Exponential population growth is exhausting earth's resources

Humans have historically exhausted what existed and then moved on.

Our world is full and it is
 time we started listening
to those with ideas
about slowing exponential
 population growth.

The earliest small groups of humans, or tribes, settled briefly and when the immediate environment was no longer viable or provided the live-giving resources they needed, the group simply moved on.

Space was never a problem and the richness of the planet continued just over the horizon and so it was simply a matter of shifting your belongings, as few as they were, and re-establishing life in the “foyer of a new supermarket”.

The idea that we could always move to a new place has become entrenched in our psyche and humans have always looked longingly to the horizon convinced the solution to their difficulties were “just out of sight”.

That assumption has been evident throughout our history right from when the first “thinking man” emigrated from Africa to the dream of many that we could colonize other planets.

When our numbers were few and we had room to spare, the dynamic of staying for a season or two and then moving-on made complete sense.

When we arrived an area was rich with life and by the time we left it was pretty well exhausted, but as human demands were relatively small and, importantly, infrequent, nature had a largely uninterrupted chance to repair the damage.

The idea that our planet was voluminous and forever giving has become entrenched in human thinking, leaving many of us with the “throw-away” mentality.

Mostly humans everywhere have always exploited what existed, customarily to civilization’s detriment, and then moved on.

Most civilisations, history illustrates, survive for about 1000 years, except for those that were founded upon a rich stream of nature that saw the essence of life refurbished annually or more frequently.

Nature has put out the “No vacancy” sign ending our free-wheeling approach.

We don’t, however, appear to be paying much attention to the fact that the world is full as we continue to live as resources upon which modern life depend are endless – they are not and if don’t think the world is full, ask yourself why the only survivable space for many families in India, for example, is literally on a rubbish tip.

What do we do?

We need to support those with ideas to slow the exponential growth of human numbers, for if we don’t do it voluntarily, a pandemic will insist, killing billions, and we need to embrace and apply the grossly misunderstood idea of equity.

How do we do that? First, accept and understand the damaging reality of exponential growth; second, abandon narcissistic individuality, live altruistically; and, third, embrace equity, fairness and justice.

Australia’s asylum-seeker dilemma is simply about people moving to escape political crossfire and resource depletion – they are simply exercising humanity’s historic exit option.

Shepparton Access trades in equity

Equity is something about which most of us know little.

That is not a damnation of individuals, necessarily, rather an observation that we are who and what we are through accident of birth or circumstance.

Driven by those causations we gravitate naturally to our role in life and so equity within our societal stratum is as expected and we only take note when some obvious injustice, or glaring inequity, crashes into view.

Democracy, in its idealistic shape, is the home of equity and so those who pretend their behaviour is rooted in that paradigm, which it rarely is, claim to be equity’s greatest champions.

Standing at the door of troublesome times brought on by a collision of an unravelling world economy, a burgeoning population, energy scarcity and human-induced damaging changes to our climate, our understanding and application of fairness and justice will determine our reaction to these changes.

Writing in his latest book, “The Better Angles of OurNature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes”, author Steven Pinker argued violence, the antithesis of justice, was not linked to arguments over life’s fundamental needs – food, water and shelter -  rather, equity.

Equity is one of those things high on the agenda for Shepparton Access; the local team of enthusiasts who work hard to ensure those among us who have not been as favoured by life can expect impartiality within their respective communities.

Troubled by our misunderstanding of equity; a confusion that escapes us until we step out of our comfortable orbit of our imagined normality and stand in the shoes of another whose “ordinary” is decidedly different.

It is important to remember that the “other” is not necessarily better or worse, just different.

As we stumble into a different future, the idea of equity is to become a foothold on which humanity will depend with each of us needing to understand and involve ourselves in sharing, collaboration and co-operation.

Democracy must encapsulate those traits along with honesty, fairness, reason and justice as it builds a system free of superstition that ensures liberty and decisions of integrity are being made by the people, for the people.

True, that sounds somewhat idealistic, but anything of consequence is grounded in utopian values and an equity that has a visionary substance, without which navigating the shoals of energy depletion, climate change and economic chaos will be difficult, if not impossible.

The equity encouraged by Shepparton Access is about willingly sharing the public sphere with your fellows, which, in essence, is quite like how we will be required to behave as we are about to be engulfed, seemingly unaware, by the changes that await us.

Equity rises above the individualism so characteristic of contemporary life.