Humanizing the World
Is this really in our best interest?
For most of human history, the name of the game has been survival. Widely scattered bands of Homo sapiens struggled for existence during the Ice Age and the years that followed, just like every other life form. There were times back then when the fate of our kind seemed in question. But oh no, not any more…
We are everywhere now — deep in the equatorial rainforests, at the poles, and all points between. We inhabit the deserts, mountains and steppes, as well as the fertile river valleys where we first got ahead in the game. We move easily through all of nature’s realms now: land, sea and air. Who knows how far we can take it? Perhaps someday, we’ll inhabit other planets. What’s to stop us?
The Power of Population
A hundred years ago, nearly everyone assumed that the resources on this planet were unlimited, and that extracting them was just a matter of time and ingenuity. Oh sure, there were those who talked doom and gloom even then, but few people took them seriously.
As far back as the 18th Century, an Englishman named Thomas Malthus had forecasted an ecological apocalypse. In his book, Population: the First Essay, he warned us:
The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for…
