So many people...
demographics
Critical mass: World population hits 7 billion
Economist Lester Brown, in the latest book of his Plan B series, states that "socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth." In its frenzy for more consumers and an apparently equal frenzy to ravage ecosystems, capitalism ignores the obvious truth that human overpopulation may already have reached plague status.
Economics drive demographics
The population west of Ontario now exceeds the population east of Ontario, according to new 2011 census data. This was what made headlines when Canadian population growth of 5.9 per cent from 2006 to 2011 (upwards of one per cent per year) was announced recently by Statistics Canada. It led commentators to forecast a continued shift in political power west.
Conservative legislation (prepared before the release of 2006-11 population data) enlarges the House of Commons by adding 15 seats in Ontario, six each in Alberta and B.C., and three in Quebec. But the impact of demographic changes on Canadian electoral politics can be easily overstated. What is more important are the shifts in economic power that underlie the changes in population.
Beyond the cultural fabric of baby boomers: Youth and political engagement
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As I write this article, world population has reached 7,146,021,283. No doubt when you read these words that number will be eclipsed by an amount equally mind-boggling. For me, this 10 digit number inspires nothing short of awe.
It also inspires a deep fear of the unknown. And mischievously twinned with that fear, I feel a tremor of excitement. This is the world I will (hopefully) grow old to breathe in, walk through, and experience as one among so many. Just think of the sheer weight of our collective humanity and its transformative potential.
