Well, its blog action day so today’s post is about the environment. I was really happy to join this blog action day, since it is a topic I feel strong about.

The problem

I am one of the people who believe that the biggest challenge that we face with environmental sustainability is overpopulation. Everything boils down to that, we are simply too many. I am confident that with time, thanks to scientific advances, we will use to recycle more, use cleaner fuel, etc. But this will never work if the population continues its growth. If we could make a parallel between a person’s development and mankind, we are now past the time we need to grow physically, and we are starting to get obese. And we are suffering exactly like an obese person.

Sure, I go mad when I see someone leave his 5 liter engine running on the street just so that air conditioning will work. I go mad when I see people using plastic bags for one shopping and throw them away. I go mad when people use huge trucks to move withing a city. I go mad when I see the piles of electronics, used just for several months and upgraded.

Even if all of the above changes, even if we use very economic vehicles, recycle as much as we can, this change only one thing… the number! The number how many people this planet can sustain. So my point is – no matter what we do, there is a certain number of people on the planet, above which we are… obese.

There is simply no way to stop using electronics, cars, etc., since this will stop progress. If we were to stop using these, why did we ever bother to go out of the caves, which was a pretty environment-friendly lifestyle. The only way to enjoy our creations and move forward without destroying the planet (before we leave it at least) is to get our own population under control.

Where do we stand

Without being qualified, or prepared with numbers, I think that currently the population if far above the “optimal” number, considering the technologies we use. That is, for the rate at which we consume Earth’s resources, we are just too many.

I think it is inevitable that at some point the entire world will have birth control policies just as in the sci-fi movies. Europe has already realized this on its own, and has less than 2 children per couple. USA is just about 2 (2.1 to be exact). The rest of the world however is still behind on the issue, with the exception of China. China has set an example for implementing that. Sure, China’s policy might seem brutal and inhumane, but we better get used to that. Everyone witnessed what the “one child policy” did for China.

So what next?

Mankind is obviously slow in taking this painful, but necessary step. Still, a country s GNP is a function of the population count, and no one wants to be first. Also, people themselves are not quite ready to feel not only a greedy individual, but a part of a bigger creature, and not do things that hurt the creature “mankind” in the long run. We are too used to living for today, and that must change. We must, as one, take the decision to go on a diet, no matter some cells will die in the process.

Until mankind is ready for that step, the main thing we can do is educate everyone we can to start thinking not only as an individual, but as part of something bigger. And that one should think not only for himself, but for the bigger creature mankind, that he is only a cell of.