It was just a few years ago, around 1800. Around a billionEarth is the home of many people.
It grew by 600 million more in just one century.
There are many ways to get help today. There are 8 billion people on the planetOn the planet.
According to a recent study, this type of growth could lead to a ‘population adjustment’ before the century ends.
William Rees is a population ecologist from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He says that we are consuming Earth’s resources. Unsustainable growth rateOur natural tendencies make it hard for us as humans to correct the “advanced” Overshoot ecological“.
There could be a number of different results. civilizational collapse that ‘corrects’ the world’s population, Rees says – one that could happen before the end of the century in a worst case scenario. The only societies left would be the most wealthy and resilient.
“Homo sapiens“The weed has evolved to multiply exponentially, spread geographically and consume all resources available,” Rees You can also write His published paper.
“For the majority of human evolution, expansionist tendencies were countered with negative feedback. The scientific revolution, and the use fossil fuels, reduced many negative feedback forms, allowing us to achieve our full exponential potential.
Rees points to our dominance of the world has led us to forget that we still have a government. Natural Selection. Our natural tendency to think short-term, which was extremely useful in our evolution past, still drives us.We will take all the available stock.
Rees says that this has led to the excessive consumption of resources and pollution by a part of the world’s population, and it is expected to continue as population and financial security increase.
Climate change is an indication of the stress on the planet The ‘under construction’ sign is already upRees says that it is only a small part of the overshoot problem.
Rees explains that we should continue to use There is an abundance of fossil energy We’re also ignoring other overshoot symptoms. We’ve learned that overshoot can also manifest in other ways. Biomass consumptionDisruption of Planetary nutrient cyclesThese interrelated problems are all driving Earth’s sixth major mass extinctionRisking the chaotic breakdown of life’s most essential systems on our planet.
Our proposed solutions such as switching to alternative energy sources do not actually address the exponential population growth problem and instead contribute to its excess consumption.
The question is whether improvements in technology – in everything from combating climate changeYou can also find out more about the following: Increased food production – are capable of keeping pace with the growing demands our consumption places on the planet.
Food shortages are a problem that can’t be solved by innovation. Habitat instabilityThis study suggests that war and disease could have a significant impact on population numbers.
Rees: “Although no single symptom of overshoot is sufficient to address, addressing it directly would alleviate all symptoms at once.” Explained.
Another point that Rees makes – and he’s Not the first person to do it – is that we need to be much more aware of the peril that we’re in, and should be working out ways to get a better balance between our give-and-take relationship with the planet.
In the ideal world, the transition could be managed to prevent the unnecessary suffering of millions of people (billions?) of people, but this is not happening – and cannot happen – in a world blind to its own predicament,” You can also write Rees.
The research was published in World.
