7 billion!

I once heard a learned biology professor claim that humans are a ‘plague species’, which, at the time offended my delicate, religious sensibilities no end; but now makes a lot of sense to me.

He was not using the term derisively. He was using it pragmatically. He was not offering a judgement or speculating on a moral dimension to it. He was simply stating a fact – we are making more and more people at an accelerating rate and, unlike rabbits or locusts or paramesiums, humans have the capacity to notice!

Just this week, statisticians noted that there are now 7 billion of us. And counting.

I guess all successful populations, whatever the species, multiply and expand until they reach the natural limits of their ecosystems, at which point, if they cannot expand to new territories, they plateau or crash.

How long the human population can continue its binge remains to be seen, but eventually it too will plateau or crash, only to begin the cycle all over again after its exhausted ecosystem has a chance to recover.

Now if only all 7 billion of us could share the same opportunities and responsibilities…wouldn’t that be something.

“In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breath the same air. We all cherish our childrens’ future. And we are all mortal.”
JFK, 1963

~ by Garry on November 3, 2011.