Thursday, May 5, 2011

Overpopulation and denial

This Tuesday, the United Nations announced that the world's population, long expected to stabilize at around 9 billion in the middle of the century, will continue to grow and is likely to hit 10.1 billion by 2100. This means, we're not finished growing yet! What's remarkable is that it only took 12 years to get us from 6 to 7 billion and that Africa is going to grow from 1 to 3.6 billion, guaranteeing some heavy traffic across the Mediterranean Sea in years to come...

Do I believe the population will stabilize at 10 billion? Nope. I firmly think that unless we become convinced that overpopulation is the number one problem we face, as humans - not global warming, shortage of water or fossil fuels - we're all running off a cliff. Overpopulation is the root cause of all these problems. This, of course, is a “taboo” subject and the sad reality is that the more we are on this planet, the more we'll consume, a godsend for our old-style form of capitalism and for religions that advocate making more babies to multiply their flock. Time to bring the subject into our mainstream conversation!

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