We Came, We Saw, And We Multiplied!
Jake Farr-Wharton 9 comments
“Go forth and multiply”, said the Lord, God, to the first of Human Kind, Adam and Eve. And we did.
At present, according to the World Population Clock run by Berkeley University; on Earth, there are around 2-3 births per second, which has lead to a population of around 6,854,827,100 (for a fraction of a second) as I wrote this article.
The problem with this population, however, is overpopulation. Actually, it isn’t even overpopulation that is the problem; it is chronic-intense-severe-overpopulation.
See, here’s the thing; humans need to reproduce, we really do. If you set aside the decree set forward by most deities of most civilisations to “go forth and multiply”, you’re still left with this biological imperative to procreate.
In order for humanity to survive, we had to procreate like rabbits. It was sex which drove and directed evolution (the ability to survive meant the ability to procreate –indulge me the crude explanation of natural selection). 3.7 billion years later, humanity is out of control.
Today we watch documentaries where we feel bad for a clutch of sea turtles when only five of the hundred offspring survive, but right up to the time of eradication of the multiples of the major child killing illnesses with the introduction of vaccines, it was no different for humans. In fact, the countries with the highest infant mortality rates (infant death) also have the highest birth rates, mainly because parents are cognisant of the fact that their offspring may well die.
Often referred to as the ‘Cycle of Poverty’, the children that survive in these developing countries, as with those born into poverty developed nations, have little (or no) access to education, work and thus food, shelter and medical care. They inturn have children who are kept in this same cycle, with little opportunity of ever finding their way out. (Somewhere around 12-13% of Americans are in this Cycle).
But Humanity is consuming its self to death.
This planet that we find ourselves alive upon has limited resources and since the industrial revolution, we have raped and pillaged this planet for these precious resources and consumed them at an utterly astounding rate. Oil, as an example, is a fossil fuel, which means that it is derived from ancient fossilised organic materials from around 400 millions years ago. We started drilling for the stuff in 1853 (in Poland) and, in 2010, have passed the point where supply can meet demand.
The reason that demand has surpassed peak production (sequestration) of oil is simple; there are too many people who need it.
Food is just as much of a quandary. We produce and consume food at increasingly greater rates. The population swells some more, and another patch of oxygen providing forest is felled for grain or livestock cultivation.
The earth isn’t getting any bigger, but the human population is, and it is increasingly consuming every little bit of everything as it swells.
We burn fossils to provide our population with energy (which inturn sends carbon into the atmosphere), and increase livestock exponentially to provide our population with energy (which inturn sends methane into the atmosphere); and then fell the trees which sequester the carbon that we send into the atmosphere. The result is a pronounced ‘greenhouse effect’ which is melting our ice caps, evaporating and displacing our fresh water and directing our deserts to continually encroach on our previously habitable zones.
Our world governments don't appear to care, they won't even agree to tax the big polluters!
Many intellectuals have lamented that humanity would likely bring death upon its self, and one can’t help but concede to there being some inevitable and ever encroaching truth. But before the apathy descends upon you in the form of “can’t force the world to change” rhetoric, let me offer a few suggestions:
- Reduce your meat intake to 5 meals a week, instead of 3 meals a day, every day.
- Put a solar water heater on your roof (many countries have rebates for this).
- Put an array of solar panels on your roof and feed it back into your power grid while when household demand is less than supply (there are government rebates, and feeding back into the power grid can significantly reduce your power bill).
- Grow your own vegetables (bloody easy, good investment, seriously cheap).
- Install a rainfall water tank (there are government rebates, and depending on your rainfall, you can use the tank water on your toilets, to water the garden).
Before you criticise me for my self-righteousness; I hate the thought of eating the flesh of animals for my own consumption; I have solar hot water; I have solar power; I have tank water; I have huge vegetable garden and grow much of my own fruit; I have several rainwater tanks. I also have an intense full time job, have and adore my two beautiful and intelligent daughters, I’m doing a degree in science, I host a successful podcast, am about to have my first book published, and I exercise daily. Lack of time is the most prevalent (and, in most cases, utterly invalid) excuse.
Can we fix overpopulation? No, not really. Short of a biblical flood, world war or asteroid collision, the population will continue to increase, the atmospheric temperature will rise and the oil and coal WILL run out.
That said, you can become more self sufficient and make your house sustainable. Or, you can pray to a deity… but seeing as though that has never worked for anyone, ever, I suggest you work on yourself.
Henk V
Thursday 11th November 2010 | 01:29 PMThere are a few bloopers to fix up in that article..
Jake Farr-Wharton
Friday 12th November 2010 | 08:39 AMPlease do elaborate.
Henk V
Friday 12th November 2010 | 02:10 PMa) birth rate, you've just done math 1. Surely the expressions for your birth-rates are;
1) 2-3
2) 2.5 +/- .5
3) about 2.5
4) @2.5
but never "about 2 -3"
Over population cant cause things. Things happen to cause over population. Events such as resource or habitat losses leave populations to starve or take over other populations. If ever we get to populations that mimic over population watch out for events that cause severe diminution of the human population.
