"Our sense of wonder grows exponentially; the greater the knowledge, the deeper the mystery."


-- E.O. Wilson

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Web scienceontap.blogspot.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Overpopulation


The elephant in the room: human over-population. Scientific American talks about the issue that few seem to want to tackle, but that more fundamentally than most issues bears upon the future of the planet HERE.

But even this article skips over the greatest underlying problem of all: a medical system bent on lengthening human lifespans, simply because it can; many predicting an average human lifespan of 100 years in the near future... and that could likely be catastrophic, both from an ecological viewpoint, and a social/cultural/economic standpoint. Overpopulation is not a result of human reproductive success or overly-high birth rates; it is rather the result of humans now far outliving their previously historical and evolutionary lifespans of 55-65 years, not only creating overpopulation but also throwing off-kilter the normal demographic ratio of older-to-younger generations... yet few dare talk about it. Medical science continues to be perceived as part of the solution even while it remains an intrinsic part of the problem.

1 comment:

JARL said...

Longevity is good. The longer you live, the better you tend to take care of your environment. "If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself" said George Burns. See, we don't live longer and weaker, we live longer and healthier. If we just control birth rates and raise (or eliminate) retirement age, we can all profit from a longer, wiser and more productive life.