Population
"Go Forth And Multiply!" That's what the human population has successfully been doing for thousands and thousands of years, expanding, exploring, migrating, conquering, utilizing, evolving, civilizing, industrializing, and now, destroying the very land upon which we live.
I would like to speak a few words on Population. As Prof Stephen Hawking put it, In the last 200 years the population of our planet has grown exponentially, at a rate of 1.9% per year. If it continued at this rate, with the population doubling every 40 years, by 2600 we would all be standing literally shoulder to shoulder.
The world’s population is now more than 6.8 billion and continues to grow by 83 million people per year. During the last half-century, the world’s population more than doubled. The magnitude of this increase will be felt in all aspects of life. It will further stress already strained ecological systems and worsen poverty in much of the developing world, thus aggravating the ecological imbalance.
The world’s population is now more than 6.8 billion and continues to grow by 83 million people per year. During the last half-century, the world’s population more than doubled. The magnitude of this increase will be felt in all aspects of life. It will further stress already strained ecological systems and worsen poverty in much of the developing world, thus aggravating the ecological imbalance.
Earth is a finite sphere and cannot endure infinite growth by any single species, we should also remember that Earth’s current web-of-life is the result of billions of years of complex evolution. It is irreplaceable.
"Once it was necessary that the people should multiply and be fruitful if the race was to survive. But now to preserve the race it is necessary that people hold back the power of propagation."
The extreme growth in human population – now counted by an additional billion people every 12 to 13 years — is mortally taxing the Earth and its resources. Each individual person has a unique impact on the planet’s environment. Some people may be relatively less damaging than others, but no living individual is without an ecological footprint. In other words, each person needs basic resources and almost all people aspire to utilize significantly more resources than are required by their basic needs. As these needs and aspirations are multiplied by a factor of 6.8 billion, day after day and year after year, the stability of the planet’s ecosphere has been, and will continue to be, severely compromised.
Mankind is looking for food not just on this planet but on others. Perhaps the time has now come to put that process into reverse. Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, maybe we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment.
As William Blake quoted, “You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.” I conclude.
Thank you.
Meena
Comments
Post a Comment