Dont worry my pet "under resourced and under structured" is just as subjective an argument and shows the hitchensian bias we both have in our choice of terminologies for subjectivity.
populations are clearly an outcome of sex. Sex however does not lead to kids. You can fuck your brains out all your life and not produce kids (All of a sudden Mikey and Marvin like me again...). The drive to procreate produces populations. In societies where procreation is selective, the mean number of surviving children is still pretty high. You can have a cardinal full of condoms and an abbot full of morning after pills but the number of kids that survive to adult hood is of a similar order (for the mathematically illiterate, twice, three times four times is still within that order). clearly the drive to have people to work for you when you retire is of the most importance. Whilst the coin is man power, populations increase.
poverty cycle? and your great grand parents weren't in one Prince Iacobo? how much poverty damned americans all (as you used the USA) for its entire history? Lets apply the same to Britain, Holland, Greece, Italy. You have a period of glory that indicates that there was a historical diminution in comparison to now? Even in egalitarian Italy (depends on who you ask) everyone knows an educated milanese carries a gluck.
I am not denying cycles of poverty, its impact is subjective.
overpopulation isnt a problem, resources and infrastructure is.
Peak oil..
a) I am not so sure we have hit peak oil, we certainly have hit peak easy to get at oil.
b) what the hell do you mean by sequestration? Its like that DDT isotope you had in a previous article. Poor word choice.
Food production... well there are many solutions to this you didnt counter with. The argument is one sided for food. You yourself have talked about gene mod/manip food, diminution of "organic" (sorry hahahahahahahahahahahaha I have to laugh every time I write that word), water recycling, municipal responsibility, etc etc.. But will and fear isnt great enough to do all this.. folk like their pretty bread wrapped in a bag that says organic (hahahahahaha hazhahahahahahahaha) or "natural" (hahahahahahahahahahahahaha) and will impose it to the detriment of populations elsewhere.
a quick aside here and I am sure you would have included last nights speech by the Brazilian Finance Minister at the G20.. the G20 is so protective of its own perceived needs that all other economies are excluded from its internal benefit.
Your chemistry mass balances are shitful Jake, sorry. I am not trying to be pedantic or confrontational (it just always seems that way when I read back on my stuff). You have to make up your mind whether agrarian economies should be mixed, biased or singular you cant argue the argument between them..
I'll take the last bit point by point...
Res* means response.
Our world governments don't appear to care, they won't even agree to tax the big polluters!
Res* why when the taxes are to be spent on ever polluting processes. The carbon tax Idea is the dumb idea if nobody spends the money on reducing a carbon economy.
Many intellectuals have lamented that humanity would likely bring death upon its self,
Res* technically Gilly is an intellectual... this term sucks. Dont use subjectivity in an argument
and one cant help but concede to there being some inevitable and ever encroaching truth.
Res* Ju Ju You are back?
But before the apathy descends upon you in the form of cant force the world to change rhetoric, let me offer a few suggestions:
* Reduce your meat intake to 5 meals a week, instead of 3 meals a day, every day.
RES*Bullshit, increase world protein production by an order. There are natural protein stocks that are astounding. One (Bering to south China to kodiak) that could supply world protein 6 times over annually... and it needs to be removed, its delicious and... ministers world wide abhor it... Ive eaten it in restaurants for over 20 years..
* Put a solar water heater on your roof (many countries have rebates for this).
res* Pretty inefficient shit Jake. Do Phys 2 next year to find out why.
* Put an array of solar panels on your roof and feed it back into your power grid while when household demand is less than supply (there are government rebates, and feeding back into the power grid can significantly reduce your power bill).
RES* NO NO NO NO! If you want to go solar.. wait a few years. Solar sheets and coatings will be cheaper than shopping bags.
* Grow your own vegetables (bloody easy, good investment, seriously cheap).
RES* Great Jake, the natural (hahahahahahahahahahahaha) and organic (hahahahahahahahah) people cant do that. folk in strata cant do that and frankly... any home hobby you do can never be recompensed. Trust me, my gardening, beer, cheese and "other" beverages cost me far more time and effort than if i was in a local collective farming a suburban acreage. You consume a shitful of calories learning, doing, failing and succeeding before you move on to bigger better things. Do you know how long it took for me to outfish a professional netter in our local rivers? do you know how much it costs me to walk to the river at a preordained time cast a lure about ten times and pull in a goodly sized meal fish? With all that time and learning it still is costing me a fortune to and a greater fortune not to.
But I am not stupid enough to create a fish farm or estuary or beach in the strata property.
If you really think that your vege garden gives you a better profit than a biological albedo think again.
You would be in a massive win win if you created a natural zone with trees your environment could support and gain nurture from.
Next time you eat your fricken brocolli I hope you choke on them.
You have to be a hunter gatherer to understand.
