This blog is not really about birds. Ironically, speaking to bird lovers is preaching to the converted anyhow! But it is a call to action.
There are presently about 50 birds per human being on planet earth. This sounds like a large number, but upon analysis one has to be concerned. Bear in mind that it includes poultry being bred for slaughter and egg production. At the height of the black death, (an extreme example perhaps, but only 600 years ago), there were about 1000 birds per human being. By the end of the century, we will see about 30 birds per human being. You can project these numbers to other species. The way we are going there may be zero rhino or pangolin per human long before then.
Yet I am not convinced that there are too few birds (as a global statement, and excluding the threatened animals). There are too many humans on planet earth.
In 1996, I had the privilege of visiting Pakistan. There were less than 140 million people. My lasting impression of Karachi was a seething mass of humanity, beyond anything I had experienced before. Well, today Pakistan has 208 million people (in 20 years!) I checked the graph in Wikipedia (see attached), and it became obvious that this is not going to be arrested soon.
And now for a mind-numbing statistic; 1 out of every 15 people who has ever lived (throughout time), is alive today. That is something north of 6,5%. Worse still, the percentage is actually increasing, and gives an idea of the extent of our problem. We cannot be sustained. The earth cannot handle this. If we were elephants we would be culled. Obviously I am not really suggesting a culling programme, although I am sure we would all be able to find one or two people that we could volunteer. For that matter, I am uncomfortable with culling elephants.
The message rather is that mankind has to control reproductive growth rates and establish a suitable policy, no matter how intrusive this may appear, or how much it may grate religious and other sensitivities. Under the very best case (i.e. acting now) the human population will peak at 10 billion people in 30 years time. We will not achieve this “best” case. More likely, we could control population at 11 to 12 billion people within 70 years, and then reduce gradually. A “worst case” scenario cannot even be imagined.
For those of us who care about the environment, think of the damage we see caused by 7 billion people. Then consider the damage still to be caused by a “good” scenario of 11 to 12 billion.
The big move today is for climate management. Yet it is only a symptom. Over-fishing, GMOs etc. – these are only symptoms. In a bigger sense, even our population numbers are merely symptomatic of a bigger problem associated with our attitudes and selfishness as a race. Those of us who see and understand these symptoms need to be examples, at least to the best of our ability.