The bomb is our population. The fallout is global warming, famine, depressed wages, increased poverty, pandemics and a host of other more minor inconveniences. There are too many people on the planet. We're stuck here with over 6.5 Billion of our closest friends. The situation is predicted to get worse. In less than fifty years, we'll be scrapping with over 9 Billion others for a breath of fresh air, a portion of food and a place to rest our weary bones.
We don't like to talk about it. There are no diaries tagged 'overpopulation' and only four tagged 'population'. We casually float down that river in Egypt and tell ourselves that we're not part of the problem. If you have any offspring whatsoever, you are part of the problem. Yes, you with your recently delivered bundle of joy or your honor student at generic school or your daughter the doctor or your son the lawyer.
More after the jump.
It's not really your fault. You didn't know. Your parents didn't tell you. Your peers likely have kids of their own. The media is even more abysmally mute about the overpopulation issue than it has been about the Bush Administration's many transgressions. Society changes so slowly when the impetus to do so is boring and not alarmingly evident. The ice caps are melting. That should be sufficient alarm at this point.
It's not sufficient. Kos himself recently exhorted liberals here to have more children in the futile hope that they would be raising more liberals. We can't wait another twenty years for you to give birth, raise the kid(s) and hope that the world hasn't gone to rack and ruin by then. The future may be so bleak there may not be much left to fight over or for. Living will be the constant battle.
What can the planet comfortably sustain in terms of human population? According to a Romanian scientist, Viorel Badescu, quoted in an article in the Guardian, the earth can sustain a population of 1.3 million billion people. Not very pleasantly either.
Describing the Earth should such a limit ever be reached, Mr Cathcart paints a picture where we see little, other than our neighbour's armpit, or our neighbour's neighbour's armpit. Daylight would be a rare luxury, with most people living in skyscrapers 2,000 storeys high.
Various studies have been done with results listed here showing sustainable populations dependent upon what standard of living the inhabitants could expect to enjoy. If everyone lives like Americans, then a population of only 1 Billion is sustainable. Using a more European standard of living, the planet can sustain 4.3 Billion. If you examine Table 3 on that website, you will note that the pie-in-the-sky estimates of 7.7, 9, 10 amd 12 Billion are based on society getting its act together, reducing consumption and acting responsibly globally.
Take a moment to laugh at that because it's pretty funny.
The median of all the models is 2.1 Billion. We are well over that number at 6.5 Billion and counting. OK, your eyes are glazing over and you don't want to think about this issue. The data is boring, unless you're a population geek.
About how many people are born and die in a single day? - Bob Shelby, Downers Grove, Ill.
Each day on Earth, about 350,000 people are born and 150,000 die. - Marilyn vos Savant, Parade 03/26/2006
I personally don't find that data boring. More than two people are being born for every one person dying. I find that fact horrifying, not boring.
Global warming isn't boring. Ask anyone who has been through the recent tornado outbreaks or those who live on the Gulf Coast with the insane hurricane activity last season. How about the excitement of the wildfires caused by droughts? Blizzards are pretty exciting; all that snow that keeps coming and coming like the Energizer bunny. A good flood will always get your adrenalin pumping. You'll need it to cling to a tree. The polar bears can't be bored by their habitat melting out from underneath them.
Depressed wages are fairly exciting. The overabundance of people decreases the worth of their labor. Juggling several jobs is exhilarating to the point of exhaustion. Quaking in fear at the sound of a knock at the door or the ring of the phone has the element of danger when you're worried about the landlord evicting you or bill collectors hassling you. Shoplifting food from the supermarket also gets the heart racing. All that goes hand-in-hand with poverty. Both very thrilling topics...unless you happen to be living them.
Pandemics have a certain scary thrill about them. Otherwise, why would the media be promoting their bird flu or mad cow special reports?
The minor inconveniences are sitting in clogged traffic jams. Do you like waiting in lines snaking though the DMV offices for a turn behind a glut of other people? Going to the store the day of the sale an hour after it opened and finding they're out of the advertised special you went there to get? Being crushed by other attendees at a concert or sporting event? And never being able to get any damned where without too many other goddamned people in your way?
Those of you who have two or more children are the problem. Those of you with one child: stop now. What you can do to ameliorate your contribution to overpopulation is dissuade your offspring from having any of their own. Don't give them that stupid "I want to be a grandparent some day" horseshit. You won't have to live in the horrid conditions your hypothetical grandchildren will. Those of you without any kids: seriously consider staying that way.
Go back and read Orangebeard's The number one thing you can do to help the environment diary. It only got 12 comments. Read polymath22's Touching a nerve diary. It only got 6 comments. Even those who purport to be progressive and liberal refuse to deal with the subject.
There are better ways to increase the number of liberals than to breed and add to the mess that's already here. We desperately need negative population growth. We can either do it voluntarily or we'll die from the inevitable pandemics, wars or famines. It's our choice. Make the right one. Stop breeding.