Weapons of Mass Consumption

Planet Earth – home to six and three quarters billion people. Given current circumstances in the scientific community and the realities of this world, it is the only home of the human race as we know it; it is where our species lives, and it will soon be where our species dies. The threat does not stem from our love of war or nuclear power, nor does it stem from a Mayan hiccup or alien menace. We do not face our extinction from devastation, but from prosperity.

In the first year of the common era, man is estimated to have numbered at two hundred million. That number did not double until some twelve-hundred years later; by the time of the American Revolution, humanity reached a comparative boom at just shy of one billion people. One hundred and twenty years passed before that number doubled; from the thirties to the seventies, mankind doubled again, breaking the four billion population mark. And now, just over thirty years later, we have reached this astounding number approaching seven billion. As technology advances, the population booms; the industrial era saw the first true expansion of humanity, while the eras of flight, electricity, and computers saw a much greater expansion, having seen mankind dot the globe.

Currently, the world loses roughly fifty-six million people per year; to counter this, it gains nearly one hundred and thirty-seven million – over twice as many born as dying. Rough estimates predict our population to gain two billion additional souls over the next forty years. Consider that the majority of that population will be borne into already populous centers of civilization; America, China, Europe. Already we face droves of people dying from starvation and other such causes in the third world. Add a third of our population to the mix and we will be hard pressed for resources. There simply is not enough land, water, wood, oil, or metal to sustain this massive influx of humanity. Barring a realistic way to transport and sustain human life outside of this fragile planet, we are fast approaching the boiling point.

When the oil wells dry up and the fields go bare, the wealthy will feel the clutch of mediocrity caressing their lives. That which sustains them will be gone, forcing them to either reduce their lives to that of the common folk, or else to deprive the common man of what few necessities remain. Overpopulation is a very real threat, and jokes of soylent green aside, it will either cause or lead to the downfall of our race. Wars will be fought for the most fertile pieces of real estate. Starvation will run rampant. Diseases will spread and men will turn to their innermost abilities of violence and thievery. Civilization will be lost in the ensuing chaos. The only question remaining is how to avoid this scenario.

Again barring the possibility of colonization outside of this planet, there are very few possibilities on how to prevent the overpopulation of the earth. Given the fact that humanity is deeply ingrained with the desire to reproduce, as well as the extreme difficulties of enforcing a population control, the most likely outcome is to push the mortality rate above the birth rate. This idea may appear callous, but only until one recognizes the simple truth that for most to live, some must die. This is true of life in general, yet a truth that we as humans attempt to divorce from. If we continue on in stubbornness and ignorance, we cannot make the choice of preventing the largest threat looming on the horizon. Yet even this purported solution is not without its troubles.

During World War II, the six-year conflict only averaged ten million deaths per year. The bloodiest war mankind has ever seen, and yet it is not even twenty percent of the total human losses faced per year in a state of relative global peace. Given this fact, it may not even be possible to exceed our current birth rate, despite the fact that the birth rate will decrease as the death rate increases. Civilization would still fall should murderers be encouraged to slay, or wars level entire cities of their denizens. Perhaps this world is simply doomed, with all that we know crumbling about the grand foundations of our own egotistical desires.

As the possibility of a deity storming down from the heavens to save us poor souls is not even worth taking the time to consider, we must manufacture our own luck, our own salvation. If we cannot push the death rate above the birth rate, let us throttle it while shifting our focus onto the only option left available. Should the entirety of the scientific community transfer their collective genius to the problems besetting space travel and colonization on a possibly hostile environment, even to the point of creating a renewable ecosystem capable of thriving in deep space, then let us cease attempting to save lives in the short term. Researches into cancer or autism may instead be shifted to ways to sustain muscle mass in a habitat devoid of gravity. The hordes of engineers constructing better and safer vehicles could focus upon the difficulties besetting a large, sustainable space vessel, capable of housing significant portions of our race.

It is time that we as humans stop our selfish attempts to prolong our happiness in the short term. We must focus on the utilitarian aspects of long-term survival, or accept the fact that our days are numbered far fewer than any would care to believe. Our survival is predicated upon this basic ability to focus on the long view, a trait that is regrettably absent in so many of our kind. The closer we come to our overpopulated, starving, and hellish future, the closer we come to removing any chance of survival. Even if our overpopulation were to reduce our numbers to a sustainable few, it would be unable to make and keep the advances that characterized our survival throughout history. The end would be delayed, but would not be prevented; such is the nature of man, who will procrastinate his way to the grave until all else is dust. And so it shall remain, until the end of days.