The Destruction of Planet Earth
and the Extinction of Homo Sapiens

We are currently addressing only the obvious immediate visual causes of climate change and global warming, and we are ignoring the underlying root cause. We all agree that had Homo Sapiens never evolved, Planet Earth would not now be facing its current problems. We are the cause. But what is it about us that is the cause? The answer is the sheer overwhelming quantity of us.

The population density of Homo Sapiens on Planet Earth had been stationary at around 1 billion for certainly many hundreds (and possibly many thousands) of years. But then in around 1800, about 220 years ago, the introduction and growing ascendancy over our lives of the Medical, Surgical and Pharmaceutical Industries led to it increasing from 1bn, reaching 3bn in 1959 and 6bn by 1999. It is expected to reach 9bn by 2037.

How this rate of rise will change in the future is unknown, but several factors need to be considered:

1. Recent evidence suggests that birth rates are falling in a few countries, but is is too early to be sure about the long term.
2. Many nation states are openly promoting population growth for their own economic advantages.
3. Here in the UK, there is continual pressure to build thousands of new homes for our ever-increasing population.
4. Our life expectancy continues to edge upwards.

It is not impossible that at some time in the future, perhaps in around another 250 years or so, the population density of Homo Sapiens on Planet Earth might double. But what will this mean?

If our population doubles, we will need:

• Twice our current provision of power, of water, and of sewage disposal facilities.
• Twice our current acreage of arable land for growing the crops we need. Arguing that we can import it only shifts the problem elsewhere and fails to address it. The vast areas in Lincolnshire used for growing crops would need to double in size, as would the Cambridgeshire fens, but these fens will have disappeared under the sea by then.
• Twice our current acreage of pastoral land for grazing livestock; arguing that we will all be vegan by then would mean that we would need even more arable land for vegetable foodstuffs to replace the meat currently being eaten. Furthermore, much of our current pasture land lies in sloping mountainous areas with inevitable drainage ditches, and is therefore impossible for access by modern farm machinery. (Completely off the subject, worldwide veganism with no meat eaten by anyone, would drive cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, etc, to world-wide extinction. We couldn’t afford to keep cattle just for their hides, so leather shoes would disappear).
• Twice our current provision of homes, shopping arcades, town centres, industrial estates, factories, offices, warehouses, schools, colleges, surgeries, hospitals, quarries, sports facilities, transport hubs, waste disposal facilities, etc. It cannot all be built vertically.
• Twice our current provision of transport networks.

But where is all of this land going to come from? What affect will it have on global warming? No-one has an environmentally acceptable answer.

There is another critical issue that we are also ignoring. Another direct consequence of the growing ascendancy of the Medical, Surgical and Pharmaceutical Industries is that it has completely overturned the hitherto-immutable Law of the Survival of the Fittest upon which the successful evolution of all plant and animal life depends. Evolution could not happen unless each successive generation had very minute genetic mutations. Those mutations making further evolution more successful in their slowly changing environment would encourage their future propagation. As a direct consequence of overturning the Law of the Survival of the Fittest, our gene pool is being increasingly damaged, leading to an ever increasing demand for more and more medical interventions, leading in turn to ever increasing damage to our gene pool. This is inevitably leading to a spiral descent seemingly moving at an ever-increasing rate, which can only lead eventually to our extinction.

The immediate conclusion is that the Medical, Surgical and Pharmaceutical Industries are both destroying Planet Earth and driving Homo Sapiens towards extinction. But hang on! Wait a minute! In fairness, we need to take one step back and ask ‘why?’

The underlying problem is the dogmatic, selfish, self-righteous insistence of each and every one of us to live for as long as possible and as healthily as possible, dressed up as caring for our fellow human beings.

There is no politically acceptable solution. Obediently following the Law of the Survival of the Fittest henceforth is politically out of the question, since it would obviously require the world-wide closure of the Medical, Surgical and Pharmaceutical Industries. Although we openly practice eugenics on our domestic pets, racehorses and livestock, it is universally agreed that we cannot apply it to ourselves. All we can do is to just silently shrug our shoulders, content that we who are alive today will not live long enough to experience the consequences. But this doesn't mean that the problem must not be openly discussed, since someone, somewhere, might think of an acceptable solution. Personally, I don't think there is one. Is there?

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