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Re: fHuman vs. natural influences on the environment
In <4uomvn$7fk_001@pm3-153.hal-pc.org> charliew@hal-pc.org (charliew)
writes:
>
>In article
><mhunt.18.000C424A@postoffice.newnham.utas.edu.au>,
> mhunt@postoffice.newnham.utas.edu.au (Mark A. Hunt) wrote:
>>In article <320CF7CA.53C2@vgernet.net> Joseph Zorzin
><redoak@vgernet.net> writes:
>>>From: Joseph Zorzin <redoak@vgernet.net>
>>>Subject: Re: fHuman vs. natural influences on the
>environment
>>>Date: Sat, 10 Aug 1996 16:57:46 -0400
>>
>>>Hmmm.... I would suggest that the carrying capacity for
>homo sapiens on
>>>this planet would be a few million, about what it was in
>the early
>>>Paleolithic. I suspect not many will agree with me. <G>
>>
>>I would agree with you. I thought about 25 million worldwide
>was probably a
>>reasonable maximum figure, taking into account resource and
>genetic issues.
>>
>>Cheers, Mark
>>
>
>You may be in luck! I recently heard that approximately 1%
>of the human population has a genetic defect which prevents
>them from making a particular protein. It turns out that
>this protein is critical for the introduction of the AIDS
>virus into the human body. Let's see ... 1% of 5 billion
>people should be 50 million. Is this getting in the right
>ballpark for you?
AIDS kills so slowly, and infects with such
difficulty, that it could never reduce the population
to just the immune portion.
Besides, AIDS is half-vanquished already by
medical research.
Still, the above estimate has force, if we take
it as a warning example, not for AIDS, but some
yet-unknown future disease.
There is safety in numbers, and in genetric
diversity that comes from numbers. If you want
to make survival of millions more certain, you had better
have billions.
In addition to the genetic advantage,
you obtain incomparably greater resources that way,
for research, for prevention, for treatment.
Numbers give us a collective immunity, in many different
ways. And this applies to other dangers besides epidemics.
Billions, all on one planet, are still
not enough; trillions, in one solar system,
come much closer; quadrillions, expanding from
star to star, can ensure, with reasonable certainty, an
existence forever, for the human clade, and for life in general.
This goal is evidently achievable, and obviously worthwhile.
Therefore, increase and multiply!
I cannot walk past a pregnant woman without experiencing
a warm surge of gratitude. Every new birth is such a precious gift
to the world - as well as a gift *of* the world to its new inhabitant.
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