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The future of nature on Earth is at stake more than ever before since the
arrival of the human race.
Altho it may mainly be the future of human-scale nature which is at
stake this includes all animal species in the wild ranging in size from
the smallest insects to the largest elephants.
There are two major causes of this growing human-made disaster (of which
climate change is no more than one aspect):
- Human overconsumption, among which the consumption of the wrong
'goods', leading to an unprecedented pollution of the environment and
the depletion of natural resources, if not halted or restricted in
time.
- Human overpopulation, actually an ever-increasing
overpopulation, on this planet which, if uncurtailed in time, will
eventually destroy the natural habitats of plants and animals
altogether.
For most persons overconsumption (or the wrong consumption) is not a taboo
subject anymore.
Overpopulation, on the other hand, is, for a large majority of persons,
among whom the exclusively overconsumption-oriented environmentalists,
still a taboo subject or, at best, a subject (they say) they think they
cannot do anything about.
As the average size of the ecological footprint of individual human beings
receives plenty of attention, this website will deal with the average
number of ecological footprints human individuals, families,
communities and countries leave behind.
The destruction of nature does and will not merely depend on too large a
size of human ecological footprints; it does and will at least as much
depend on too large a number of footprints these human beings impress on
the surface of this planet.
Some people argue that there are now already far too many humans on Earth.
To claim such a thing, however, we would have to know what the ideal number
of humans is.
We do not have that knowledge; all we know is that the human population
cannot keep on growing as it has done since the Second World War.
For the time being we must forget about any 'ideal number' which is,
perhaps, lower than the current number of humans on Earth; for now we must
focus on and fight against the growth of that number.
We must replace (the ever-increasing) human overpopulation with a
natural equilibrium in which the number of human footprints on Earth will
roughly remain the same.
The concepts and phenomena which are to receive special attention in this
branch of notes and papers are therefore:
- The role of the powers of 2 (denary) or
10 (binary) in the justifiable number of biological
children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren et
cetera.
- Human overpopulation as the cause of environmental
degradation and the destruction of nature besides
human overconsumption.
- Human overpopulation as a direct or indirect
cause of disruptive migrations and mounting pressure on
humankind's cultural heritage.
- How the number of ecological footprints an
individual, family, community or country leaves behind is at
least as important as the present size of that footprint.
- The disastrous taboo against considering family planning
a major means to curtailing global human
overpopulation.
- The connection between theocentrist or normistic
denominational belief and (the lack of) respect for
equilibrium.
- The need to be concrete and expose the 'explodists', the
ones primarily responsible for human overpopulation on
Earth.
- The need to be concrete and conscientize the ones that may
be contributing to the human natural equilibrium.
This is what it roughly implies for men and women to live in harmony
with their environment for five generations, as far as their two-sex
procreation is concerned, while allowing for some degree of
pre-procreative mortality:
| POWER OF 2 |
NUMBER |
YOU AND YOUR (GRAND)CHILDREN
OR FIRST OR SECOND GREAT- ONES |
| 0 | 1 |
you with 2 to 3 biological
children at death; or you in a group of
individuals with 2 to 3 children on
average at death |
| 1 | 2-3 |
your own biological
children or the number of
biological children of the members of
your group on average |
| 2 | 4--5 |
your own or your parents' number of
grandchildren who will have 2 to 3 children on
average at death themselves |
| 3 |
8---10 |
your own, your parents' or your grandparents'
number of great-grandchildren who will
have 2 to 3 children |
| 4 |
16----20 |
your own, your parents', your grandparents' or
your great-grandparents' number of
great-great-grandchildren |
The current articles on human overpopulation or 'explodism' are in reverse
chronological order:
- Terminology
— from the 'names' of numbers to the numbers of 'names' (the
billions and billions of human individuals with their names, that
is).
- The exponents of explodism by
country
— with three tables of countries and a discussion of the
responsibilities of governments, citizens and families.
- The exponents of explodism
— naming and shaming the explodist countries, communities,
families and individuals (most) co-responsible for the degradation
of the natural environment.
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