The International Herald Tribune had an article yesterday whose headline was:
Global food supply is dwindling rapidly, UN agency warns
That's scary, isn't it? I mean, there must be something we can do, right? Plant more crops? Convert the entire population of the planet to a vegetarian diet? Reduce emissions so as to mitigate global warming?How about the one that no one wants to talk about? How about: reduce the human population on Earth. Everyone always gets agitated by this suggestion. "We have the right to breed!", they scream. And I agree. But you also have the right to die, and that's what will happen to your children if this continues. And starvation is not a pretty way to die.
I'm not suggesting that we go shoot a bunch of people. What I am suggesting is that we are currently unable to feed the population of the planet, so we need to either fix the problems (most of which, in my opinion, seem political and religious instead of technical) or to reduce the problem at its source: population. Don't have 12 kids because your religious leader says that "families are a blessing". Don't have three or four more children because you need help on the farm. Instead of breeding, adopt a child or two. Over time, the exponential growth curve we're currently experiencing will soften and reduce. Then, maybe, our technology and level of humanity will allow us to feed the mouths we have before we go making more.
