Is It Time?

Have you noticed how quickly things are changing around here, on Earth that is? Last night on the History Channel there was a program called Nostradamus 2012 which covered the topic of the end of days…Armageddon. This show suggested that, according to the writings of Nostradamus, the ending of both the Mayan and Jewish calendar, and the alignment of our solar system with our galaxy’s center on December 21^st, 2012, the end is near, or at least an extremely drastic change, a cataclysmic event. In all honesty, I think shows like this are quite silly, but interesting. In fact, I think some drastic change will occur despite the writings of Nostradamus, et al. As of 2005, the population of the US was at 296 million people. If current trends stay the same, our population will be around 438 million by 2050, with immigration accounting for 82% of that growth. The majority of these immigrants will come from Latin countries, and will be uneducated, poor, working-class people who will likely need monetary support from our government. In addition, the elderly population in the US will more than double in size, which means even more people depending on financial support from our government, as these people reach retirement age and start drawing social security and Medicare benefits. As it stands now, our government cannot afford to support the under-privileged of our country. How do we expect it to support the changes predicted to come in the next 40 years? It can’t and it won’t. Especially if we keep pissing away hundreds of billions of dollars a month on an unsuccessful war in Iraq and on banks that are keeping the loaned money to themselves to support the cost of private jets, spa treatments, and million dollar bonuses of their CEO’s while the average American is wallowing in debt, being forced from their overpriced homes, and otherwise having a pretty shitty year. Things are only going to get worse. Maybe not next year, maybe not in the next five years, but if things don’t change, our kids and grandkids are going to have a lot to deal with. I have only begun to discuss the big picture, this is just in our country, the wealthiest country on Earth. Our world population now stands at 6.7 billion, up from 2.5 billion some 60 years ago. In another 40 years our world population will exceed 9 billion people. What will this rapid growth in the human population amount to? Just look at India and China and the countries in Africa. There are already millions of starved, homeless, war-torn, diseased, uneducated people in these countries. The only reason there aren’t many millions more starving people in these places is due to the fact that the US and several other more prosperous countries supply these places with food and medication to prevent total collapse of these regions due to starvation and fighting over available resources. When our world population reaches 9 billion, this will only get worse. Once again, IF this happens, our country, IF it is still around, will be attempting to supply these people with food. In both of these examples, the most profound, scariest thing I have mentioned is the sheer growth in human population. We as a species cannot continue to grow any further without profound changes taking place. There are already too many of us for this planet to support. If this growth does not stop, mass starvation, war, rioting, looting, and very likely a pandemic disease (SARS, AIDS, BSE, the threat of Avian Influenza, to name a few recent ones) will occur by 2050. Then perhaps our population may decline to more sustainable levels. Edward Abbey had a great saying, “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”. Our species has become a cancer to the body of our Mother Earth. We all know what cancer does to a body…it kills it. Cancer if allowed to grow uncontrolled kills itself…we are killing ourselves. Yet as our populations continue to rise, we are doing nothing about it. For some reason, our culture has the idea that bigger is always better. A drive down I35 from Austin to San Antonio is the perfect example of our demand for growth. When I moved to Texas in 1986, there was still some country on that corridor through central Texas. Now, there is a never-ending outgrowth of cheaply built neighborhoods (that will be slums in 20 years), there are never ending shopping areas (that will be closed in 20 years), and there is less and less wilderness (that will all likely be gone in 20 years). Thankfully our government has lain aside some very few square miles of protected land (National Parks, Forests, Grasslands, Recreation Areas, BLM land, etc.) that is supposed to save some of that wilderness, but the way our population in growing, this “protected” land is not safe. If we keep up our cancerous plague, we will eventually need the remaining fresh water, lumber, wild animals, space to continue to survive. I seem mighty optimistic, don’t I? Actually I am optimistic…that our population WILL eventually decline by force, not choice. What can we do to help curb some of this growth? Urge your friends and family members to use contraception. Urge your elected officials to stop or decrease the amount of immigration into our country (both legal and illegal, our poorest will do the jobs these immigrants come here for if they really have to) and protect and designate more wild areas. Urge everyone to be more frugal with what they buy, use, throw-away, etc. If all of that doesn’t work, learn how to grow some of your own food, plant a garden, raise some chickens and goats, and buy plenty of guns and ammunition (for both protection and hunting). We cannot wait until we are forced to do these things out of necessity; we have to start now...yesterday even. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps I am just some loony, survivalist gun nut. Perhaps I am being a little over-zealous. Perhaps, but I don’t think so. Something WILL happen…eventually.