Humans are at a point in time where all things are coming to, or are already at a critical junction. It is a fact that our impact on climate has had negative impact on our Home, Earth. Simply put, we are taking more from Earth than can be replenished. If we continue at the rate that we are, we don't have much time left.
When we read reports of climate change, extinction of species, destruction of Ocean habitat, Destruction of Land resources it is important to understand that these are all symptoms. None of those things are root causes of problems. The root cause is that we are not capable in our current form of being able to continue.
In order for Humans to survive, we must evolve. This is not an evolution as we think of in the form of Darwin's theories, like birds growing different beaks to eat different foods. I am referring to a mental evolution, a revolution where we must change the way that we think and in what we find important.
Population
Population is not the biggest problem, but it is one of the easiest to understand and for me to write about. There is a much greater problem behind even this which I will cover in part 2.
It has been estimated by numerous scientific sources that the Earth can support roughly 2 Billion Humans. At 2 Billion, as we use trees and kill animals and plants for our needs, use water and other minerals, the Earth can replenish most of the resources. In those studies, it is still important that we recycle what we can. Metals, Glass, plastics all need to be recycled and carefully managed. Without management, we end up with what we have now in the great ocean garbage pits, landfills and of course lots of pollution. (You can search the Internet for tremendous amounts of data on the "Great Pacific Garbage Pit".)
Symptoms of the overpopulation are everywhere. Asia for example is having skirmishes over who owns what parts of the Ocean. The reason for this is that they have fished everything they could out of what is close to home, and now extend their search for fish far away from their coast lines.
The US has similar problems, but we have been a little better at controlling what we take. Even with those controls, resources are often difficult to acquire. Combine the overfishing with a loss of habitat due to pollution and destruction of Ocean areas near shore, and we have a much bigger problem. The Oceans simply don't have the resources they need to support a renewal of resources.
Don't take my word for anything here, simply search for Ocean Dead zones, Pacific Garbage Zone, Atlantic Garbage Zone, and watch conflicts in Asian Ocean regions and look for yourself. Also search for population estimates for any fish or mammal in the Ocean that humans use. Not only are they on the decline, but declining at frightening rates.
The Oceans are not the only problem. We can similarly look at land resources and find the same issues. While the US may have fertile farm lands in some areas, much has been destroyed. We have mountains being destroyed for coal, we have farm lands being destroyed for natural gas, we have rivers and lakes so polluted we can not eat anything that comes out of them.
Instead of using land we already have for housing, we continue to expand horizontally instead of vertically. We must understand our footprint on the Earth and how it relates to our resources.
Without making drastic changes to the way we live, we simply can not support the current population of Humans on Earth.
Stemming Overpopulation
There are numerous moral implications in asking people to reduce. Who decides who has children? Who decides who lives or dies when we have grave medical conditions? Who decides how we handle medications for the critically ill or elderly?
Instead of asking any of those things, I believe simple education is all that's needed to accomplish the task. People tend to do the right thing when they understand the choices at hand. An educated society tends to perform very well under any circumstance. An ignorant society does not fair the same.
Why do we hear nothing about population being a problem any more? Why are people not being taught that we have too many humans living on Earth? This will be covered in my next article on the "Greed Based Economy".
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