This article by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times says what I have been thinking for a while: the Earth is full.
As the WWF has been saying for some time now, we are using resources faster than the Earth can replenish them: not ‘slightly’ more, but a full 50% more than the Earth is able to renew them. We are using 50% more than the Earth can regenerate each year (and that is reducing the amount that it can generate next year). We are spending 50% more than our income, and our income forecast is going down.
Population is heading up, and available resources are heading down.
The conclusion of at least one environment minister is that “the short sightedness and greed of mankind – especially in the rich developed world – is so great that in a hundred years this planet will be uninhabitable for billions of people.”
Others are optimistic, as am I.
Think back through your own country’s history and you will come up with examples where people faced impossible odds, and through ingenuity and determination they worked together to overcome the obstacles they faced.
Our grandparents, our great-grandparents, and our great-great-great-great-great grandparents did not go through everything they went through just so that we could say “It’s not happening” or “There’s nothing we can do.”
The Earth is full. We need a new way forward.