Rambling Down a Broken Road

According to world census data, by the end of 2011, the Earth will be home to 7 billion human beings. When I was in High School, the world had only about 5 billion, and in the late '50s there were 3 billion. The census takers project an average increase of about 6 to 7 million births a year worldwide, while deaths will be fewer than half that number.

It is a testament to advances in medical science and a recipe for disaster.

The Earth is finite. Resources are finite. Even though there are organizations all over the US and the world trying to encourage people to recycle, reclaim, re-use everything that is not consumed, it is currently not enough.

Climate change is a controversial subject. Many people have simply called it global warming, but it is more than that. The science on this is sound. The Earth's climate is changing. It is hotter in Summer and colder in Winter. In the 57 years I've been around I've seen record temperatures in both directions, but the records are being broken and new averages are being calculated.

The environmental scientists and knowledgeable amateurs state “greenhouse gasses” are to blame for most of this. Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, and Fluorinated

gasses are the most common. The last 3 are all created by industrial processes like mining, oil drilling cement manufacturing, and electricity generation, to name only a few. But the biggie is CO2. Carbon dioxide is created by industrial processes and human activity. Actually, anything with lungs contributes CO2 to the atmosphere by simply breathing.

Plants absorb CO2 through something called the carbon cycle. They also produce oxygen to varying degrees, with trees being the biggest producers for obvious reasons.

But we are destroying them, too. Deforestation is going on in Africa, South America, the US and Canada. I'm sure Europe and Asia have their forests being cut down to make way for human expansion or use in paper, furniture, construction, toothpicks, fires in stoves or open burning, sculpture; think of something made of wood. A tree died for that.

Which brings me back to the first subject. When there were only 3 billion people, there were plenty of trees to make oxygen for us. At 5 billion, there was a strain on the system, but it was still healthy and reforestation helped. At 7 billion the system will be strained again. At current rates, the world will have about 8 billion people in just over 13

years. What kind of strain will that have?

Remember the Earth is finite? There are great areas of the planet that are uninhabitable. Mountain tops and Antarctica, the driest deserts and the deepest oceans. The human population can't spread to every corner of the Earth, we're already cornered.

I fear, I mean really fear, that we are heading toward a real global disaster. The form it will take may be up to us, or it may be up to nature. Nuclear war, plague, famine, drought; none of these is pleasant to contemplate.

I am not in favor of compulsory birth control, forced sterilization or abortions. Hell, I have two grandchildren and would like to see a couple more. But the resources that will have to be there for any children born in the next decade or so are going to be fewer and fewer as time goes on, and it won't matter how much money you have in the bank or stuffed in your mattress, you can't buy what isn't there.

I don't think I'm alone in this rather grim view, but hey, maybe someone is seeing a silver lining, a way out of the gloom. A scientist or engineer may be designing new ways to use resources more efficiently . Maybe one of the children already running around today will discover a way to revitalize the planet and save the human race. I have my doubts, but also my hope that there will be a balance that can be achieved between man and our shrinking planet.