Anthropocene Apocalypse – Scenario 2 – The Population explosion and the future!

Anthropocene Apocalypse

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In Scenario 1 the population continued to grow eating up space, wilderness and destroying all naturally living creatures. Technology dealt with the problems of food, water, energy, weather and even oxygen in the atmosphere. We lived in huge urban developments and the world is devoid of wild-life and natural areas.

Scenario 2.

The premise:

a. We realise the impact of our actions on the environment and limit our numbers, conserve the wilderness and wild-life, stop our habitat destruction and pollution.

b. We lay aside 50% of the planet for wilderness and wild-life. We do not allow roads, hunters or development in these areas.

We are extremely good at solving problems. We can easily create a sustainable future where wilderness and wild-life has a place.

The result:

a. We introduce contraception, education and family planning on a global scale and successfully reduce our population.

b. We use technology to produce better transport, housing, energy production, and food.

c. We do not have urban sprawl, deforestation, overfishing, or other unsustainable exploitation of the environment.

d. We raise the standards of life for all people globally so that there is no longer war, conflict or poverty. There are social services, pensions and sick pay enabling people to live without requiring large numbers of children to support them through hard times.

e. We produce technology that is not polluting and is sustainable. We have ample energy (probably through nuclear fusion and solar) and our farming methods are not cruel or ineffective. We can produce ample good food to support the population without encroaching on the wilderness areas.

f. The forests are conserved. Fishing is sustainable. The weather and global warming is controlled.

g. 50% of the world is teeming with wild-life that we can marvel at. The air, water and soil are not contaminated with carcinogens. We globally control the weather and global warming. Everything regarding conservation and pollution is controlled and enforced globally.

I know which of the two possible future scenarios I would prefer to live in.

The future is for our grandchildren’s grandchildren. In my own life-time we have destroyed over half of the world. I feel we are at the precipice. Will we jump?Posted in EcologyenvironmentExtinctionTagged conservationEcologyeducationExtinctionidealismjournalismLiteratureNatureOptimismPoliticsPopulationSciencethe futureWritingZeitgeist4 CommentsEdit

Anthropocene Apocalypse – Scenario 1 – The natural conclusion to our population explosion.

Anthropocene Apocalypse

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Let us look into the future and extrapolate from where we are to where we are heading.

Scenario 1

The premise:

a. The population continues to grow

b. There are no catastrophes that wipe us out

Man is extremely good at solving problems. So let us assume that we negotiate our way through problem after problem. We do not annihilate ourselves through nuclear war or manufactured biological warfare. We do not succumb to a virus. We merely continue to grow in numbers.

These are the consequences:

a. Space and shelter. We need land and housing and our cities, towns and villages grow. The countryside becomes consumed in plastic and concrete. Roads connect and transport systems enable easy access.

b. The Wilderness. The wilderness and natural world become open to us and exploited for farming, mining, logging and habitation until there is no more inaccessible wilderness areas. Roads run through every place.

c. The Wild-life. The wild-life now has no habitat left, no food, shelter or way of living. It is butchered for meat, hunted for ivory or medicine (The rarer it gets, the more it is worth, the higher the price, the more worth the risk). The remnants of the wild things are corralled into parks or zoos and confined, protected and used as objects of tourism. Those considered pests, unpleasant or dangerous are eradicated.

d. Food. Even with all the wilderness opened up for farming, the seas fully harvested and hydroponics, genetic modifications and intensive farming methods there is not sufficient food for the burgeoning population. Food is produced from bacteria and fungus in vast industrial vats (Pruteen, mycoprotein etc. – already produced in large quantities – in our pies, sausages etc.), textured, flavoured and used as a meat substitute. Proper meat is a luxury food item.

e. Water. Water is a dwindling resource and desalination plants provide supplies.

f. Energy. Fossil fuels are replaced by large-scale sustainable technology – probably nuclear fusion supplemented with solar.

g. Weather. The effects of global warming are alleviated. The hurricanes and extreme weather conditions are now able to be controlled.

h. Oxygen. Oxygen is a natural product of photosynthesis. With the destruction of the forests and pollution of the oceans it is no longer being produced in sufficient quantities. Oceans are seeded to produce algal blooms and hydrolysis plants produce oxygen from water.

Our lives in these huge metropolises are highly controlled. Our environment is plastic. Our food, water and even the air we breathe is manufactured. We take our children to see the last remaining trees in the tree museum. We then go to the zoo to get a glimpse of and wonder at the little animals that used to run free in the wild.

