Plastiki & Klean Kanteen Message in a Bottle Competition / Discuss

dan_marshall_sail says:

Actually my perspective is a little different. After a recent 8,000 mile sail from Panama to New Zealand via the Galapagos, my sense is that the oceans are way over fished, but generally refreshingly clean. The only trash we saw, except near islands, was one fishing ball and two other boats. In fact my primary take-away was that there still are a few wonderful huge spaces devoid of people.

On the other hand, I feel strongly that we homo sapiens have a huge issue, and the oceans are but one symptom of this issue. There are too many of us people. It seems clear that humanity is consuming resources at a much faster pace than they can be renewed so it’s just a matter of time before our species crashes, likely taking down many other species at the same time. The current crisis called global warming is just the tip of the iceberg when we consider rapidly depleting rare minerals, fresh water, habitable land, fertile soil, species diversity, and fuel. Given this perspective, it seems that the only viable long term solution is to radically reduce our species’ population, and the best way to do this would be to implement one child per family world-wide.

Even if the world’s population instantly did everything the environmental movement is supporting: Even if we stopped using plastic drinking bottoles, converted to electric cars, planted vegetable gardens, installed solar panels, and stopped eating meat we will still not really be living in a sustainable manner as long as our population continues to increase.

The Chinese implemented one child per family – why can’t the World?

There are many excellent economic, social, political, and even racial arguments against one child per family but each of these issues seem surmountable whereas the depletion of resources our lives depend on does not appear to be surmountable.

When I discuss with friends the concept that our species appears to be depleting all of the resources we depend on, and we need to radically reduce our population, I find that there is general agreement but it just seems too big and controversial to discuss openly.

From where I sit, it looks like our species is driving at high speed toward a cliff. Deep down we know we’re headed for disaster but each of us shies from looking directly at the situation because it’s just so big. So instead we all join hands and enjoy the rush forward. From a distance we probably look like lemmings.

Thanks for your consideration. I applaud Plastiki’s efforts to draw attention to our ridiculous plastic water bottle habit, but I frequently find myself thinking as I listen, “the real solution to this is fewer people on the planet.”
Posted at 3:24PM, 3 August 2010 PDT (permalink)