{"id":64116,"date":"2022-11-14T09:17:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T14:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=64116"},"modified":"2022-11-14T09:17:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T14:17:00","slug":"8-billion-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=64116","title":{"rendered":"8 Billion Souls"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

8 Billion Souls<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>
By the time you read this, the counter above will have probably hit 8 billion (1). Screenshot from\u00a0World Population Clock<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

W<\/span>orld population is\u00a0projected<\/a>\u00a0to reach a new milestone \u2014 8 billion people \u2014 tomorrow on November 15, 2022. According to United Nations Population Fund chief Natalia Kanem:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cEight billion people, it is a momentous milestone for humanity, yet, I realize this moment might not be celebrated by all. Some express concerns that our world is overpopulated. I am here to say clearly that\u00a0the sheer number of human lives<\/strong>\u00a0is not a cause for fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As usual, I beg to differ: the\u201csheer number of human lives\u201d<\/em>\u00a0is<\/strong>\u00a0a big issue \u2014 although far from being the only factor behind the woes of our civilization. Consumption, pollution load, technology use and inequality (among many other things) also play their roles. Since this is a major milestone in human history though, I felt the need to discuss the effect of population growth separated from these other topics, examining its upshot on our, and on future generations\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

Being fully aware that this is a highly controversial topic, I suggest a simple thought experiment to somewhat distance ourselves from the emotions raised by this issue. Whenever I\u2019m confronted with a difficult question like this\u00a0(Is hitting 8 billion good or bad news? Are we headed in the right or wrong direction?)<\/em>\u00a0I always try to imagine two very extreme outcomes and see which one is better, and ultimately where should we \u2014 in my opinion \u2014 be headed. (Before you label the author an \u2018ecofascist\u2019 I\u2019m not contemplating here on how to reduce living populations, but rather on long term trajectories and their sustainability.)<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 Billion Souls By the time you read this, the counter above will have probably hit 8 billion (1). Screenshot from\u00a0World Population Clock World population is\u00a0projected\u00a0to reach a new milestone \u2014 8 billion people \u2014 tomorrow on November 15, 2022. According to United Nations Population Fund chief Natalia Kanem: \u201cEight billion people, it is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,7],"tags":[150,391,3197,1371,1160,32578],"class_list":["post-64116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-collapse","tag-growth","tag-overshoot","tag-population","tag-population-growth","tag-the-honest-sorcerer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64117,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64116\/revisions\/64117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}