Robin McKie, Guardian -Today there are about 7.7 billion men, women on children on Earth, a staggering figure given that a century ago, there were only 1.9 billion. And although populations have stabilised in many regions, in particular Europe and North America, figures released by the UN this month show global numbers are now growing at the alarming rate of about 100 million every 14 months. By 2050, the Earth’s population will have hit 9.7 billion and it will continue to rise, reaching a figure of about 10.9 billion by 2100.
These are the kind of population numbers we associate with simple organisms swimming in a pond, not those of a big-brained omnivore that requires 3,000 calories a day to survive. If there are 10 billion of us, every forest, valley and piece of land will have to be turned to agriculture to feed us. “Our planet cannot withstand such numbers,” says the palaeontologist Peter Ward in his book The End of Evolution.
2 comments:
"Over-population, our Lords and Masters say, is another cause of our misery. They mean by this, that the resources of the country are inadequate to its population. We must prove the contrary, and during a holiday take a census of the people, and a measurement of the land, and see upon calculation, whether it be not an unequal distribution, and a bad management of the land, that make our Lords and Masters say, that there are too many of us." - William Benbow, 1832.
John Boyd Orr, former director of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, was candid in stating: ‘a world of peace and friendship, a world with the plenty which modern science had made possible was a great ideal. But those in power had no patience with such an ideal. They said it was not practical politics’ (Daily Herald, 29 July 1948).
'Hunger is caused by poverty and inequality, not scarcity. For the past two decades, the rate of global food production has increased faster than the rate of global population growth' (Eric Holt-Gimenez, Executive Director of Food First, huffpost.com, 05/02/2012).
"If there are 10 billion of us, every forest, valley and piece of land will have to be turned to agriculture to feed us. "
This is a pipe dream, most useable agricultural land is already in use, has already been used until it's fertility is gone, or has had suburbs planted on it over the past 70 years or so.
With managed holistic grazing, lands suffering from desertification can be restored to grassland that can raise livestock for perpetuity. Once restored to grassland, these lands remain unsuitable for agriculture, because agriculture is what made those lands become deserts in the first place.
Post a Comment