As implied above the root cause of our problems is simply overpopulation. When the population exceeds the capacity of the environment to sustain it disaster occurs. An anomalous increase in population or a change in the environment will result in a catastrophe. This creates a dilemma. It takes a critical mass of population, technology and culture to achieve a modern civilization but there is is also a population limit beyond the whole civilization collapses. In fact there are several critical masses littering the way to extinction which cause various forms of economic or social instability. Sure there are many other causes and consequences which we’ll explore later in this post but overpopulation underlies all these.

For example consider the Aswan Dam project in Egypt. Tactically the dam was a great success. Strategically it was a failure. Why? Population growth that’s why. If Egypt’s population had remained stable it would today be one of the most affluent nations on Earth but culturally the Egyptians couldn’t cope with this tactical success. Their population immediately exploded with their new dam wealth dragging the nation back into the throes of poverty once again. If you want to keep the good times rolling you have to retain some responsibility for your actions!

I don’t mean to pick on the Egyptians. They are just a convenient modern example but the problem is global affecting all cultures and all “races”. An even more modern and disturbing example of a Malthusian collapse is the Rwanda Genocide and there are many more examples readily available (e.g., the Bosnian Genocide) but listing them all serves no purpose. The point is that the grim atrocities of the past haven’t been subjugated to history’s trash heap just yet. People are still people and haven’t evolved that significantly from our recent ancestors. When times get tough then raw basic human evolutionary survival traits prevail.

And as indicated above this isn’t a historically new problem. The Mayan culture has completely collapsed and the Greenland Norse are extinct. Such are the consequences of failure. One has to wonder about the global effects of the severe environmental destruction occurring in China, Australia or even Montana. Not to mention the damage done by the rush to industrialization by lessor developed countries (not that I necessarily blame them as everyone is looking for a better life but short sighted economic globalization policies exacerbates the problems).

Is the global threat actually real? I believer so. Already humans (especially the last 200 years) have been responsible for one of the largest mass extinctions in Earth’s history. And the extinction rate is accelerating. This, as they say, is just the tip of the iceberg. Are we next on the extinction list? We humans are busy stripping the Earth’s environmental resources to the point of, well of collapse and perhaps annihilation.

If the threat is real then what can be done about it. In my opinion the first thing that needs to happen is that we all stop making excuses to ignore the problem. Next we need to explore the causes dictating our irrational behavior. Only then can we formulate a plan to get out of the mess we’ve created.

What excuses? Well let me list a few:

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Tags: overpopulation, politics, Science

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 6:27 pm and is filed under overpopulation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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