. Greed of multinational corporations and commodity traders for more and more wealth to be accumulated. A wealth that they cannot eat and that cannot clothe them nor can they drink it.
Man was set to have dominion over the Earth but that does not mean domination and trashing it. It meant to be a husbandman, a steward, a caretaker; not to exploit and destroy. Alas, somewhere it went all wrong.
Now, in the last days, so to speak, we must turn this supertanker around and stop it from destroying us and everything. We can do it but we must do it now, this very moment, without delay. We all know how long it takes for a supertanker to stop and turn. Now hard left rudder for a 180degree turn and very slow speed ahead.
© 2011
