On July 11 people around the world will be taking part in World Population Day to raise awareness about population issues. But here in the United States, we don´t talk enough about the specific effects our exploding numbers have on wildlife, the planet and our own future.
There are more than 7 billion people on the planet, and we´re adding 227,000 more each day. Every eight seconds another person is born in the United States.
The toll on wildlife is devastating: Species are disappearing 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than the historical rate.
As we face unprecedented drought, extreme weather driven by climate change, ocean acidification and wildlife extinctions, we need to be frank about our role in it all and shift course before it´s too late.
We can stabilize our population growth and save wildlife with common-sense solutions, such as universal access to family planning and reproductive health care and education for women and girls.
Future generations ought to know what it´s like to live in a world with wild grizzly bears, wolves and all the other magnificent creatures, big and small, in the web of life. But at the rate we´re growing and using up our world´s limited resources, we´ll be passing on a diminished future.
There are more than 7 billion people on the planet, and we´re adding 227,000 more each day. Every eight seconds another person is born in the United States.
The toll on wildlife is devastating: Species are disappearing 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than the historical rate.
As we face unprecedented drought, extreme weather driven by climate change, ocean acidification and wildlife extinctions, we need to be frank about our role in it all and shift course before it´s too late.
We can stabilize our population growth and save wildlife with common-sense solutions, such as universal access to family planning and reproductive health care and education for women and girls.
Future generations ought to know what it´s like to live in a world with wild grizzly bears, wolves and all the other magnificent creatures, big and small, in the web of life. But at the rate we´re growing and using up our world´s limited resources, we´ll be passing on a diminished future.
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It's so odd coming across your comment so soon after having just met a young college age female canvassing my neighborhood promoting awareness, and seeking donations, for a project saving as well as maintaining strips of wilderness parks along the Chattahoochee River running through the Metro-Atlanta area; sufferring from neglect because of drastic deficit spending cuts. She caught me completely by surprised when asking me, "You remember how they kept telling us the baby boom peaked so and so year?
"Yeah...?," I hesitated answering. Already this wasn't sounding right for some reason as she was quite a good bit younger than me. Although I barely missed the end of what's considered the baby boom years, my brother helped made the year it peaked.
"Why didn't they also...TELL US... that the population kept on increasing...ANYWAY?!"
She just recently found out.
"Well.....I honestly don't know what to tell you," I began speaking after a few stunned quiet seconds. It began feeling as if she seriously was wanting an answer. So I continued on. "Except... maybe it will help letting you know, that we also know our sun the same as any other stars making up our universe, has only a finite amount of fuel to burn. And...in the process of running low on this fuel toward the end of this burning, our sun will first begin expanding; incinerating all of this. All life on earth as we know it...EVERYTHING... will vanish; completely erased as if we had never existed in the first place. Then our sun collaspes as it goes dark; having finished off the last of it's fuel."
But this is billions of years from now I tried explaining. Obviously we're goners long before even the need worrying ourselves with this as a problem. However, that it was still something needing to know, as it would actually help us nagivate through current problems facing. I even tried explaining why, although not the main one, also a reason I refuse letting a God of any kind dictating what my moral should be; apocalyptic vision being just too easy.
Which now is reminding me of another episode happened on sidewalk front of my home; a discussion with two young men while the girlfriend of the liberal one stood quietly off to the side with a dog named Lyra at the end of her leash . The conservative male had a wife with them, who apparently had chosen to say inside my home when done peeing; chatting with my mother and sister who were visiting from Arkansas.
Anyway, I turned to the girlfriend trying to be polite not ingnoring her and asked, "You're awfully quiet. How about you? What do you do as a living? "
She was a scientist.
"COOL! What kind?" I had to ask before learing she was a physicist.
"WHOW! You're awfully alone with that one!" I said while at the same time turnning my attention back to these two young men. "Hey guys! Listen to this!"
When finished telling these two, the very same story about our sun having only a finite amount of fuel to burn, both these young men immediately turn their attention to this young woman as her boyfriend blurts out, "HE RIGHT ABOUT THIS?!"
"Actually...he is," she quietly answers.
Then I learned her dog was named after a young girl, the main character from the movie THE GOLDEN COMPASS, who wanted to kill God.
It is true. Life is somehow easier for those who are religious compared to the rest of us.
But this still does not make it right.
Any form of manipulation and deception eliminates the possibility of con$ENT; as well as, negating efforts by those seriously trying to do the right thing.
"Yeah...?," I hesitated answering. Already this wasn't sounding right for some reason as she was quite a good bit younger than me. Although I barely missed the end of what's considered the baby boom years, my brother helped made the year it peaked.
"Why didn't they also...TELL US... that the population kept on increasing...ANYWAY?!"
She just recently found out.
"Well.....I honestly don't know what to tell you," I began speaking after a few stunned quiet seconds. It began feeling as if she seriously was wanting an answer. So I continued on. "Except... maybe it will help letting you know, that we also know our sun the same as any other stars making up our universe, has only a finite amount of fuel to burn. And...in the process of running low on this fuel toward the end of this burning, our sun will first begin expanding; incinerating all of this. All life on earth as we know it...EVERYTHING... will vanish; completely erased as if we had never existed in the first place. Then our sun collaspes as it goes dark; having finished off the last of it's fuel."
But this is billions of years from now I tried explaining. Obviously we're goners long before even the need worrying ourselves with this as a problem. However, that it was still something needing to know, as it would actually help us nagivate through current problems facing. I even tried explaining why, although not the main one, also a reason I refuse letting a God of any kind dictating what my moral should be; apocalyptic vision being just too easy.
Which now is reminding me of another episode happened on sidewalk front of my home; a discussion with two young men while the girlfriend of the liberal one stood quietly off to the side with a dog named Lyra at the end of her leash . The conservative male had a wife with them, who apparently had chosen to say inside my home when done peeing; chatting with my mother and sister who were visiting from Arkansas.
Anyway, I turned to the girlfriend trying to be polite not ingnoring her and asked, "You're awfully quiet. How about you? What do you do as a living? "
She was a scientist.
"COOL! What kind?" I had to ask before learing she was a physicist.
"WHOW! You're awfully alone with that one!" I said while at the same time turnning my attention back to these two young men. "Hey guys! Listen to this!"
When finished telling these two, the very same story about our sun having only a finite amount of fuel to burn, both these young men immediately turn their attention to this young woman as her boyfriend blurts out, "HE RIGHT ABOUT THIS?!"
"Actually...he is," she quietly answers.
Then I learned her dog was named after a young girl, the main character from the movie THE GOLDEN COMPASS, who wanted to kill God.
It is true. Life is somehow easier for those who are religious compared to the rest of us.
But this still does not make it right.
Any form of manipulation and deception eliminates the possibility of con$ENT; as well as, negating efforts by those seriously trying to do the right thing.
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