Living Beyond Our Means

It was just a couple weeks ago I wrote about the problems we're having with the environment. Today, splashed all over the pages of the Corporate Media and on internet sites everywhere is an article that acknowledges the elephant in the room. According to quite a few scientists, we're on the verge of potentially eradicating ourselves from the planet. Perhaps this is an exaggeration on my part, but I don't really think so; not when this report states that we've used up roughly two-thirds of our natural resources. It's mind-boggling to think that just a hundred years ago, there were areas of the globe that were still unexplored, or areas that seldom saw Europeans. It's only been 500 years since the Colombian Exchange and the "discovery" of the "New World." It was not all that long ago that the edges of Africa were accurately depicted on maps, and portions of it outlined in detail, but huge swaths designated as "unknown." California for a long time was thought to be an island. Until the 20th century, most of Amazonia in Brasil was untouched by Europeans or their descendants. Now we have GPS, National Geographic maps, satellites, and the world is more or less populated in nearly all corners. There's even a semi-permanent outpost in Antarctica, a station where a handful of scientists and other intrepid souls live for stretches of time.

At the same time, the population has just exploded. In 1800, the world had just approached the 1 billion mark in terms of global population. Even as late as 1960, the world total was somewhere around 3 billion. Today we have an approximate 6.4 billion people, and rising. China and India together account for 1 in every 3 people alive today. Somehow I doubt the planet was ever designed for that many people. It certainly doesn't help that Mormons and Catholics insist on having large families. It doesn't help that our gummint has a problem with allowing access to birth control and sex education in developing countries. Sadly enough, it also doesn't help that medical and scientific advances are part of the reason why we are living longer and surviving childhood longer than ever before. A lot of times, you read in history books and sociological studies about life expectancies in the past. A lot of these averages don't necessarily reflect the reality of the times. If you had a male population with a life expectancy of 50 years, you envision men dropping like flies around age 50; but that wasn't the truth. Some did die that young, but a fair number lived into their 60s, 70s, and even beyond. Life expectancy figures have to take into account childhood mortality, and until very recently, the most dangerous years of a person's life were the first five years. Many children died young; if a child made it past their fifth birthday, the chances improved that they would survive into adulthood and through to the end of their days at a more respectable age. Diseases that once felled hundreds of thousands are today tamed, under increasing control, or at least manageable. Smallpox, polio, rubella, and dozens of other life-threatening or disfiguring diseases do not haunt humans as they once did. Improvements in disease control, sewage, water supplies (in the first and much of the second worlds, that is!), and other similar aspects have dramatically raised the average allotted lifespan. Unfortunately it also means we have people who once would have been singing with the angels still sharing the earth with the next couple of generations. This makes for a crowded planet.

I haven't even touched other factors, such as the destruction of the ecosystem, global warming, and the gradual extinction of myriad species. There's evidence that polar bears, tigers, pandas, several species of apes, and many other mammals will vanish from the face of the earth within the next few generations. The few that are left will only be in zoos.

I remember when I was living in Utah, and I made friends with a deaf Mormon woman. She was a young college student, attractive and bright, and we flirted a bit, but since I was already in a relationship, and we had some major differences (such as there's no way in hell I'm converting, sorry, dear!), nothing would ever come of it. We did talk a lot about what we planned to do, what we wanted out of life, etc. She told me she wanted to get married and have ten kids. I already knew at that time I just wanted two kids, tops. One to replace me and one to replace my wife: more than that and you add to the population. I just smiled and said that was nice. Inside, I cringed. She got married shortly after I moved back to California, and no doubt with the encouragement of her church, is well on the way to producing those ten kids.

Ok, let's take those ten kids. First of all, you have to feed them, house them, clothe them. That takes a lot of energy and resources. They're going to have to live in a large house, be driven around in more than one car, consume tons of stuff, especially when they hit puberty. Each of these ten kids is going to have a good life, cuz they live here in America, right? They'll be taught the American dream, from the Mormon perspective. Once they get to college age, they'll start dating seriously and look forward to marriage and families of their own. Each of those ten kids will want a home of their own and ten kids of their own. Before you know it, wham, 100 grandchildren. Who want homes of their own... Last time I checked, Utah and the surrounding states were either desert or semi-arid regions; somehow I doubt that the American West can support that many people. Despite all the hoopla about immigration, overcrowding, and sprawl, the United States actually is growing at a slower rate than Asia. If you think it's a mess here, try visiting Southeast Asia sometime.

I don't know if we as a species and the planet as a source of life are past the point of no return, but I'd bet at best, we're teetering dangerously close to that flashpoint. All I know is that this century promises to be one hell of a ride.