The human overpopulation crisis
This Traffic Jam in China is 161 miles long!
Why are humans in such a state of total denial ("temporal blindness") about what we are doing to this planet?
People are becoming aware of some of the many consequences of overpopulation, but most still refuse to recognize the underlying causes: an economic system based on perpetual growth, and too many people. Just as the pharmaceutical industry targets symptomatic relief for man-made ailments rather than addressing underlying root causes, widespread attention to the many spin offs from growth mania and overpopulation diverts attention away from the real problem.
the overpopulation crisis
Watch Cosmos video"Evolution" movie (50 seconds)
Watch Nina Paley's cartoon The Stork (3 minutes)
Watch Ernest Cline's Dance, Monkeys, Dance (3.5 min.) Link: "The Monkey Trap"
Watch NASA's "Average Temperatures 1884-2012" (45 seconds)
New York Times Link: Antarctic Ice Melts
New York Times Link: Galapagos Climate Change
New York Times Link: Easter Island Rising Sea Levels
Watch Class Video The Human Overpopulation Crisis (8 minutes)
Watch ERP Ecopoetry 1: Kurt Vonnegut's "Requiem" (68 seconds)
Watch ERP's Domino Effects (6.5 minutes)
Watch ERP Ecopoetry 2: James Dickey's "For the Last Wolverine" (6 minutes)
Watch ERP on The Human Overpopulation Crisis (26.5 minutes)
Watch Nate Hagens'The Converging Energy and Environmental Crises:
A Pep Talk for those Paying Attention (90 minutes)
exponential population growth
Exponential population growth is threatening to destroy Spaceship Earth (perhaps a "Lifeboat" is a better metaphor) and its life support systems (see also Can humans share spaceship earth?). This course examines the human crowding dilemma from a wide diversity of perspectives, primarily from a scientific point of view, but we will
Exponential population growth is threatening to destroy Spaceship Earth (perhaps a "Lifeboat" is a better metaphor) and its life support systems (see also Can humans share spaceship earth?). This course examines the human crowding dilemma from a wide diversity of perspectives, primarily from a scientific point of view, but we will also briefly consider the impact of religious mythology. First, we will recognize and study the path to ruin we are presently on (see also Kaplan "The Coming Anarchy"). Then, after developing a thorough understanding of natural selection and population biology, we will critically evaluate the multitudinous side effects (symptoms) of overpopulation.
Finally, we will ask what, if anything, can be done to mitigate the mess we have made. We will stop denying what can happen and confront reality head on. We will examine possible future scenarios, including prospects for colonization of space, the inevitable collapse of civilization (anarcho- primitivism), and, ultimately, our retur
Finally, we will ask what, if anything, can be done to mitigate the mess we have made. We will stop denying what can happen and confront reality head on. We will examine possible future scenarios, including prospects for colonization of space, the inevitable collapse of civilization (anarcho- primitivism), and, ultimately, our return to a hunter-gatherer mode of existence, if indeed, humans don't go extinct.
A Texas hognosed snake Heterodon in a threat display.
A Texas hognosed snake Heterodon in a threat display.
A Texas hognosed snake Heterodon in a threat display.
The same hognosed snake Heterodon feigning death.
A Texas hognosed snake Heterodon in a threat display.
A Texas hognosed snake Heterodon in a threat display.
Resolution of Respect for Eric Rodger Pianka: 1939–2022
by Daniel T. Haydon, Kirk O. Winemiller, Mitch Leslie, Brian I. Crother, Ecological Society of America, First published: 09 December 2022
https://doi.org/10.1002/bes2.2038