It’s a vision of the future. It is quite possible. But is that the way we really want to live? Is that the world we want to pass on to our children?Posted in EcologyenvironmentTagged AlternativeconservationEcologyeducationExtinctionidealismNatureOptimismPoliticsPopulationWritingZeitgeist

Poetry – Empty Words

Empty Words

Looking for loopholes,

                False promises,

                                Empty words.

We are watching you.

The young will not forgive.

                They will write your history.

Their words will be as harsh as the weather.

We are watching you.

Not enough wood for the pyres.

                Not enough oxygen for the lungs.

Not enough understanding of the need.

We are watching you!!

We are watching you!!

We are watching you!!

Opher 23.4.2021

The politicians lie about the way they love and cherish the environment when all the time the only things they are cherishing is power and the size of their bank deposits!!

All over the world nature is threatened.

It’s time everyone came together to put a stop to this massacre!!

We are watching you!!

History will remember who it was who raped the planet!

Empty Words

Looking for loopholes,

                False promises,

                                Empty words.

We are watching you.

The young will not forgive.

                They will write your history.

Their words will be as harsh as the weather.

We are watching you.

Not enough wood for the pyres.

                Not enough oxygen for the lungs.

Not enough understanding of the need.

We are watching you!!

We are watching you!!

We are watching you!!

Opher 23.4.2021

The politicians lie about the way they love and cherish the environment when all the time the only things they are cherishing is power and the size of their bank deposits!!

All over the world nature is threatened.

It’s time everyone came together to put a stop to this massacre!!

We are watching you!!

History will remember who it was who raped the planet!

Poetry – The Horn

The Horn

I’ve got the horn

Ripped straight

From the head;

Does wonders in bed.

An explosion of lead

Stagger

And dead.

Hacked clean

Into something

Obscene.

Poor eyesight;

It never saw us

The very last

Rhinoceros.

Opher 4.7.2015

The Horn

We are rapidly wiping out the wild things, the forests, and the wilderness as we increase in number and extend our range. Soon the whole world will be a huge concrete and plastic jungle.

We may keep the DNA safe so that in saner times it might be reconstituted into living organisms.

One day, when we’ve become wiser and more civilised, there might be a programme to reinstate nature. I’m not sure I would completely approve. Designed wilderness is a poor substitute but perhaps it will be better than nothing.

If we survive that long, that is.

The rhino is doomed because of superstition and money. You may as well use nail filings as rhino horn. They are exactly the same keratin. There is no medicinal value. It does not give you the horn. Yet the customers will pay. The rhinos will pay and the hunters get paid. That is how decisions in this world get made.

A Life On Our Planet – David Attenborough

A Life On Our Planet – David Attenborough

I’m reading this incredible biography of David Attenborough.  It shows us just how much we have lost and how much more we are going to lose if we do not act.

For any deniers it should be compulsory reading.

YearWorld populationCarbon in the atmosphere in parts per millionRemaining wilderness
19372.3 billion28066%
19542.7 billion31064%
19603 billion31562%
19683.5 billion32359%
19713.7 billion32658%
19784.3 billion33555%
19895.1 billion35349%
19975.9 billion36046%
20207.8 billion41535%

It is incredible to reflect back to times in the past and read records. Life on the planet was plentiful. What we now have are the vestiges of what was once around. We have destroyed the bulk of it.

The incredibly complex web of life is being systematically taken apart. Aspects are so interwoven and specialized, having taken millions of years to develop, that there comes a point where it all just fails.

When that happens soil becomes sterile, oceans stagnant, oxygen not replenished, climate changes and life on the planet is no longer possible – at least not as we would recognize it.

The bacteria would survive.

It would have to start all over again.

Poetry – Hunting and Dreaming

Hunting and Dreaming

We came from the South

Across the ice,

Hunting and dreaming.

We spread throughout the world

Throwing dice,

Planning, fighting and scheming.

We conquered and bred

As feral mice,

Until the world was teeming.

Now we totter on the brink,

Paying the price,

As the world lies steaming.

Opher – 8.10.2020

Making our way out of Africa we followed the hunting. We were incredibly successful. Our numbers ballooned.

We wiped out the megafauna in no time at all.

Now eight billion of us are felling the forests, poisoning the land and working our way through the rest of life on the planet.

We’ll kill anything for profit or fun.