Is It All Really Worth It: How Saving The World Will Ultimately Prove Pointless

I have had several conversations in recent weeks about how we may be friendlier to the environment.  Discussions ranged widely from feeding starving masses to recycling lead batteries properly.  Long talks about using more efficient light bulbs, growing our own food, using less energy, generating a smaller "footprint" and human genocide have also been had.  (I believe I was the one who brought up genocide.)  Of course, global warming also made several appearances. 

So, what scares you the most?  Global warming?  Using up oil resources?  Destroying the ozone layer?  I suppose such things may be scary but those things can repair themselves given enough time.  If we destroy this planet - wipe it out entirely - microbes will still survive.  Cockroaches will still survive.  We believe this planet will be killed off but always with the human context of our own survival foremost in our conclusions.  Must humans be in the picture for a healthy planet?

I fear the population growth of humanity.  Over one hundred and ten billion and counting.  According to Carl Haub, a demographer in the United States - that is how many human beings have been born in the last 50,000 years and we continue to multiply.  By 2050, there may be close to ten billion living here.  This will continue to increase and, without some way of leaving this rock, the planet will suffer.  The world can survive most of what we can throw at it.  What it won't be able to survive is our own population growth.

I fear population because no matter what inventions are created and designed to help the environment, at some point, the Earth will not be able to handle us.  It will start to kill us off.  Crazy weather, bizarre diseases, or some other disasters meant to return the planet's balance.  Invention will be useless.  Innovation will cease to help.  This planet will decide to cut us down to tolerable levels.

I mentioned this to someone and they said this was too depressing a topic.  That the reality I spoke of was far enough in the future for us not to worry about it.  I suppose it may be somewhat morbid but it is a reality the human race will face.  We will worry about what kinds of light bulbs to use until then.

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about me

Shane Birley is a blogger, huge geeky nerd, web developer, poet, and creative writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is a partner at Left Right Minds, a web development, arts management, business blogging and on line marketing company.

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What else do I do? I talk out loud, record it, and post it on line. I chatter about all kinds of things. Some of the things are nerdy, some professional, and some of them are very much NSFW. Why? Because do them for myself and my non-work life. You can be the judge.