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Op-Ed: Tough times ahead — 8 billion and a major crackup coming

Now get something right for a change.

Mumbai, one of India's biggest cities, grew by about eight million people in the past 30 years -- equivalent to the entirety of New York City's population
Mumbai, one of India's biggest cities, grew by about eight million people in the past 30 years -- equivalent to the entirety of New York City's population - Copyright AFP Punit PARANJPE
Mumbai, one of India's biggest cities, grew by about eight million people in the past 30 years -- equivalent to the entirety of New York City's population - Copyright AFP Punit PARANJPE

200 years ago, the world population was 1 billion. 2 billion in 1925, and 8 billion in 2022. One or two billion would be super-easy now. Everyone would be living like billionaires.

Instead, we have the monument to inefficiency we have today. The hobby of breeding tens or hundreds of millions of insupportable people is as usual doing the damage.

So now we’ve hit 8 billion with a projected rise to 10 billion followed by a fertility crisis and a world with a shrinking population. …Which simply proves the sainted think tanks, ideologues, and social engineers couldn’t run a dunghill.

That’s largely because an actual dunghill could only be smarter than they are and far more mentally agile. The ability to ignore the obvious and deny facts isn’t entirely restricted to gaga conservative politicians. Seems the academic tendency to quite literally euphemize the human species to death is almost as effective.

This omniscience also overlooks the fact that water and food systems are under severe strain. It doesn’t include the fact that male fertility could well be a thing of the past by 2045. Climate is another non-topic. Nor is how people live a problem. Quality of life is a constant non-issue.

Driveling idiots who could only be employed in politics aside; the stats all point to going straight over a cliff in the future. You don’t exactly need a crystal ball. Looking out a window would be quite adequate.

There are solutions in some sort of logical, if highly debatable, form. Synthetic embryos, now good science, perhaps later the rise of more second-class citizens, for example. Brave New World is actually visible. You can scroll through a search of fertility news and try to like it. That part of the equation is at the moment looking as dangerous as it is promising.

Too many bad calls

Humanity has made way too many anti-human, anti-survival, bad calls in the past century. From World War One to chronic pollution to wiping out natural resources, the bill is now due. There aren’t any excuses for this level of stupidity.

Wouldn’t matter if there were excuses. This is life or death in no uncertain terms. The trick now is somehow to dig the way out of the remains of planet Earth and make it work again. It’s doable, but obstructions can be expected from those who created the problem. The stench of the Industrial Revolution remains, talking everyone to death.

Just cleaning up the planet would guarantee at least one generation “jobs for life” in any possible sense of the expression. Decontamination alone would support sciences for years to come. Rehabilitating the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles while shutting down greenhouse is another career for some.

Just a thought for the geniuses

If you bear in mind what happens when there’s a blackout, what do you think will happen when all the survival systems shut down? You know where to shove your dystopian garbage. It doesn’t need to happen at all. This is real enough even for a rich fruit fly to understand.

Now get something right for a change, fools.

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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

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Editor-at-Large based in Sydney, Australia.

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