Billions and Billions

So the world's population hit seven billion today, with a baby being born every two seconds. We have tripled our population in the last century due to advancements in healthcare and medicine. People are living longer, but has the quality of their lives improved? A vast swathe of people live in poverty and malnutrition, while in other parts of the world food is disposed of, destroyed, or thrown away, to balance market forces. On one hand you see pictures of children dying of starvation in Africa and on the other, one needs to just walk into any restaurant to see the prolific waste of food on any table.

The divide between the rich and the poor is increasing and beyond a point will create a civil revolution. Not too sure, but I do remember reading that the top 1% of humanity control almost 80% of the world's resources, or thereabouts.

There are two views on this population explosion, a pessimistic and an optimistic one, and to be honest I do not know which one I endorse. The pessimistic one says that population will continue to grow until the demographics create an imbalance in the order of things; to the extent that society and the entire world will be negatively affected. Water tables are receding, pollution is spreading, and critical species are becoming extinct due to man's intrusion, all of which are creating a negative spiral. A modern day version of the Malthusian Theory, almost!

The optimistic one talks about the growth slowing down as literacy spreads and growth rates slow down naturally. If history is any guide, we have managed to producs the resources necessary to feed the growing population and maybe we will continue to do so. As education spreads, people will have smaller families, which by itself should see a balance in growth over the next fifty years. Europe and North America are already seeing negative population growth rates.

I hope for the second scenario, but am scared of the first.

We all know or can deduce, that as basic necessities like fresh water, clean air, and decent food get more difficult to obtain the current fabric of society and world order will be torn. But what are we individually doing about it? How can we influence these vast forces, and more importantly should we even bother to try? Should not the more educated, the more informed, have a bigger responsibility to tackle these issues?

Should we just bury our heads in the sand and hope that someone, somewhere, will save the day? Should we just wait for the tide to sweep us away?

Or should we manage our lives responsibly, consume the resources that are needed rather than wanted, eliminate waste where possible, and endeavor to leave a better world for our children.

We all worry about the population explosion, but we don’t worry about it at the right time – Art Hoppe