* Install a rainfall water tank (there are government rebates, and depending on your rainfall, you can use the tank water on your toilets, to water the garden).
RES * yep, what diseases do you want? read the literature Jake when I post something on your facebook. Before we flicked off rain water tanks was an issuue. If you want rain water tanks, you have to use chemical control for water purity and disease control. Given that half the people in Queensland are idiot hippies or fucken conspiratorial fascists they will not keep clean tanks.
Before you criticise me for my self-righteousness; I hate the thought of eating the flesh of animals for my own consumption;
RES* Fuck off you dont become vegetarian for philosophical reasons. Its like becoming Italian for ideological reasons.
If you dont like meat. dont eat it.. Me, I go out and kill my meat at times. Its delicious, I am designed for it, my protein lever requires it.
RES* Vegetarians are religious. The only reason to be vegetarian is economy. Stop skimping on your kids protein intake. Vegetarian also happens to be more expensive thanks to the Organic (hahahahahahahahahahaha) and the Natural (hahahahahahahahahahahahaha) set.
Go on Jake.. I bet I have 100 to one of pulse recipes in my head as you have in your kitchen notes.
I have solar hot water; I have solar power; I have tank water; I have huge vegetable garden and grow much of my own fruit; I have several rainwater tanks. I also have an intense full time job, have and adore my two beautiful and intelligent daughters, Im doing a degree in science, I host a successful podcast, am about to have my first book published, and I exercise daily. Lack of time is the most prevalent (and, in most cases, utterly invalid) excuse.
RES* Am I talking to JFK or JFW ? wank! wank! wank!... what a terrible trailer. what you do for hobbies and lifestyle choices are yours to make. Mind you I am glad you were the one who worked out how to procreate rather than Ju Ju.
Can we fix overpopulation? No, not really. Short of a biblical flood, world war or asteroid collision, the population will continue to increase, the atmospheric temperature will rise and the oil and coal WILL run out.
RES* Blah blah rhetoric
That said, you can become more self sufficient and make your house sustainable. Or, you can pray to a deity
but seeing as though that has never worked for anyone, ever, I suggest you work on yourself.
*RES coming from an atheist... I can see why I despise them. Do a skepticism course Jake.. where is the validity in that comparison.
TimH
Friday 12th November 2010 | 04:29 PMJake,
Right on, we need to become self sufficient. However, I don't think it's 'over population' that's the problem, it's education, raping of resources, poverty/lack of options and laziness that do most of the damage.
It's interesting to note that The U.S.A has 2.3 billion acres of land. So if you take your population of 6,854,827,100 and divide by a conservative average family size of 3, it means that every family on the planet could fit into their own acre of land in the USA, leaving the rest of the planet for farming, trees, fish cultivation, strip clubs etc.
Just saying.
TH
Henk V
Friday 12th November 2010 | 05:49 PMwow
Monday 15th November 2010 | 02:17 PM
...in response to this comment by Henk V. Thanks Henk, I absolutely consider myself a skeptic, but the atheist scene pays far better.
Re Solar Power, I agree with you, obviously, and 3 & 5 years down the track, I'm disgusted at the fall in peak efficiency. That said, the initial investment will have paid for its self (if it had output at peak capacity continuously - which it won't) in another 3-5 years.
Re vege garden. I disagree. With the exception of $80 of pine to sequester (fuck you, it's one of my favorite words) the garden from the rest of the property, the $100 of seeds and seed potatos and the $20 for a bucket of magots, it's all been cost neutral. Mind you, we grow different types of lettuice year around, and the various seasonal veges grow when they grow. Basically, if you've got enough space (and all suburbanites do) you can become about 50-70% self sufficient. We use horse shit for fertilizer and haven't had any pest problems as yet.
As for the rest, you provide a good commentary. I must remember to ask you to proof my musings in the future.
Henk V
Monday 15th November 2010 | 02:23 PMyou pay for maggots?
you gt them really fat ones up your way.. An old fisho trick is to hang a head or fish carcass in a white shopping bag and stab holes in it. After a few days the maggots fall down into a collection vessel. They dont mind being stored in the fridge.
As I said, as good as I am, the amount of time and effort I have spent in learning how to fish properly has never paid itself back. Goodness knows what these guys with 50,000 buck boats expect, whaling is illegal (and stupid).
Hope you have time to rip into my articles on homeopathy and organic food. in the short stories section.
Henk V
Monday 15th November 2010 | 02:25 PMps, you may get a grden full of birds if you grow your own maggots. I consider this a plus. shooting starlings would be a numero uno entertainment
American Biker Dude
Thursday 11th November 2010 | 11:38 AMRight on Brother! that's one hell of perspective you got there amigo, seems that us talking monkeys have been monkeying around a bit too much, know what I mean...but to take away our meat is gonna be one helluva thing for you to pull off...know what I mean
and you might as grow other things while you're at it...know what I mean...as we used to call it back in the day...smoke on the water man, bong water that is.