This week I discuss Professor Gary Peters article on world population.
Between 1970-2009, global population doubled from 3.5bn-6.8bn, an alarmingly
increased rate considering previous trends of growth. Coinciding with the rapid
depletion of oil (amongst other energy resources), raw materials, natural
habitats, biodiversity, and the destruction and degradation of the
litho-bio-hydro-cryo-atmos-spheres, it’s plausible the "Earth cannot
sustain a growing population of ever-wealthier people living on a planet that
has a finite supply of resources, and the 21stC is going to be the
proving ground for this proposition".
A still taken from Blommkamps 'Elysium' - a
world where the rich escaped into space to
continue their luxurious existence in splendid isolation.
Logic tells us to prepare ourselves against slipping into
this dangerous assumption the earth can sustain us infinitely - "bring our
population into a closer balance with earth's carrying capacity for our
species". Many advocate the illusion of “sustainable-growth”, which is a demented oxymoron designed to
appease those trying to raise the real questions. Peters quotes Kenneth
Boulding’s brilliant comment on the different views of Earth’s carrying
capacity, neatly quipped as such; "anyone who believes that exponential
growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an
economist". Yet despite brilliant works such as ‘The Spirit Level’ or
‘Limits to Growth’, many still remain blind to the seemingly obvious view that
beyond a certain threshold, wealth does little more to increase our happiness.
Whereas "the economy (may) ha(ve) gotten bigger, the
ecosystem has not" (Athanasiou, 1998), our continued expansion
continues to encroach on the planet’s health,
and certainly on its biodiversity, with more and more fears of a sixth mass
extinction resulting from anthropogenic activity. As Peters aptly puts it, "it
is not politically correct today to suggest that population growth may be
straining the planet beyond its capacity to provide for human needs and wants
without considerable suffering", but population is THE elephant in the
room, as Cohen said in 1995 that we will soon, if not already surpassed, the
point where Earth can support us to a quality of life we would wish our
grandchildren to enjoy. The current UN projections fortunately show a
stabilising at around 10bn by century’s end, but with Climate Change already
looming overhead, can we risk this uncertainty and push the planet beyond it’s
limits? Will we be able to cooperate on a global scale and address this rapidly
mounting issue, it IS an inconvenient truth that is unpopular and politically
incorrect, but an irrefutable disaster waiting to happen.
An interesting article -
‘As
population size increases… individuals begin to compete for resources
and there is a corresponding decrease in the rate of population
increase. Eventually, the population stabilises at a level where
resources are used at the same rate as they are supplied (known as the
carrying capacity)’ - Richard
J. Ladle and Lindsey Gillson (2009)
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