- by Xavier Manalo
Welcome back. By now you would have a better understanding of our current state of mind. How we see things. How we feel. How we face each problem. By now you are ready to know the harsh truth of it all. The grim reality we all face. The problem of all problems.
The problem is YOU. It's ME. It is US. It is all of us. It is all 7,528,729,861(est.) of us. The root of all problems is OVERPOPULATION.
We have grown exponentially in the last century. The death to birth ratio is at a great imbalance, and the longevity of an average human lifespan extended far longer than before. Our population is growing at an alarming rate, and showing no signs of stopping. If you didn't know then, it is time to take notice now.
We have been trying to address every so called problems in front of us. Only now do we truly see the truth.
LACK OF FOOD. This planet can no longer sustain it's inhabitants. Our farmers can no longer feed it's residents. Solution: import food. Import food you say? Those who export food to us can no longer sustain their own people. Soon they will stop exporting just to sustain their own. There will be outcries, chaos, even war for food. Very soon.
HUNGER. Each generation our farmers decline in numbers. There are less and less people who produce food, and there are more and more people consuming. The land has been overrun by people. There are fewer and fewer farm lands available now due to overpopulation. We are more focused on where to put the people than feeding them. The ratio of food to consumer is alarmingly off balance. Year after year more and more and born to be fed, and year after year less and less are those who feed. All the while, the existing farms are experiencing drought, each year less and less are produced. As long as we have food on the table when it is time to eat, we are happy. We don't care at all where they come from do we?
TRAFFIC. You might see that there are more vehicles on the road today causing traffic. Hence you naturally see that the traffic is due to lack of roads for them. Again the symptom is there, you focus on it and try to resolve that particular symptom. And yet, you fail to see passed it and see that the real reason we have so much vehicles is because we have people in them. We need vehicles because we have people going places. Current solution: road widening, color coding, enforcers, etc. Really? This is the solution? The time it takes to widen a single road, upon it's completion the populace would have increased by one third. So, another road widening? I don't think so. Again another failed solution.
At this point, you would have an idea were this is going and get the point, but let's continue, shall we?
TRASH. Can you imagine how much trash a household generate in a day? How much in a city? A country? In a single day tons upon tons of trash are generated. Imagine this. Close your eyes for a moment. House, town, city, country, planet. In one day, how much trash did you see? Where do these trash go? You don't care, as long as they're not in your line of sight, right? They go to landfills. Again less for farmlands. Recycling? Have you recycled, or just expected someone else to do them for you. Burn trash? And do you realize it's impact in the environment? At this point that is a no.
CLIMATE CHANGE. This one is easy and is the most logical of them all. However, we still ignore it. BECAUSE WE DO NOT CARE. Picture this: in a small room and you're in it, nice isn't it? Now There are two, then five, then ten of you - fun isn't it? Now there are twenty of you. It's getting hotter now, can you feel it? More people squeezed in. Hotter? Now there are a thousand of you. Blazing hot? That's just body heat. Next comes the appliances. We have all been squeezed in a tiny planet that our bodies alone generate heat. Add the animals. Heat generating objects - cars, factories, etc. Put them all together in a single day, we could generate heat as hot as the sun. And we wonder why there are more storms, El Nino, tornadoes, drought, and so on. Well now we know.
With overpopulation come great things as well - DISEASES. We only treat symptoms remember? There hasn't been a real CURE. We have vaccines to suppress or inhibit but not cure. We can not make a living organism vanish into thin air with a flick of a finger. With a rapid growth of the populace means more hosts for viruses and bacteria. Then comes a score of various virus variants (say that three times. I should patent that VVV). We incubate them in our bodies and sometimes mutate creating new and deadlier diseases. At this very moment new viruses are emerging without our knowledge. With a mass increase of brains on the planet, only a fraction of a fraction of those brains look into diseases to find a solution.
"Problem" is a tree. Overpopulation is it's root. As the tree grows, fresh new little problems branch out. We tirelessly and desperately trim out as much as what we see as problems before our eyes, and we fail time and again when it regrows. These examples are few of the mere leaves in the great tree. More and more grow as time go by. The root is the key to them all. Find the solution for the root, the rest will fall into place.
Next up: Solution
