The disease of too many mouths to feed

Now, let us think about the principal ills of our world. The world has only one major problem, namely: humans, and to be very specific, too many humans. Human overpopulation is certainly by far the biggest, and by far the most serious, problem on earth and for the planet. That, my friend, is reality! How many people are completely dispossessed – they live on earth, they are from Earth, but they possess not even one square millimetre of their home planet! This is a very, cruel tragedy!

The ‘Global Population Profile: 2002’ summarises the most important trends in global population at the dawn of the 21^st century. In 1999, the global population surpassed 6 billion (6 x 10⁹). At midyear 2002, it stood at 6.2 billion (6.2 x 10⁹) and just over two people were being added each second. As rapid as this may seem, the pace at which global population was growing had already peaked more than a decade earlier. In absolute terms, approximately 74 million people were added to the world’s population in 2002 compared to a high of 87 million in 1989-90. Similarly, the annual average growth rate was approximately 1.2 per cent in 2002, down from a high of 2.2 per cent in 1963-64. It is hoped that this slowdown in population growth will continue into the near future. However, this is not enough by far. Population growth is by far our single most serious problem!

This very serious problem leads to the depletion of essential non-renewable resources, destructive wars, pollution, acid rain, the depletion of the ozone layer, greenhouse effect, and the poisoning of Earth. Erosion of productive soil coverage, the untimely extinction of animal species and the destruction of important ecologies, the destruction of the atmosphere, unnatural changes in weather patterns, the possible heating – or cooling – of the earth and the accompanying rise – or fall – in sea levels, nuclear waste, and so I can continue forever.

What about things like disease and specifically HIV/AIDS, poverty, hunger, malnutrition, crime, unemployment, monetary inflation, whole countries going bankrupt, and the like, you might ask. Then to make things even worse, there is a large part of the human race that is completely, and utterly, disjointed (to use a word from Bateson again), and perverse.

As I mentioned earlier, HIV/AIDS and other diseases might even be protective mechanisms for the earth and therefore a huge blessing in disguise.

Organisations like the UN is asking, how are we going to improve the lives of the nearly 3 billion (3 x 10⁹) individuals living on less than two US dollars a day? How can we enable all individuals – male and female, young and old – to protect themselves from HIV? How are we going to save the lives of more than 500 thousand women who die each year in childbirth? These are the wrong questions – however callous it might sound! We should in fact firstly ask how we are going to protect and save the earth! The welfare of a ship is always, always more important than the welfare of an individual! All good navigators know and respect that! If you want to survive as a species, protect your ship first!

Furthermore, during the 60’s and 70’s, the world population considered poor (with less than a dollar a day of income for their basic necessities, according to the World Bank) was about 200 million (200 x 10⁶) people. By the beginning of the 90’s this number was about 2 billion (2 x 10⁹). In addition to this the ‘mainstay of the 200 most important companies (corporations) of the planet represent more than a quarter (1/4) of the world’s economic activity; and yet these 200 companies (corporations) employ only 18.8 million (18.8 x 10⁶) employees, or less than 0.75 (3/4 of one) per cent of the world’s labour force’. (See The New Rulers of the World, by John Pilger.)

Crimes against nature are an exception though. Mostly the other so-called human problems might even be a blessing in disguise if they are going to reduce the number of humans on earth. The fact is there are too many humans. Human overpopulation, and adding their incoherent (disjointed) view of reality, is the real problem as far as the general survival of Earth is concerned.

We confuse, and keep on confusing, our specific human problems with the problems of the earth. Humans are the only real problem in the hierarchy of being on the earth at present. Solve the problem of human overpopulation, and the rest of the hierarchy of being, the rest of our biosphere are quite healthy.

Humans with their insatiable greed, arrogance, thoughtlessness, self-interest, cruelty, lust, and uncontrolled population growth that are the problems, and that is the area we should address! And very soon! Humans have no major predators to keep their populations in check. That is probably why we are programmed to kill each other when our populations start to put a strain on scarce natural resources!

What is also of major concern to me is Abraham Maslow’s (1908-1970) hypothesis that humans can never completely satisfy their needs ‘and wants’. Humans always need, or want, more. There is no such human concept as enough-is-enough. We always want what our neighbour has, and if we attain that, our neighbour as well as we wants more!

Maslow was an American psychologist and philosopher best known for his self-actualization theory of psychology, which argued that the primary goal of psychotherapy should be the integration of the self. In his major works, Motivation and Personality (1954) and Toward a Psychology of Being (1962), Maslow argued that each person has a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied, ranging from basic physiological requirements to love, esteem, and, finally, self-actualization. As each need is satisfied, the next higher level in the emotional hierarchy dominates conscious functioning.

Therefore, people who lack food or shelter or who cannot feel themselves to be in a safe environment are unable to express higher needs.

In some way or another we will have to reconcile what we have just said with what has already been said about reality – Mind, and aspects like the Scientific Method, and even the Theory of Evolution!

I have the feeling that all these aspects are somehow connected, and even interrelated in a way. Humankind has lost contact with reality, or maybe they have never known reality? Our – human – maps of reality are harmful, disjointed, and what maps we do have are mostly interpreted incorrectly! We humans tend to believe that human problems take precedence over the earth’s problems (and even the universe’s problems)!

To try to understand the predicament of the earth as a whole we must move away from thinking in an anthropocentric way about these problems.

We started out asking what is wrong with the world, and then asked where everything did go wrong, and what could possibly be done to rectify this wrong, remember?

Now, firstly as far as the culpability of humans in general is concerned – I will most certainly agree to the fact that there is quite a range of humans to consider, quite a variety of cultures and sub-cultures, classes, races, nationalities, ethnic groups, levels of intelligence and income, and so on.

I do not think that the blame can possibly be shared equally among all humans – that much is certainly also very true . However, I also am sure that each, and every, human being is at least in some way guilty! When you procreate, you are immediately guilty!

Each newborn human baby at this stage in time is an additional burden to the earth. It does not matter where the baby is born, and under what circumstances, it will need resources to grow up, live, and again procreate. If it becomes ill, it will possibly need even more scarce resources. Every human needs at least quality space, a very scarce resource already at present.