(MENAFNEditorial)
Australian Environmental lawyer issue warning on overpopulation.
This year the world population jumped past the 7 billion mark.
That’s a lot of people you may think especially as in 1350 ad it stood at about 360 million and even that’s a lot of people to feed.
But these figures pale into insignificance when you consider that by the year 2050 it is expected to top 10.9 billion and wait for it by 2150 24 billion.
Now we are very lucky in Australia as we are one of the world’s least populated countries only topped last time I checked by Mongolia.
So driving in Ulan Bator the capital of Mongolia should be a lot easier than say Mexico City whose population now exceeds 19 million or Tokyo which is nearly double that
The world population is steadily growing yet the size of our world remains the same and we don’t have the technology yet to create settlements on Mars or the Moon and would you want to live there anyway downtown shopping would be a bit dull and no Foxtel.
So with the population expanding at this alarming rate its obvious that the demand for food and energy will become a momentous problem already wild animals are disappearing at a horrendous rate either down someone’s throat or simple die off as their habitat is cut down or taken to make room for more humans or to grow their food or meet their energy needs.
So how come this problem is not on everyone’s mind. Why in any election do we never hear a politician from any party calling for a slow down in population growth . why is that you may well ask.
Well firstly we are a consumer society and the more people there are the more they will consume by eating more food buying more petrol phones .tv computers get slim pills etc etc etc. and politicians believe it or not often pander to big business especially in the good old US of A.
And secondly there are millions and millions of people brainwashed from birth into believing in mediaeval religious’ nonsense about no contraception abortions right to die which is helping tip the World into the worst disaster since the end of the Dinosaurs 65 million odd years ago.
Now wonderful people like Sir David Attenborough and Australia’s own Dick Smith have had the guts to speak out on national television and make the problem understood but its our politicians who are meant to be looking after us and why the deadly silence.
The answer of course is that the two groups that pollies won’t offend are Big Business and Religious leaders and their flock as that can loose a lot of votes and staying in power with all its perks is far more important than saving the world from impending disaster.
Already we are experiencing changing weather patterns and that the human race plays a part in this beyond doubt yes I know we have had ice ages before but it cannot be argued against that since the industrial revolution the world has become more polluted. Just count the plastic rubbish floating in our oceans or the number of garbage tips or sewage plants
The population of Nigeria for example now exceeds 168 million (lets not even mention the rest of Africa) so what happens to poor countries with huge populations when they run our of food water and energy either they succumb to starvation and decease or go and take from someone else hunger is a terrible thing as is war.
Already thousands of people are taking to boats to head for Europe Scandinavia and Australia however its estimated there are over 30 million displaced people looking for a new home so where can we put them all?
Big business will argue that companies like Monsanto will save the world by producing genetically modified foods farms will turn into animal factories giant fish farms
History and science tell us that overcrowding creates decease and even now in the animal factories and fisheries the animals and fish are fed antibiotics to keep them disease free and this of course means you and I are probably consuming antibiotics in our food which is not good as when we do need them they will have less effect.
All depressing stuff so is there a simple answer ?
There sure is .
….wait for a pandemic which all health authorities assure us will come with total overcrowding Bird Flue Marburg Ebola the return of the Black Death remember the Spanish flue that knocked off about 30/40 million in Europe only 100 years ago.
…..wait for World War Three the last one killed about 72 million. Next should do much better .
….or adopt the simple solution which is a tax on bringing more than two children into the world after all each child will consume more of the earths resources and it’s the parent’s who choose to bring them into our overcrowded world so its only fair they pay their share.
Making parents pay tax on more than two children will reduce the size of families and therefore consumption. It will give the other creatures of our world the chance to servive.
Within a century the worlds population will begin to stabilise and the tax can be reduced or the non taxable number of children increased.
Although this solution is very simple there is just a the slight problem in getting all the worlds politicians to agree and getting the worlds religious leaders to agree will be even harder as they have a very vested in interest in creating more supporters of their beliefs.
Of course we can just bury are heads in the sand watch footie cricket and leave it to the next generation .
THE WHISPER
whisperisalive@gmail.com
(the whisper is a well known environmental lawyer living in NSW)
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