By Becca Bayham
Does the world seem a little angsty-er to you? It should, it’s got way more adolescents.
“There were only a billion people [on Earth] in 1800; now we have a billion teenagers,” said Andrew Revkin, a prize-winning journalist and New York Times blogger, during a lecture on Jan. 18.
“Is this a sign of overpopulation?” someone in the audience joked, referring to the jam-packed classroom.
Likely not, but, as Revkin discussed, resource limits and an explosive human population growth may eventually cause population or economic declines.
“We don’t seem to have distinguished ourselves from bacteria on a plate of agar yet,” Revkin said. “Science is saying hey, hey, there’s an edge to the dish! But we’re still in go-go-go mode.”
The fact that we will reach the edge of the dish is undeniable — and it won’t be pretty. To illustrate, Revkin showed a picture of Black Friday shoppers fighting over a sale item.
“Can you imagine everyone doing this?” he said.
Unfortunately, we humans are historically bad at confronting problems that don’t affect us here-and-now. If in doubt, see our lackluster response to the national debt. Or global climate change, for that matter (a topic Revkin often blogs about).
“There’s a big chunk of everyone who just doesn’t want to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth… it’s hard, it’s complex, it’s laden with layers of complicit uncertainty. What is it and what do you do about it?”
Revkin believes that global connectedness, powered by the internet, offers a solution to the many problems humanity will face in coming years.
Communication between people — sharing information and exchanging ideas — has long fueled our economy and fostered human progress. According to Revkin, a network of collaborating schools, libraries, businesses and other institutions (a “knowsphere”) could help combat problems ranging from natural disaster preparedness to the treatment of diseases.
“Much of human progress can be charted in relation to our linkages with others,” he said.
In the 1920s, philosophers Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin conceptualized the idea of a “noosphere” (from the Greek “nous”, mind and sphaira, “sphere”), a philosophical sphere of intelligence around the Earth that humans could draw from — a planet of the mind. Back then, it was just an idea.
“But now, it’s happening,” Revkin said.
Are you saying you can clean fukushima disaster around the planet using your mental powers.
Planet can sustain a healthy population of 500 to 1.500 million humans. All it takes is to not have more than 2 children per 2 adults. And u can just achieve that with tax policies. Im christian and im against abortion or forced measures in this.
Apart from that, put a maximum limit of inmigrants per year below the depopulation level. And do not accept inmigrants from countries not using the same policies.
Thats all.
Above that limits, cancer rates already on 44% increase. Pollution, poverty, crime.
We can redefine what a poor guy is. A guy who cannot pay for a yacht but has a house surrounded by forests, food, and heat. But not a guy starving in a hostile street exposed to all kind of diseases.
Two children per couple counting on people who cannot have or do not want to have children. A very little and unique sacrifice compared to the benefits. And to be forced to recycle, look into your trash daily, see the use of a car forbidden, be forced to turn off all your lights, and pay expensive bills on energy, drink bad waters, acid rain, expensive food with pesticides that increase yields 3%, polluted air, and so on.
I totally agree about our seeming inability as humans to look at long range and long term problems. I think that this has to do with our DNA.
We have been “civilized” (that is, agricultural) for only about 10,000 years. For millions of years, evolving from the apes who came out of the trees, we had been hunter/gatherers. Hunter/gatherers pretty much live in the present, or at most, the very immediate future (like next week or maybe next season), but not long “down the road”. As humans, we are best at confronting problems in front of our noses, more or less well, and moving on. Climate change is about the world that we are bequeathing to our unborn and unimagined children.
I think that one way to reach people that can make this real is through emotions, and through our children. Over history, parents have done remarkable things for the sake of their children. That, too, I think is in our genes.