CAN THE HUMAN SPECIES SURVIVE?

The BIOSPHERE encompasses all live forms on planet Earth. From the extremely tiny viruses to the giant Redwoods of California, every living thing is part of the BIOSPHERE.  It is the life force created more than 3.8 billion years and passed on to us over millions of years.  Its creation is a mystery to us and I believe we have received this life force as a sacred trust, to be understood, preserved and passed on to future generations.

As hunters and gathers 20,000 years ago we lived within the resources available to us and our impact on the BIOSPHERE was 
very limited. The plants and animals used for food at the time  sustained their populations despite human predation. The ecosystems remained in balance.

Since ancient times we humans have long used our large brains to  make tools to improve success in finding and acquiring food, providing shelter and protecting our families.  The same devices used to kill animals for food became weapons to threaten and eventually kill other humans.  In the twenty-first century this has evolved into ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs. 

Currently humans are exploiting Earth's resources at rates that are not sustainable; leading to severe changes in the BIOSPHERE. Fossil fuels have made modern civilization possible, but at a high cost in air, water and land pollution. The exploitation of animals, forests, the waters of lakes, rivers and oceans and the rich soils of the Earth have provided us with an existence our forefathers could never have imagined.  

Yes, this same brain has also given us smart phones and electric cars; and this ingenuity has given us a fantastic array of "stuff" that make our lives more comfortable and worthwhile.  We marvel at drones, robots, computers, digital cameras, etc. that now seem commonplace

The human population on planet Earth is about 7.7 billion persons.  Each of these individuals needs food, water, clothing, shelter and health care. Can the resources of this planet be stretched to meet the needs of future billions of people?

The ANSWER is NO. 

WHY?

The resources of this planet are limited.  

Over the last 10,000 years humans have moved from small villages of a couple hundred people to huge cities of millions; from stone tools to Electric cars and smart phones; from small family farms of a few sheep and cows to huge industrial agriculture with thousands of animals on a single farm; from bows and arrows to missiles and nuclear bombs.  This is what we like to call PROGRESS.

During this time the number of humans has increased from about 1 Million people in 8000 BC to 7.7 Billion today; a seven thousand six hundred per cent increase in 10,000 years. Safety in cities; control of disease vectors; cleaner water and air; and modern medicine have all contributed to this dramatic increase.  People are just not dying any more. Humans who in the past would have died because of birth defects, accidents, war or disease continue to live.  We are using modern medicine to keep everybody alive, leading to this dramatic increase in the number of human inhabitants of the planet.

This is NOT SUSTAINABLE.  

Religions and cultures the world over have worked to make people's lives better, but these same entities have used their power to prevent the use of birth control, abortion and other family planning activities to control human population growth.  No one wants to see their children die, but the lack of political will to recognize the need to limit the the number babies born is the basic cause of the increase.

I believe the Earth's BIOSPHERE will react to human destruction of the environment, by treating the  human species as a disease; as a cancer on the life force of the planet; as an organism whose behavior is destroying the living space for all other life forms.  The immune system of the BIOSPHERE will respond and we humans will not appreciate the result.

If the political climate continues as it exists today with little or no support for controlling population for religious and cultural reasons, the result will be catastrophic for the human species.  Modern civilization has created conditions for its own demise.

Diseases have always been part of the biosphere and they affect all living organisms.  They are what we call limiting factors in an ecosystem. Their effect on a particular species is to control its population by eliminating those who are not fit to continue its existence.

Crowded cities with millions of people, modern worldwide travel, millions of poor people with limited health care; and unsanitary conditions in many underdeveloped countries; will likely contribute to a worldwide pandemic in the future.  A deadly virus spread by casual contact could easily travel across the planet and put all humans in peril.  Is this our destiny?  Can we act in time to prevent such a thing from happening? 

The BIOSPHERE may very well discard the human species as just another creature bound for extinction and that would be a damn shame.  

 Do you care? Then do something.