Our Malthusian demise is only deferred
Julian Cribb puts our global environmental crisis into an eloquent historical perspective. His portrait of humanity’s evolution over thousands of years captures the short-sighted, selfish culture which now dominates our world.
Thomas Malthus foretold, in his 1798 ‘Essay on the Principle of Population’, how our population would inevitably outgrow our food supply. Population would be naturally limited by plague, famine, and war. We have, for the past 226 years, held Malthus’ prediction at bay through medical science, agricultural science, and the UN, but our Malthusian demise has been deferred rather than defeated. Humanity’s numbers continually increase, and our lifestyle demands and expectations increase exponentially. We have been taking far more from the Earth than it can naturally replace. Our toxic waste accelerates the threat to what remains.
We have overloaded our planet. We can again defer the inevitable if we tackle climate change effectively, and implement sustainable agricultural practices worldwide, but these outcomes seem ever more improbable. More likely, now, will be that we reach 4 degrees of warming, and lose 90% of our population – and presumably of animal life. Then our planet will become sustainable once more; and Thomas Malthus will be crowing from his grave.
Contributions to Pearls and Irritations
Your contribution will fund quality independent comment and analysis in Pearls and Irritations
Contribute
