Too many people in the world
This emergency has resulted in tremendous damage and suffering for many. About that there is no doubt.
What is in doubt is the issue of cause.
What hasn’t fluctuated is the rate of Earth’s population increase. It took 30,000 or 40,000 years to climb to 1 billion in around 1850. Between 1850 and the present Earth’s population has increased to 9 billion — an increase of 8 billion over less than 300 years.
The present issue is not so much humanogenic climate change as it is human population dramatically increasing at an evermore rapid rate.
One hundred years ago, the terribly flooded Sumas area was Sumas Lake, which was drained at that time to facilitate agricultural purposes. Obviously it was not adequately buttressed to withstand large increases in precipitation. I suspect the same is true for the Chemainus River areas, as well as likely dozens of others, with the exception that I doubt much effort at all was made decades ago to protect against conditions such as those currently occurring here.
I realize all that is hindsight BUT the real issue is the rate at which Earth’s population is increasing — putting skyrocketing demands on us to change that which Earth naturally offers in ways never before faced or likely even considered.
With a population increase of 8 billion over the last 300 years (current rate of 1 billion increase in the last 100 years) our issue must be, has to be, to address this ever-burgeonong number of despoilers (us).
Therein lies the rub — but what is the cure? Mao’s ‘one family, one child’ dictum had some effect in China BUT even something similar plus huge, immense, gigantic infrastructure improvements ain’t gonna do the job.
How will humans ‘fix’ this dilemna?
Pat Mulcahy
Saltair