If The World's Human Population Were To Reduce By 99.2%, What Would Happen?

Dear Reader,

Imagine a world where the human population has been suddenly reduced by 99.2%. It hardly bears thinking about, but why am I even thinking such a provocative thought? As will be seen it is to hypothetically yet forcefully illustrate (by analogy) the impact on the balance of nature as another species has already been reduced by that figure of 99.2%.

Let us just consider the situation. If the human population was reduced by such an amount (and I am certainly not advocating it should), the effect would be that the rest of nature would take over and everything on Earth would come back into balance. The cessation of the slaughter of plants and wild creatures - directly and indirectly - would enable wildlife to get back to where it was (say) 500 years ago. In a healthy, sustainable, state.

That would be the end of virtually all the environmental problems we have, and also would probably greatly assist in the solving of the climate change issue.

Yet we - as a worldwide people, but particularly those countries with a Western lifestyle - continue to consume (materials as well as foods) and pollute as though the balance in nature is unimportant. The oceans are in a deplorable state and wildlife on land are becoming more and more marginalised.

Some of the intelligentsia have opined that the end of 'civilisation' is a few decades away as a result of the decline of the natural world, the depletion of foodstuffs, outdated economic systems, and the general contamination that we continue to provoke.

Why did I raise the analogy of a reduction in human population of 99.2%? Well, it's because there is a not small sea creature commonly known as the sunflower sea star, which lives in the northeastern Pacific Ocean whose population reduced by 99.2% since 2013.  

The only species of its genus, it is among the largest sea stars in the world, with a maximum arm span of 1 m (3.3 ft). In 2020, the species was declared critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Suggestions that sea star wasting disease was caused by bacterial pathogens or parasites and was contagious, due to its tendency to spread to multiple locations.

Since sunflower sea stars are one of sea urchins' main predators, the effect has been that sea urchin populations are exploding, which poses a threat to biodiversity, particularly in kelp forests. In turn, it poses a threat to all biodiversity.

Oh, by the way, sea star wasting disease spreads throughout the whole of its body. The limbs become affected and eventually fall off, ultimately causing death from degradation. That is surely a horrible thought.

The balance of nature is being severely distorted. 

Anyhow, sea stars are certainly not the only species giving cause for concern. The following table succinctly provides a larger picture of the situation.

Further...

One year on from the historic legal decision linking the human rights of Torres Strait Islander people to inaction on climate change, the Australian government is maintaining its rejection of a key United Nations finding to award them compensation.

The Torres Strait Islander claimants, also known as the ‘Torres Strait Eight’, made international legal history in September last year. The UN Human Rights Committee found that the Australian government is violating its human rights obligations by not helping them adapt to the impacts of climate change.

In its official reply, the Australian government did agree with the finding that climate change is currently impacting the claimants’ daily lives and cultural practices. Claimants were however disappointed that their government rejected the UN’s finding that Australia needed to pay compensation.

Since the ruling, claimants have entered dialogue with MPs in Canberra but despite constructive discussions, claimants say further concrete commitments are needed.

As Daniel Billy says (a Traditional Owner on the island of Warraber and claimant in the case), "Climate change is still happening right before our very eyes, and still the government is not taking the action needed on this serious issue. Words are just words, we want to see action now."

From all this data it should be clear that the whole of existence is inter-linked and inter-dependent. This very concept underlies ancient spiritual philosophy. We have gone away from that philosophy to follow material growth without insight and in the process have lost our way. If everything is inter-linked (and it is) then All is One; what each of us does has many potential ramifications.

What we can do...

Yes, we in the UK and many other communities in the world are focusing on our own plight of how to house ourselves and pay our bills, but if we do not have time to directly act on the state of the world except by restricting our consumption, let's at least provide support to organisations that are willing and able to act on the world's behalf. This can be done by completing online petitions at the very least.

Also, let us question our politicians and other leaders more. How come we allowed HS2 to happen, for example? It has been proven to be a great white elephant destructive of the environment and many (including myself) said so a decade ago. Yet it still went ahead to justify its build to enable HS3 - which now appears to have been mothballed.

The UK general election will come up next year. At least let us vote for the party that is closest to being able to solve some of these great issues that affect future generations.

One major issue facing us concerns the Government's newly approved offshore Rosebank field, 80 miles west of Shetland to protect (says Sunak) the UK's energy supply. It is said to contain around 300 million barrels of oil, and is majority-owned by Norwegian state oil company Equinor. According to the BBC, tax breaks from a government incentive scheme for North Sea energy projects mean that Norwegian Equinor and its partner in the project, Ithaca Energy, will be able to claim back 91p for every £1 invested in the development of Rosebank.

Sunak said it made sense to “use our own supplies”, yet critics have argued that it’s hard to see how this will do much for UK energy security, given that 80% of North Sea oil is sold abroad, and the Rosebank oil will be sold on the global market by a Norwegian company, and mostly refined overseas. The development will also run a pipeline through the Faroe-Shetland sponge belt marine protected area.

So please read into what the politicians say, and the impact of what they say. Our children need us to be circumspect.

Thank you for reading this.