I am Tired of the Ignorant who Deny that Overpopulation is a Problem

I read a news article on concerns of the growing human population and the problems of the human impact on the planet, mostly as related to the fact that we are at risk of overpopulating ourselves to extinction.

One person commented "Humans are too small of a species to cause any real impact to the planet", or something to that effect. I wonder how anyone can be so ignorant.

Anyone my age (I am nearly 50) has seen the world's population more than double and should be aware of the problems that have developed as a result (including urban sprawl).

Anyone who thinks humans do not impact things has never heard of the dodo bird, passenger pigeon, quagga, Tasmanian tiger, and so forth.

We know that cats are overpopulated.. humans are too.

Anyone who thinks humans cannot cause change has never been in a plane flying over a clear cut area, never seen an open pit mine, and has probably not heard of what we did to the Aral Sea.

It just boggles my mind how anyone can think humans are not damaging the earth.  These people are either ignorant or in denial, I assume they put their heads in the sand so they can justify living their life of excess, greed, and waste.

I think people just find it easier to deny these things than to admit that humans are not living in harmony with nature, we are not being sustainable. People do not want to change their ways so they simply deny that we are hurting the planet.

This article was originally published by me on Bubblews.

Greed Has No Place in an Overpopulated World

I wrote a post earlier about why some preachers do not preach against greed and wealth even though these things are against most religions.  In this article I am going to explain some of the reasons why greed is bad particularly as the world becomes more and more populated.

I will first note that most people who are greedy never see themselves that way, they say they earned it, or are entitled to it, they never realize the full picture.  They live in big houses, throw lavish parties, and often live a life of excess, simply because they think they have earned it.

In a perfect world everyone would live and be happy with less and by doing so we would preserve our environment and live more sustainable lives.

One of the reasons that greed is so bad is because when people are greedy they consume more resources.  Not all resources are renewable and as they are used up it creates problems for the future.  The earth has a carrying capacity which is based on its resources, currently some people are using far more than there share of resources, while others make do with less.  Those that take more are the ones who are destroying the planet the most.

Greedy people do not only take more resources from the earth but they also keep others in poverty.  One person cannot have more unless others have less.  When one person demands a higher wage they cause a ripple effect, increasing prices or creating hardship for others.  Let us say that person is a CEO of a big company, typically they demand a big wage and one of the ways to make sure they get more money is to pay others less, or to reduce the amount of hours others work, and then to make them work harder. The CEO feels they are more valuable.  Sure you might say "those lower paid workers can always quit" but then somebody else will just be hired in their place.  The whole point being the lower paid workers are the heroes, the greedy higher paid bosses are the greedy villains.

To most these are modest homes, but to some they would look like mansions.

Imagine a pie, if one person takes a big piece, it leaves less for others, and eventually the pie is gone.  Greed is not fair, it is ignorance and selfishness.  People think they are "entitled" to more pie because they earned it, and they qualify themselves by saying "Life is not fair" but really it is them being not fair, and just trying to find excuses for their greed.

So many people will deny that they are greedy, they will live in million dollar homes and insist that they worked hard for their money and as such they are not greedy, but what they will always fail to realize is that they have taken more than there share of the earth's resources.  Greed is not always about money.