Population growth is hot topic too

Population growth is hot topic too

The commentary by Peter Goldmark in the May 20 Vindicator refers to an article in Science magazine about the effects of climate change on global crop production. Mr. Goldmark writes that the article gives “strong evidence that global warming has already negatively affected yields for wheat and corn over the last three decades.” He also states “the world’s ability to produce enough food is central to our prospects for economic stability and peace.”

There is an even more dire situation brewing that he doesn’t mention. While the thrust of his commentary is toward food production, the unstated problem that exacerbates this and other world problems and has done so for more than a half century is the increasing world population. At the end of World War II , the population was 2 billion. It took 10,000 generations to reach that number. Now, a mere 65 years later and just shy of 7 billion, we are at a point that our ability to feed ourselves is in jeopardy and worsening every year. Even the agricultural improvements that have produced much greater yields in the post-war period will probably be inadequate, even if the climate wasn’t changing.

Scientific, technological and medical advances have allowed more of us to survive and thrive until we have outgrown and overrun our pond. If we don’t put a check on our own numbers, Mother Nature will. She does this for all species, and we’re not the exception.

What the true sustainable population would be is debatable, but there is little doubt that we’ve already surpassed that. We need to drastically reduce our birthrate so that our low death rate (which has declined as we happily live to be 80, 90 and older) has a chance to lead to population decline. If we continue to ignore our fast-growing numbers, the result is predictable. Billions of people will die horribly and prematurely as nature stabilizes what we don’t.

Mr. Goldmark concludes by saying “the most insidious fact about global warming is that it happens so gradually. There is no single point-in-time crisis that galvanizes us into a concerted emergency response.”

We have not yet had a Pearl Harbor or 9/11 event connected with climate and population that has spurred us on to victory. Hopefully, we won’t need one before we act.

Richard Fogo, Youngstown