On population

Well I'm sort of unpacked and had to read hundred or so pages for an assignment, but now I have the time for a quick post.

I stumbled onto this webcomic: http://www.recombinantrecords.net/2011/02/09/st-matthew-island/
It raises an interesting question, namely 'how big is our island?'. This reminded me of another episode of BBC Horizon a while back presented by Sir David Attenborough (this alone should be reason to watch it, because that man is interesting) titled "How many people can live on planet earth?".

What it boils down to is this: we live on a planet with finite resources, but our population is exploding and so is our consumption. While for millennia the population was more or less stable at around 2 billion people, it has doubled since the 1950's from 3,5 bln to 7 bln. At the current rate we'll hit our maximum sustainability in 2050 with 15 billion people living on earth, and that is if we stop consuming more than our share.

Now I don't know about you, but I tend to worry about matters too big for me to handle. This is one of them, and it's one of the reasons why I'm studying what I'm studying. It seems to me that humans are intrinsically selfish and most people have trouble seeing the bigger picture, or simply don't want to and that's why documentaries like this deserve all the attention they can get.

If you want to see the episode, I've included it below: