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TOP 10 CHALLENGES
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Building a happy, healthy, sustainable human community.
Only fifty years ago, there were about 2.5 billion people on the Earth. Today there are nearly 7 billion. By 2050, our population is expected to be 9 to 11 billion. Even at our current population level, if every person on the planet consumed the amount of resources that the average North American consumes, we would need five planet Earths to support everyone. As natural habitat is destroyed, biodiversity dwindles as species are driven to extinction at unprecedented rates. Topsoil is being depleted and fish are being over-harvested. More than 2 billion people are living with no electricity. AIDS is expected to kill 68 million people by 2020. Nearly a billion experience chronic hunger and illiteracy and 36 million starve to death each year. Unemployment, depression and suicide are on the rise.
Our global economy has been short-sightedly built on nonrenewable resources such as coal, natural gas and oil. It took nature millions of years to convert ancient sunshine into these resources. It took humans only about 150 years to deplete half of them. Make no mistake, we will run out of oil and gas. Soon. With the rest of the world's societies desiring the unsustainable "first world" standard of living, the remaining energy resources will be rapidly depleted. Most experts agree that we have already, or will very soon be reaching, peak oil and gas extraction. As fewer and fewer barrels of fossil fuels are able to be pumped out of the ground, the world's economy will continue to slide, while the oceans will continue to rise due to global warming from the Carbon we've been pumping into the atmosphere. Nearly 2/3 of the world's large coastal cities like New York, Calcutta, Tokyo, Mumbai, Dhaka, Jakarta and Shanghai will eventually be under water, displacing over 600 million people. Countries like the US and China will use their military might in an attempt to control the few remaining reserves of oil and gas, leading to even more needless human misery and political instability. As energy resources dwindle, prices will be driven steeply upward, to the point where we won't be able to afford to heat our homes or fill our gas tanks. Worst of all, our food production, which also depends upon petrochemicals and oil-based insecticides, will not be able to keep up with hunger. Driven by desperation, human competition will become more fierce and violent, leading to massive human suffering, disease and global warfare. Even as the majority of humanity suffers, the upper 5% of the wealthiest individuals will control 90% of the remaining wealth on Earth.
Now, imagine a different future. A planet of peace, prosperity, kindness and respect. All people realizing their potential, working together for the common good. Living in harmony with one another and with the earth and the other creatures with whom they share it. Breathing clean air. Drinking clean water. Enjoying clean, renewable energy. All of humanity, living in nurturing, safe and vibrant communities. War, greed, disease and hunger are a distant memory. Welcome to the future. Welcome to Globaltopia.
It isn't going to be easy. To quote John Lennon: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." Isn't it true that we all dream? It's nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, it's necessary. We all imagine our idealized utopia and we compare it to the real world we see around us. We are not cynics. We are disappointed idealists.
I've often heard people say "You can't change the world." I disagree. Every decision each of us makes does change the world, in some small way. It's each one of those countless decisions by every individual in the throbbing mass of humanity that guide the course of human history. There is power in that realization. There is also a responsibility. YOU are the future. YOU will do things every day that will make the world a better place. YOU have the power to change the future. In order to solve a problem, we first have to admit to ourselves that there is a problem. It's important to have reliable information if we want to form an accurate worldview. With an accurate worldview comes the alarm that leads to passion, action and innovation. Gloom and doomers will tell you there's nothing that can be done. History shows, however, that humans are capable of solving their problems when they have the will and the resources to do so.
The purpose of this website is to provide information that will help you understand the environmental realities that are coming in the near future. It is a place to find ideas about how we can build a better future. Now, go out and get busy. And enjoy the journey.
View Now: 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds, by the Post-Carbon Institute
A LIST OF THE TOP 10 CHALLENGES FACING HUMANITY
Watch now on YouTube: A Global Warning, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio
and arguably the most important video you will ever watch:
Consequences of Growth and Consumption: Arithmetic, Population and Energy, by Dr. Albert A. Bartlett, University of Colorado (8 part series)
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