Humans are not the population problem!

Humans are not the population problem, it is the overwhelming NUMBERS of humans in the world that is the population problem.

Overpopulation and increasing population are difficult subjects that involve complicated issues. Issues of family values, social norms and cultural norms modulate individual attitudes. Additionally, attempting to comprehend a picture of human population within the whole world is only possible as an abstraction. Never mind that all these issues change with time, most human attitudes are in the context of here and now.

Humans have adapted remarkably to change in their environment and circumstance. At the same time, a fear lurks in the background that humans in general lack the mental capacity to come to grips with population issues. Too many abstractions are involved with comprehension. And also, humans tend to put on blinders with anything that may limit sexual activity and reproduction. This disposition has served well for the success of humans, but is a disadvantage when humans are at risk of overpopulating the earth.

Reducing the numbers of humans strikes home to each person in a personal way, and can be an inflammatory subject of discussion. It is easier to talk about less controversial subjects for 'saving the earth' such as increased recycling or reduced waste or a green environment.

Consider the problem of population size on a personal scale. If you are a family of four, you might possibly not be happy to increase your family to eight people living there in your home. Or if you have eight in your family, you might not be happy with sixteen showing up at home.

Doubling the number of people in your home is a major adjustment. In the same way doubling the number of people on earth is a major adjustment. As population continues to increase in the future, the adjustments could become impossible. If not impossible, then unbearable, or if not unbearable, then unpleasant.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trojanguy/2527429724/

Did Martin Luther King say this about overpopulation?

Here is a quote from Martin Luther King that might come as a surprise.

Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess.

What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victim. (-Martin Luther King, Jr.,1929-1968)

Unsourced References:
Overpopulation - Wikiquote; Population Paraphenalia - World Population Awareness

Martin Luther King electrified people with his 'I have a Dream' speech, but the essence of what he said about overpopulation is perhaps less well known.

World population is over 6.5 billion and still growing.

Source: U.S. and World Population Clocks - POPClocks

News Update: Our earth is really a giant fishbowl

In the long gone past, everyone who bothered to think about the shape of the earth would tell you it was flat. They would say that it you went far enough, you could fall off the edge. Anyone who spoke otherwise at the time was kooky, or worse, was a heretic.

Then some people, who thought they were smart, made the claim that the earth was a round globe. They argued their point until most people believed it, and they pointed to the images of the earth seen from space. The flat earth types thought the images were fake but were then labeled the kooky ones.

Now we are being told that the global earth view is wrong. Some people, who think they are smart, tell us that the earth is really a giant round fishbowl. In their view, the fish are being crowded out and humans are being crowded in so much as to threaten all life in the fishbowl. Who would have believed it!

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2222548359/sizes/s/