Bursting Point

Breaking News: You may have been living on Mars but here on Earth there is an environmental crisis.

Over recent decades the number and ranks of environmentalist groups has grown and their messages and methods have multiplied and become more strident. Certainly there are few amongst humanities Humber’s that would not recognise that something is not quite right with the world.

The question now being raised is whether or not our blossoming understanding of the threats and mechanisms involved is simply too little too late. Perhaps the recently touted new geological epoch of the Anthropocene, defined by humanities own impact on the planet, may be about to enter an abrupt decline.

With the realisation that the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to keep our food cold and armpits dry and fragrant has led to holes in the ozone layer, some determined effort led to their successful control. That said, China now seems to be the source of a sudden rise in their production.

However, today’s source of concern is the production of another group of gasses, ones that threaten to destabilise the Earth's very climate systems. Whilst CFCs are a greenhouse gas (a gas that absorbs and radiates energy in the thermal infrared range), it is the abundance and impact of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, and ozone that has captured the attention of the environmentally aware.

Carbon footprints, carbon capture, and the size and number of bovine farts hitting the open air are (rightly) the cause of great consternation.

Here in 2019 we stand looking out across a grey and hard to discern landscape where it often seems difficult to separate fact from fiction, truth from propaganda, to be difficult to know what the real root cause is, and whether or not our own actions can make any real impact on the issue.

Well, I’m not going to ease your pain. I’m going to add to it because, ultimately, we’re focusing on the wrong things. Not that we don’t need to act, and act quickly to address them, but if we continue to ignore that certain elephant sitting over there in the corner then all we are doing is putting plasters over the gash in Titanic's side. Then regardless of our success in controlling the relatively easy wins, those dark waters will swallow us anyway.

The problem is us.

To take Britain as an example, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) the population of Britain stood at 66.04 million people in 2017, whilst the website https://www.worldometers.info/ states the current population on May 25th 2019 stands at 66.94 million. An over 1.3% increase in just two years. (Assumption: that the measures used by both sources are accurate and comparable).

I accept that the increase could, and probably is, down to a number of factors but I think it would be a brave fool that claims the world's population is not growing, and growing fast.

Let’s look at a few other examples using the same sources.

Brazil. ONS for 2017, 209.3 million. Worldometers 2019, 212.23 million. Almost 1.4% in two years. No worry about space here though - just chop all those trees down and build!

India. ONS for 2017, 1.339 billion (yes, billion). Worldometers 2019, 1.367 billion. A 2% increase in two years.

China. ONS for 2017, 1.386 billion. Worldometers 2019, 1.419 billion (Not rounded up). 2.3% increase in two years (again, not rounded up).

USA. ONS for 2017, 325.7 million. Worldometers 2019, 328.8 million. 0.9% increase. (Curious!).

Germany. ONS for 2017, 82.79 million. Worldometers 2019, 82.43 million. One that bucks the trend?! 0.5% decline.

What about the world as a whole? ONS for 2017, 7.53 billion. Worldometers 2019, 7.71 billion (rounded up to 0.01, you have to dig into their website to get the live figure). 2.4% increase (rounded up).

In two years we’ve added 180 million people to the global population. Let’s put that into some perspective.

In 1961 (year I was born) the world population was 3.073 billion. So, in less than a generation the number of humans on this planet has over doubled.

Following this line of thought, in another fifty eight years will the world population be in excess of 14 billion?

How can we feed, house, clothe, and care for a population of that size?

If we don’t control greenhouse gasses, and sea levels rise (wiping out a lot of fertile productive land in the process), what population densities will we reach?

Will the competition for all those finite resources trigger the ultimate war?

No matter what direction we go in, the world our grandchildren live in will be very different from the one we currently enjoy.

Night all….

Caesium-135

Odd musings, strange ideas, and random thoughts

By featured writer, Caesium-135. See ‘Team’ for more information and contact details.