MONDAY, OCTOBER 31ST, 2011
7 Billion!
The world population is sitting at a staggering 7 billion today! My deepest regrets to every other lifeform on the planet. My apologies to the oceans and the air. Doesn't do much good being on the top of the food chain when the food below us is being wiped out at several species A DAY(!) because of human expansion.
I'd also apologize to the decaying remains of the dinosaurs, but we've pretty much 'exhausted' (pun intended) anything that was left of them.
The world population is sitting at a staggering 7 billion today! My deepest regrets to every other lifeform on the planet. My apologies to the oceans and the air. Doesn't do much good being on the top of the food chain when the food below us is being wiped out at several species A DAY(!) because of human expansion.
I'd also apologize to the decaying remains of the dinosaurs, but we've pretty much 'exhausted' (pun intended) anything that was left of them.
In fact, we've been shitting where we eat since there were only two billion of us (in 1940 - or just 69 years ago - a number we should be practicing more often it seems)
7 billion!
Squeezed onto 29% of the earth's surface (the rest is all water folks). At a total land mass of 148,939,063 square kilometers, that's a depressing 47 people for every single square kilometer of land - and it's enough to make one want to remove one's self from the count! (Subtract uninhabitable arid lands and the Arctic from the total land mass and things get even more dismal). This year alone (so far) there have been 110 million births - nearly one for every square kilometer of living space on the planet!
And while we cannot possibly sustain this growth for much longer, capitalism REQUIRES an ever expanding population of consumers or the whole thing collapses, so aside from China's maximum family size legislation, we're not likely to see western governments acting to stem the tide! And so by 2050 we'll be a whopping 10 billion eating, shitting, baby making, planet consuming, environmental terrorists.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
7 billion!
Squeezed onto 29% of the earth's surface (the rest is all water folks). At a total land mass of 148,939,063 square kilometers, that's a depressing 47 people for every single square kilometer of land - and it's enough to make one want to remove one's self from the count! (Subtract uninhabitable arid lands and the Arctic from the total land mass and things get even more dismal). This year alone (so far) there have been 110 million births - nearly one for every square kilometer of living space on the planet!
And while we cannot possibly sustain this growth for much longer, capitalism REQUIRES an ever expanding population of consumers or the whole thing collapses, so aside from China's maximum family size legislation, we're not likely to see western governments acting to stem the tide! And so by 2050 we'll be a whopping 10 billion eating, shitting, baby making, planet consuming, environmental terrorists.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Back in the 60's and 70's we at least paid lip service to importance of slowing population growth. The title of this post refers to a popular sci-fi novel of the time (it was made into the Chuck "Cold Dead Hand" Heston's 1973 film "Soylent Green") which was typical of the cautionary tales told during the decade. But we just kept plopping out mini-me's faster than rabbits (or more appropriately - cockroaches)!
Yet there are still those who think we should celebrate this number!
I guess hope (and utter stupidity) springs eternal. (I'd wager mother earth doesn't share our rosy outlook!)
Yet there are still those who think we should celebrate this number!
I guess hope (and utter stupidity) springs eternal. (I'd wager mother earth doesn't share our rosy outlook!)
On a side note, global-warming skeptic Richard Mueller, who for years continued to claim that his fellow scientists were full of bunk, has done a major about-face.
After being financed by a foundation of fellow deniers to help back-up their claims, Muller's research has determined that global warming proponents have been correct all along, and that the world is warming at an alarming and unnatural rate!!
Well, Duh! Remember folks, the deniers are the same scientists (exactly the same scientist - hired by Big-Oil specifically for their easily purchased opinions) who said smoking was harmless.
After being financed by a foundation of fellow deniers to help back-up their claims, Muller's research has determined that global warming proponents have been correct all along, and that the world is warming at an alarming and unnatural rate!!
Well, Duh! Remember folks, the deniers are the same scientists (exactly the same scientist - hired by Big-Oil specifically for their easily purchased opinions) who said smoking was harmless.
Cellphone radiation is completely safe too!
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