Hurtling Towards Disaster

Here’s today’s question: What has more than doubled over the past 50 years? Yes, the average split-level ranch, and just about any out-patient surgery you could name has more than doubled in price in that span. But, that’s not what I’m referring to. I’m talking about world population - or, the sum and total of us.

In 1960 - before most of you were born, and way before the internet, the microwave oven, or Real Housewives of Fill in the Blank - the world’s population was just over three billion. Today, the world’s population stands at around 6,880,000,000. That’s six billion, eight hundred and eighty million. It took us however many centuries it was to get to three billion, and we’ve more than doubled that in 50 years. The rate of growth is staggering.

Back in the Seventies, the acronym Z.P.G. was rather popular; pretty much everyone knew that it stood for Zero Population Growth. It was an idea that never really gained “traction”. Although some people seemed to take the threat of uncontrolled growth seriously, for the most part we’ve bred like rabbits doing tequila shots. And, if you do the math, we’re hurtling towards disaster, at a rate just barely within the realm of comprehension.

It doesn‘t take a genius to see the outlook is both dismal and dire. Suffice to say, our eco-system cannot hope to sustain many more of us. It has been suggested that a world population of 10 Billion will be the tipping point; beyond which an ever-increasing percentage of humankind will live in virtual squalor, literally imprisoned within a refrigerator sized plot of their own excrement.

It has also been conjectured that in the not-too-distant future, potable water will cost more than sweet crude oil, only the ultra-rich will be able to afford a 1,000 square foot single-family dwelling, and a vine-ripened tomato will be worth it’s weight in gold. Demand up, supply down, bad news all around.

Yes, we may colonize the moon sometime this century. We may even find a few other rocks floating around in space on which to plant our flag. But, right now the Earth is all we have. And we’re all getting an ever-dwindling slice of that.

I’m not suggesting that we stop reproducing, or that we could - any more so than we could stop polluting, killing each other, or Tweeting. I’m suggesting that we stop and think about what we’re doing. Before we do it.