1000 Flowers for the Planet - #558 Observe World Population Day

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #558 Observe World Population Day

Today is World Population Day, a day that was put aside as a time when we can reflect on ‘Population Issues’. However, it has been very easy to take this idea and turn it around to concentrate on issues that are more under the ‘Human Rights’ banner than the real elephant in the room – human population explosion. 25 years ago there was a world population of 5 billion. In that short 25-year span we have now grown to a population of 7.2 billion. Take a look at this site http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ and see if it doesn’t shock you!

So let’s think about ‘Population Issues”. What do you think the issues are? Education for girls and women was seen as the best way to combat population growth, and this is certainly true, because when girls are educated they have more opportunities, understand their choices better, can make decisions about their own bodies, including when and how many pregnancies they will have, and they can become leaders in business and the community. These are all wonderful things, but we have a long way to go to see equality and education for females around the globe and the resulting reduction in population growth that will create.

Overpopulation of the human species on this planet already exists and is going to become even worse. Humans take resources from the ground in the form of ores and minerals, use land for food production, fish the oceans with little restriction and pollute the whole environment by all of our actions. As a consequence, species are becoming extinct every single day, never to return. Elephants will all be gone within ten years, orang-utans within five! Humans build what they want, where they want, take as much as they want whenever they want, and despite the warnings of global warming and rising seas, and all the destruction forecast for our future, governments globally are washing over these issues and doing little to make the real change we actually need to ensure a sustainable, peaceful future for this planet. The focus is still on money.

We need to talk about that elephant in the room (before there are no elephants left to talk about!). Take today to think about ‘Population Issues’, what they are to you, and see if you can become part of the solution. We need ideas that are practical and which truly lead to solutions. If there were far fewer of us on the planet we could all lead comfortable, peaceful lives – all of us, everywhere. It may not be our personal future, but it can be the future of our descendants, so let’s make it happen.