Wednesday 15 July
It feels a bit odd to be writing about stuff not directly related to nature or the important stuff all around us. But there has been an interesting news item pop up on my phone whilst travelling home.
Going on current trends, the population of the planet is set to dramatically drop in around 80 years from now. Not overnight of course, but from now until then, there will be a steady but marked decline.
This will be in some countries more than others. So, in Japan for example, the population will halve, and there will be a similar decline in Italy. The northern hemisphere in general will see a significant drop. In Sub-Saharan Africa there will be a more steady leveling out.
I don’t tend to worry greatly about the impact we are having on the planet. I feel it’s a wasted feeling really, particularly over something I have no global impact over. I do my bit of course, but if we are hell bent on destroying what we have as a species then we should reap what we sow. Especially if will repeatedly ignore the signs. We don’t actually deserve our place on the planet.
I realise that all sounds a bit grumpy but it helps me. First, to rationalise our destructive behaviour and, second, to help me focus on what we are part of whilst we still have it.
Having too many people on the planet is the thing that I would contemplate whilst lying in bed at night. How will we feed everyone? What catastrophic impact will our expansion over land have on the other living things we are supposed to share Earth with? But, nature tends to find a way to manage the numbers.
There might be a global pandemic, or disease without a cure. Extreme weather, wild fires, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunami, another ice age even? These come and go. But they won’t sort the problem of over-population, it is cultural.
So, mother nature let’s us do it ourselves. Socially we are always evolving. Technology means we do not need the same number of workers as we did in the past. We are having fewer children for a number of reasons, one being that women are having better, longer and more successful career opportunities, which is to be celebrated. This also means fewer babies are being born.
Our more sedentary life styles are leading to more heart disease and diabetes.
So, although it’s not nature biting back, it is our social evolution that will affect our population figures in years to come; and ‘if’ present trends continue.
Ants live in communities of many thousands. Even they have evolved with factors that limit populations. For instance, only the Queen can reproduce and, they are of course predated on by other creatures. One of our big issues is that we are at the top of the food chain.
Bees swarm when their hives become overpopulated. The old Queen and hundreds of workers and scouts leave to find a new tree cavity to make home. They know, instinctively, when they are becoming over-populated.
Taken from an article online about wasps; “The parallels with human societies are uncanny: there are specialist work forces, rebellions, policing, leadership contests, undertakers, police, even free-loaders and anti-social thugs. You name it, social wasps have it.” What a great day to draw comparisons between a highly efficient societies like the wasps and the human societies which are heading to trouble ahead.
The Bald Birder 