Humans Breed Too Much…
Ok this is a little odd for a social issue but it’s one that I think a lot about. Overpopulation impacts many other issues in our country and around the world. As we make more people, we must house them, feed them, cloth them and of course bury them when they die. This has put a huge strain on the world’s ecosystem. As we build more houses and develop more raw land into farmland, we remove more and more of the natural filters (trees and plants) that allow us to breathe. This demand to expand living space and farmland kills millions of acres of trees per year and with them, many plants, fungi and animals are going extinct, some of which might carry the cures for any number of maladies currently ravaging our planet. Combine all of this with a greatly expanded lifespan so that when we do make new people, we come with a one hundred year lifespan, forty to fifty years longer than we have ever lived before. All in all we are breeding ourselves out of existence and if something like a plague or a war doesn’t cull the population down, we are in some serious trouble.
There is a bright spot in all of this. Our society is intent on making everything as convenient and simple by way of technology that is dependent on a very fragile infrastructure. Therefore individuals in our society are by and large becoming less and less self sufficient. The result is that when (not if) this whole technological terror we have constructed comes crashing down around us, a large percentage of the population will have no clue how to meet their day to day survival needs , and good old Darwin will have his way with us. The result will be that most will likely perish. Why would this a bright spot? Because during the dark ages that will ensue, the planet will have a chance to recuperate from all of the damage we have done to it. Those of us who are self sufficient, especially those who learned to listen to their grandparents and parents (in that order) who went through hard times are the ones who will be prosperous. History shows us that the decline of a society begins when it loses its industrious nature, becomes intent on luxury and is willing to give up basic rights in return for a false sense of security. The Romans went out like this, and so will we. I just hope maybe the next great empire actually learns from our mistakes…because we sure haven’t.
