Perspectives

I find myself torn between a view of humanity as just another plague upon the surface of the earth - threatening to eat itself out of a habitat - and as a marvelous complex blend of intellect and emotion whose every achievement is worthy of exploration and analysis.

A marvelously complex over-achieving little plague of humans?

I don't think you can divorce study of our stellar progress and finer feelings from the fact that just like rats, locusts and fleas, we seem doomed to compete and starve ourselves into a more sustainable relationship with the earth.

Not many finer feelings there.

Under that scenario, the 'fittest' who would perhaps survive a population crunch of the one we're heading for would also be the most aggressive people, or those who can survive on the least amount of food and water and outlast the others. GI Joe and Anorexic Barbie?

The reality is that the rate of growth of our population is as much about the growth of the length of a single life as it is about the number of children we have.

If the average lifespan is 30 years rather than 70 or 80, the rate of population growth is massively lower-  because there's really only two generations around at any one time. Contrast this with our population where the fastest growing demographic is 85 plus - that means  four or even five generations alive at once, all burning fossil fuels and drinking fresh water.

It's just like compound interest really.