1000 Flowers for the Planet - #100 Reduce World Population

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #100 Reduce World Population

This is the Biggie! This is the absolute bottom line. This is the elephant in the room.

There are too many people on this planet.

And we need to reduce the world’s human population.

I know I’m going to be really controversial with this flower, but I’ve done a lot of reading on this topic over the last couple of years and it’s a HUGE topic that needs to be acknowledged and needs to be discussed. Furthermore, we need plans and we need to implement them. NOW.

Experts have been discussing this topic for over 150 years. That’s a long time to be talking about it. In my lifetime alone the world population has doubled. Every human on this planet is using resources, contributing to deforestation, pollution, landfill, extinction of species etc, and using more and more and more and more. It cannot go on like this forever; in fact it cannot go on like this for much longer at all. We are using the world’s renewable resources in the first 8 months of the year, meaning we are borrowing from the future for 4 months of every year. This equation worsens each year though, so soon the planet will not be able to produce for us at all. Then what good will all your stuff be to you?

Solutions have been sought and tried. China’s One Child Policy has been a sad chapter in the history of mankind. Measures for population reduction in India have been another difficult chapter. Let’s take those attempts and learn from them, see what went wrong and what we need to change to make our efforts work.

I come from a large country with a small population. Australia is a huge continent with 23 million people so many other countries think that we can handle millions and millions more. But we’re a dry continent, recently come through a drought that lasted ten years. We don’t have the water resources (without destroying ecosystems). Thirty years ago, scientists stated that Australia could only support a population of 10 million. We’re already beyond double that and it’s predicted to be 50 million by mid century. Australians are the best at understanding how many people our land can sustain and with this in mind, the only suggestion I can make towards the resolution of this difficult topic is the closing of all borders, everywhere, with a policy that each country must look after its own overpopulation issue according to its own culture, beliefs, rites and resources. If any country needs help, then we must help when asked, to the best of our ability. (Travel and tourism would still be permitted in this plan.)

I know it doesn’t address the refugee problems, I know it’s an over-simplified view, and I know it will outrage a lot of people, buy hey! What’s your suggestion??

A final word can go to Sir David Attenborough, who is far more educated than I. An interesting article interviewing Sir David was published 18 September 2013 and can be read at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10316271/Sir-David-Attenborough-If-we-do-not-control-population-the-natural-world-will.html