Standing Room Only

There are many problems that we face today, like food and water supplies, combating disease, climate change, energy supplies, threats to wildlife survival, as well as many other environmental, economic and social problems.  A major cause of these problems is human population growth.  The world's human population has already passed the 7 billion mark, which is a seven-fold increase since 1800, and is currently increasing at the rate of 10,000 per hour.  No one likes to see human suffering and death, like the casualties of war and the victims of disease, such as Ebola.  Whilst disasters like these do reduce the population, relatively speaking it is by very small amounts and not in ways that can by any stretch of the imagination be regarded as humane.  But one thing's for sure, indefinite population growth is physically impossible on a finite planet.

So what's the solution?  Maurice Strong, secretary general of the 1992 Earth Summit, said: "Either we reduce our numbers voluntarily, or nature will do it for us brutally."  Harsh words, but in my opinion, he hit the nail on the head.  If we carry on with 'business as usual', the planet will eventually give up on us.  Food supply will not meet demand, climate change will lead to environmental disaster, disease will be rampant, etc, etc, etc........Armageddon.  We don't want that do we?  So let's consider some obvious actions.

Firstly, smaller families must be a priority and in my opinion, it would be better if this could be achieved voluntarily rather by government control, as in China.  We all have a choice about how many children we have and each additional child will have more impact on the environment and consume more resources than anything else we do over our lifetimes.  Having two or fewer children, rather than three or more is, in my view, a socially responsible choice.

Secondly, individuals in developed countries need to be environmentally aware and not consume excessively.  This includes consumption of food, energy, water and unnecessary manufactured goods and services.  Clearly the poor of the world are entitled to improve their living standards and consumption in the richer countries has to be reduced to allow those in poorer countries to attain a decent lifestyle.

Finally, our activities need to be sustainable.  What does this mean?  Well, the Ehrlich or IPAT equation is:

I = PAT, where I = impact on the environment or demand for resources, P = population size, A = affluence and T = technology.

This can be explained as follows.  Our Impact on the environment is dependent on how many of us are consuming resources and creating waste (Population), the average amount of goods and services we consume (Affluence) and how inefficiently/harmfully we produce these goods and services (Technology).  According to the World Wildlife Fund/Global Footprint Network Living Planet Report, we are currently collectively consuming resources of 1.5 Earths.  That's not sustainable!

So let's not continue until there is 'Standing Room Only' because nature will stop us painfully in our tracks way before that condition arrives.  If you want to change the world, start with yourself.