You hear a lot about how the world’s population is, as a whole, increasing at a faster rate that we can produce resources to support it.
Sure, there are places where it’s declining, but overall, that issue seems to be a non-worry.
At least, until now.
Population ecologist William Rees out of the University of British Columbia warns in a recent paper why he believes a “population correction” is imminent.
“Humanity is exhibiting the characteristic dynamics of a one-off population boom-bust cycle. The global economy will inevitably contract and humanity will suffer a major population ‘correction’ in this century.”
Image Credit: MDPI
Stanford biologist Tony Barnosky agrees that the world should expect its worst global mass extinction event since the dinosaurs.
Rees says that’s because humans are putting huge stress on the world, and there’s no way it can keep up.
“Homo sapiens has evolved to reproduce exponentially, expand geographically, and consume all available resources.”
The huge amount of energy needed to maintain billions of people has to “dissipate” somewhere, Rees says, like waste that gets discharged “back into its host.”
Not a pretty picture.
He thinks this could mean that fewer than 100 million people might remain by the time this “collapse” is complete.
He doesn’t believe that extinction is a real concern, given technological advancements, but that won’t make the death toll any less grim.
“That said, rebounding negative feedbacks – climate chaos, food, and other resource shortages, civil disorder, resource wars, etc – may well eliminate prospects for an advanced worldwide civilization.”
Which is to say, some of the apocalyptic television shows we watch could be viewed as educational material.
And your friends and family hoarding canned goods and packing go-bags “just in case?”
You might want to grab some tinfoil and start taking notes.