Overpopulation

I made a previous post about the "expected" path we have in life and how most humans blindly follow this path simply because they don't know any other way of life. They merely follow example, or worse yet hit some of the steps by accident (accidental pregnancy, for example).

This creates a massive problem because the very life path that we expect we should follow is dangerous both to us and to the planet itself. The damage to the Earth increases exponentially with increases in human life upon the planet. Our population is expanding by about four million per year, our death rates are falling due to medical advances, and soon humans will cover the surface of the Earth like a flood. We do not have the natural resources to maintain such a population, we don't even have the space. Yet, millions upon millions of families have baby after baby after baby. Ideally, each couple should have two children. One to replace the mother and one to replace the father.

I have always been astonished by people who continuously have one child after another, as if they don't know how to stop breeding. This is, however, the first time I've thought of it in the context of the planet in general. Why are we running out of oil and other precious natural resources? Because the more people there are using the resources, the faster they run out. There are housing developments for which acres upon acres of forest is leveled, and upon which rows of 4-5 bedroom houses sit dangerously close to one another. When viewed afar these "fields" of homes look very much like a graveyard full of tombstones. These homes cost more than the families living in them can afford. The homes are often larger than these families need, but because they aquire so much stuff - thats the American way - they need ever larger homes.

Our expansion is three-fold - more humans, each with a bigger footprint than the last, each using greater resources than the last. So even though the actual number of additional humans per year is 4 million, its really about the impact of 12 million because every year each human takes up more and more space and resources. We use more, we consume more, we eat more, we want more we buy more.

What is the American dream? More, more, more.

Well, aparently nature has grown tired of us. We have an infertility epidemic, and science has found it may be linked to evolution in male reproduction. The short story is, men have evolved sperm that are so effective at penetrating a woman's defenses that multiple sperm join the egg and prevent conception in doing so. Of course, we should just let it go and if we can't have children naturally then we should not have children. No, these people have a God-given right to bear children and infect the world with even more people, so we artificially inseminate the egg in a petri dish and stick it in the mother's womb. Our infertility - battling techniques have cause an epidemic of multiple births. Families who wanted one baby suddenly find themselves with two, or three, or five, or ten.

I, for one, am stepping out of this race. I have no desire to bear children, and I refuse to let people make me feel like something is wrong with me because of it. I believe there are many, many others out there who feel just as I do but because of society and spousal pressure, they are going to have children anyway. I almost did, in an attempt to make someone else happy.

I am incredibly thankful that I was forced off of that path before I made a huge mistake.

Please, reconsider what you really want before you try to have children. Put deep, serious thought into WHY you want children and make damn sure your spouse really does want them too, and find out why THEY want children.

We all must consider our every act more deeply. Think about the impact it will have on you, on others, on the world. Don't just do things blindly. Don't be a sheep. You are not a cow in a farmer's field who is breed, fed, and slaughtered by outside forces. It is your life and you have to take control and take the reigns of personal responsibility for yourself. You are the only person responsible for your actions, and to lay blame on others is to give up your life to them. Take control of yourself, and you help change the world.