The Epilogue for Planet Earth.

 

                                   

 Epilogue for Planet Earth

 We are now discussing the demise of our home, a planet called Earth. I have written before in the scheme of things, at our early stage of development we are not unlike an Ants Nest on the edge of a ten-line highway.

We are just another planet circling trillions of stars throughout the solar systems. There is nothing special about us. Many nondescript planetary worlds have been born; many have died. Other planets like ours have ceased to exist because of disease, war, and pestilence, or passed their use-by date, we are nothing special, we like to think we are. 

Those intelligences that have survived and are travelling the galaxies are the ones that are visiting us and who saw the dangers early. Our little blue/green nondescript planet trapped in the outer whorl of a minor galaxy I repeat is nothing special. If the same intelligences that we refer to as Aliens realised very early on in the peace millions of years ago the dangers that exist for their survival, then they would have planned to move to a new home. 

I am not going to discuss numbers of Planets and Galaxies because the numbers are meaningless to us.

But we think life on this planet is eternal, it is not, not if we continue to overpopulate it and if we continue to contaminate the oceans, pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere thus warming the planet, lay waste to the forests to build more apartments to house the huge numbers, then our demise is a matter of time. The numbers that this planet can sustain is finite.

I am going to proffer a hypothesis. Just supposing the ‘little green men from outer space’ who have been watching us since we emerged as a distinct species and maybe shaped who we are, can see the dangers we have created for ourselves, and have stepped in to save us from ourselves, and introduced the Covid virus. 

Being ingenious people, we developed the antidote Alpha and we called it the A variant, the visitors introduced another more virulent virus, the Beta variant then the Gamma then the Delta Variant, we have managed to keep up, and at moment we are settled on the Omicron variant.

Now they, the visitors are not here to wipe us out but to save us from ourselves, and what will end life on earth is overpopulation because the planet cannot sustain the numbers. Now the numbers that will need to survive for us to continue as a species after escaping to another planet need only be in double figures.

Of course, I do have reservations like everyone else, and being a practical person, I realize the involvement in the physical act of procreation and sunbaking are the only two past times I can think of quickly off the top of my head that are truly enjoyable and free, but we must keep a sense of proportion, it is a stark choice, fun times or face the death of the Planet earth through overpopulation.

Let’s us look closer at the population numbers. In 1950 the population of this planet was about 2.5 billion approx. In 2000 it was 6.01billion. In 2020 7.79 billion. By the year 2050 the figure is estimated to be close to 10. billion. The current world population is approx 8 billion Still with me? These figures are rising exponentially, the resources of this planet cannot continue to sustain increasing population figures forever. 

We can try and stay one step ahead, that’s all. So, take a guess, what is the world population sustainable limit, 10 billion, 20 billion? There IS a limit and by then hopefully there will be a small colony established on Mars.

On Wikipedia the question asked is what is the maximum population the Earth can sustain?

The answer was, “If Australians want to continue living as we do without making any changes, and as a planet we want to meet our footprint, then the number of humans Earth can sustain long term is around 1.9 billion people, which was roughly the global population 100 years ago in 1919”.

I have made this observation before. Why is the question never asked? Why is it WE are the only species on this planet, the only ‘collective group’ be it animal, fish, bird, or insect that are totally different from one another, Why?

Why are humans, one of about 300 primates on this planet all so totally different to each other, more importantly why that question is never asked, we differ in skin colour from deep black to pale white, our noses, eyes, lips, skull shapes are all different, there are also skeletal differences? The answer is if it was proved it would negate religion. A superstitious belief system that has held awe and created some sort of order since time began.

 Ignoring Mosques, we have built 33 million churches to pray to a non-existent person. A person who might have existed back in “biblical times”, a travelling evangelist, who gained quite a number of followers, he was arrested with some of his cohorts and crucified.

Now it was not the manner of his death that made him famous as crucifixion was a popular punishment at the time, but it was that his dad dug him up, but he is revered to this very day, and no-one alive has ever seen him.

To continue. Our nearest neighbour Mars is the nearest planet to colonise, a colony is going to take time to establish as its planetary biology is not the same as ours, by a long way. We are at present being bombarded by clues. The news reader says today it should have snowed in Greenland, but instead it rained. The world’s temperatures had increased since 1.5 degrees since pre-industrial levels through the burning of fossil fuels and farming. driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns.

Another commentator said if care is not taken the Australian Great Barrier Reef within the next 3 years it will suffer irreversible damage. Every day we hear of fires in America, Europe, China, and Australia of cyclones and floods worldwide. Here is a new one. The presenter reported there is concern there will a lack of water in the future, and so it goes on.

The is some concern when a group of young people protesting of Global Warming outside the local town hall and the police broke the protest up. The way to go. We know the planet is warming but more information should be concentrated on WHY? It starts with overpopulation. To sustain human existence on this planet housing and agriculture and infrastructure must match the ever- growing numbers.

But for the high rollers that could help with global warming they will ignore this coming catastrophe, you see it affects their bottom line.

As the numbers increase, we will find water is scarce. We are running out of housing, so we build high rise apartments and the block that housed one house and one family is now housing hundreds. Their apartments must have electrical power, so more coal is produced to provide the power. The millions of cars on our roads must be fueled, the side effects of burning fossil are rarely spoken about. So, it’s the air we breathe that suffers and much more.

It continues until it is realised that there is a use-by date for the Planet, and I suspect is somewhere around 2045.The population numbers are increasing, they never decrease. The people who control this Planet know this but realise there is nothing they can do to halt the inevitable

Now this is interesting, 2050 is the year the planet is hoping to achieve a carbon neutral state. Firstly 2050 is far too late, the chances are exacerbated when three of the world’s largest countries, Russia, India and China will not be gracing the Glasgow global warming summit anyhow.  I could suggest if the world freewheeled with the levels of carbon we enjoy right now, there is no certainty that we will even reach the planet’s use-by date of 2045.

So, a new catch cry is put forward ‘The Race for Mars’ It could be our lifeboat but the numbers to populate it would be minimal, and as I have written before a place will be by  invitation only. The numbers on Planet Earth cannot be saved but a small planet like Mars as a lifeboat to house the worlds cleverest can then branch out to search for a new world that reaches into the far unknown.

I read that the world’s number of cars that are pouring toxic fumes into the atmosphere is around 1.4 billion, that figure is changing by the minute, increasing but not decreasing. The number of cars that are operated by conventional means vastly outnumber those that are powered by electricity. I would not like to estimate how long it would take to change all the cars on this planet to fully solar powered, meanwhile they are all pouring toxic fumes into the atmosphere, changing now won’t save the planet.

A commentator on the TV this morning said South-east Queensland will not have enough drinking water to support its rapidly growing population amid fears the region’s dams will struggle to supply millions of extra residents. I am sure you have read the news of the massive oil spill off the coast of America.

The rain in Madagascar has not arrived for the last two years, so there were no crops to cultivate and there has been an acute lack of drinking water.

Another commentator said If we do not address Global Warming by 2050 it might be too late. I said to myself “hello that’s our use-by date” For a sobering thought on this subject read Wikipedia’s report on Global Warming. It is a long read.        6/7/ 2021