On July 1st I opened my e-mail to find a response to a generic invitation I had sent out from Al Gore's We site . The response simply read: " Global Warming is a fraud.". Gary is a friend of mine from college who says he is voting for Bobb Barr the Libertarian candidate for president. I don't hold it against him or anything after all it is a free country. But my knee jerk (or maybe elbow jerk) response was... That may be true but even if it is there is one fact scientists have been pointing to for a while and that very few are disputing, that is the explosion in world population we have been seeing and will continue to see in the years to come. The planet has seen exponential growth in its population. There is no doubt this will put a squeeze on precious resources like fresh drinkable water and available farmland for food production. The chart to the left shows the J-shaped curve of past exponential world population growth.(besure to check out the links he has to other more "official" counters at the bottom of
his page) Notice how it all started out slowly, but as time passes the curve becomes steeper and steeper. In 47 years the world population has more than doubled. In 1950 we were at 2.5 billion and had reached 5.9 billion by 1998. So unless death rates rise exponentially, world pop. will reach 8 billion by 2025 (that's only 17 years from now folks!) By the year 2050 it will be up to 10 or 11 Billion people and for 2100 the projection for our grandchildren is that they will be sharing elbow room with around 14 billion other human beings! I got my facts and figures from the World Bank and the United Nations.Also I borrowed the graph from this site at Columbia University which explains the phenomenon well. The bottom line is some habits are going to have to change in order for that many people to live together on the planet and we can't forget we are all in the same boat. I want a livable future for my daughter who's elbow is featured with mine up above. See I told you the next post would be more concise. Keep going green!! Oh and Gary I love your responses because they keep me thinking and fired up!
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Hi Glen,
ReplyDeleteI hope you still remember me, I was your tutor back in Mainz:-) I've just checked you blog out and I must say that it is a great page. I admire that you tackle the problem of environmental pollution and I realize how much work you must have invested in this thing. you got some great ideas on the blog. i particularly liked the thing about Germany, maybe because I'm German :-P and I recognize the familiar items on the pictures but all the more so because I think that the German environmental policy is something we can be really proud of. and to my mind it is a great idea to show people in your country that in other places in the world recycling and environmental protection is working and that, in fact, it is not as difficult as one might think. The elbow thing is brilliant,as well, especially cause u link it with your family. this might bring the people to think about their families, too, and to realize that the next generations still need to live on this planet.
anyway, a great thing,a great blog. keep going!:-) Sandra from Mainz Germany