Go forth and multiply
Martin Doyle
AS the human race enters the last days of its existence, is there anything we in Wellington can do to help?
The reason I ask is that India has been in the news recently, and one of the photos that caught my eye showed what appeared to be many dozens of poor people clinging for dear life to the side of a long passenger train rolling along in the heat and dust of some part of the sub-continent. I imagine that all the people on the outside of the train did not have enough money to buy a proper ticket (and a seat) for the journey. However, the reality may be something different again: they may in fact have had enough money for a ticket, but the train itself didn’t have enough seats.
In some ways, that’s the story of the human race. There are just too many of us, and given the growing shortage of food, oil, water and even oxygen, then a lot of people are ‘just hanging on’ round the world. And many are losing their grip and falling away.
Worryingly, if you take a long-term view and think about the 400 million years or more of life on Planet Earth, the mere fact that a very, very recent breed of ape called homo sapiens has done so much damage so soon to the environment, and it’s reaching crisis point in this single generation, then Good-Night-Nurse time is looming…
Traditionally, when societies were competing for resources, you’d have starvation and wars to bring the numbers down. It looks as if nothing’s changed. However, wars and starvation are not going to save a world that’s breeding itself into oblivion. We need realistic solutions. The most effective one we’ve seen so far has been China’s ‘one child’ policy. As a society, they decided to take the bull by the horns and bring their population growth under control.
But if you don’t fancy state control of your reproduction, we could embrace the personal self-discipline approach advocated by Mahatma Gandhi. He’s someone you can’t ignore here in Wellington: there’s a lifesize statue of him right in front of Wellington Railway Station. I love his statement: “We must be the change we want to see in the world.” I think he probably meant individuals. But modern societies can choose to collectively ‘be the change’. In fact, we must do so – China-style - if homo sapiens is to survive.
Is Gandhi still relevant to today’s world? The answer to that was provided last year when Barack Obama addressed a joint session of the Indian parliament. He revealed that day: “I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world.” One thing’s for sure: unless the world adopts birth control and contraception very fast, we’re all on a bullet train to Deadsville.
The reason I ask is that India has been in the news recently, and one of the photos that caught my eye showed what appeared to be many dozens of poor people clinging for dear life to the side of a long passenger train rolling along in the heat and dust of some part of the sub-continent. I imagine that all the people on the outside of the train did not have enough money to buy a proper ticket (and a seat) for the journey. However, the reality may be something different again: they may in fact have had enough money for a ticket, but the train itself didn’t have enough seats.
In some ways, that’s the story of the human race. There are just too many of us, and given the growing shortage of food, oil, water and even oxygen, then a lot of people are ‘just hanging on’ round the world. And many are losing their grip and falling away.
Worryingly, if you take a long-term view and think about the 400 million years or more of life on Planet Earth, the mere fact that a very, very recent breed of ape called homo sapiens has done so much damage so soon to the environment, and it’s reaching crisis point in this single generation, then Good-Night-Nurse time is looming…
Traditionally, when societies were competing for resources, you’d have starvation and wars to bring the numbers down. It looks as if nothing’s changed. However, wars and starvation are not going to save a world that’s breeding itself into oblivion. We need realistic solutions. The most effective one we’ve seen so far has been China’s ‘one child’ policy. As a society, they decided to take the bull by the horns and bring their population growth under control.
But if you don’t fancy state control of your reproduction, we could embrace the personal self-discipline approach advocated by Mahatma Gandhi. He’s someone you can’t ignore here in Wellington: there’s a lifesize statue of him right in front of Wellington Railway Station. I love his statement: “We must be the change we want to see in the world.” I think he probably meant individuals. But modern societies can choose to collectively ‘be the change’. In fact, we must do so – China-style - if homo sapiens is to survive.
Is Gandhi still relevant to today’s world? The answer to that was provided last year when Barack Obama addressed a joint session of the Indian parliament. He revealed that day: “I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world.” One thing’s for sure: unless the world adopts birth control and contraception very fast, we’re all on a bullet train to Deadsville.
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