Population Issues

 I want to live in a world where food, clothing and shelter are guaranteed, there is no debt, work-life balance is properly maintained, and there is no jealousy due to fabricated differences between people.

There should be differences in "individuality" between people, but when this becomes "superiority" or "hierarchical relationships," the suffering of jealousy is born.

If it goes further and becomes "winners" and "losers," or even further, "rulers" and "ruled," the suffering knows no bounds.

Even so, if food, clothing and shelter are provided and work-life balance is properly maintained, it may be possible to find peace of mind by saying, "Let those who want to be bossy be bossy," and "Let those who want to be extravagant be extravagant."

So the first priority to consider is, of course, "ensuring food, clothing and shelter." However, as we saw before, the world as a whole actually has "enough" food, clothing and shelter in terms of quantity. On the one hand, there is an excess in places where there is a shortage, and in fact it is a matter of distribution, not quantity. However, there are still concerns that if the population continues to grow indefinitely, it will eventually become insufficient, and that even though there is currently enough food, it is still putting a considerable strain on the environment and ecosystem. The following graph shows the population growth since the birth of humanity.

The logarithmic scale makes it easy to see the population growth over a long time axis.

It visually shows that the population growth since the Industrial Revolution has been particularly rapid.

The following is a food chain pyramid in an ecosystem.

A food chain pyramid is usually structured as follows:

Producers (plants, algae, etc.): photosynthesize and supply energy.

Primary consumers (herbivores): animals that eat plants (e.g. rabbits, insects).

Secondary consumers (small carnivores): eat primary consumers (e.g. frogs, mice).

Tertiary consumers (large carnivores): eat secondary consumers (e.g. snakes, foxes).

Apex predator (top predator): At the top of the food chain (e.g. eagle, wolf)

The pyramid visually shows the levels from producer to apex predator.

According to this diagram, if the number of apex predators increases, the lower organisms that support them must also increase. We humans are currently at the top, of course. If the human population had increased explosively since the Industrial Revolution, the balance of the ecosystem would not be achieved unless the lower organisms also increased explosively. For that to happen, the Earth would have to become hundreds of times larger. Of course, that has not happened. This means that the current state of population explosion is putting an abnormally large burden on the ecosystem, and no matter how you look at it, it cannot be sustainable. It is no wonder that environmental destruction and ecosystem destruction are currently progressing at an incredible pace.

Humanity is part of the ecosystem. If that ecosystem collapses, humans will not be able to survive. And the only way to maintain the balance of the ecosystem is to reduce the population. Developed countries are heading towards a population decline, but isn't this the natural law of nature? The question is what level of population is sustainable, but looking at these two graphs, it's a bit hopeless. It makes you want to pretend you don't see it and escape from reality.

I'm amazed that God has supported so many people up until now. Isn't he really pushing himself too hard?

Anyway, what we can do now is to gradually reduce the population. We can't possibly reduce the current population, so the only option is to lower the birth rate. It's inevitable that economic growth will not be possible in order to achieve this. The economy has grown too much up until now. We got too carried away. Ever since money began to dominate, both population and economic growth have been out of control.

It seems that humanity has exceeded its share.

It's about time we "learned enough" when it comes to population.