7 billion and counting

Today the world reached 7 billion. It is quite fitting that the 7 billionth baby was born in India, in a place called Lucknow and is a girl - there seems to be a poetic coincidence in all this. Beyond the celebration of a new life, there is a darker reality of how the world is going to support 7 billion people.

Stanford University's Paul Ehrlich, the author of The Population Bomb recently gave an interview that emphasized how population growth is adding to many ecological problems. Population growth is leading to rising food prices, loss of biodiversity, deteriorating ecosystem services, water shortages, contributing towards epidemics, and scores of other problems. By 2050, it is projected that the Earth will support an additional 2 billion people.

These 2 billion people will not enjoy the same comfort of life as the last 2 billion. In order to support the excess population, we have to start farming poorer land, mine from even-poorer ores, drill deeper for water -- all of these will be exponentially more energy intensive.

Talking about population control means talking about sex education, women's empowerment, education of the girl child and scores of other social issues. I believe in India there is a cultural pressure to reproduce - this needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, although birth rates do seem to be falling, it is falling in the urban middle-class. Birth rates have remained the same in rural areas which means that poverty is also on the rise and the rich/poor divide continues to grow larger.

Enforcing a one child policy in India would be disastrous as it would further skew sex ratios. The solution therefore, needs to be the old one of education and awareness. Availability of contraception and birth control measures is one option. Adoption needs to be encouraged, especially in India as an alternative to IVF. The craze for IVF needs to be discouraged - maybe falling fertility rates is Nature's way of telling us that we need to slow down.

Although reproduction is a personal choice - it is not something that can be taken lightly. Bringing children into a world with increasing socio-enviro-economic problems, more diseases, less biodiversity, less natural resources would be selfish on our part.

There are theories that suggest that population will level off, mid-century and then there will a gradual decline. In this case, economic productivity will also decline, but it would be good for the environment. However, if we take care to ensure that we keep our numbers in check, we might be able to have both. Wishful thinking?

hail the pollen jocks

I've long been a fervent admirer of animation. Growing up with a steady diet of Disney, it's hard not to be. The movies coming out of Pixar and Dreamworks in the recent past like Finding Nemo, The Bee Movie, Wall-E, A Bug's Life, Madagascar etc all have an underlying eco-message which is enchanting once you cut across the funny voices and outstanding imagination of the moviemakers.

There has been an extinction happening that few people know about and not many have noticed. Bee species across the world are declining in number due to habitat loss, insecticide use, temperature change, disease and other factors. Most people only connect bees with honey but there are nearly 20,000 known species of bees, in nine recognized families. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants.

Bees are the major type of pollinator in ecosystems that contain flowering plants. They either focus on gathering nectar or on gathering pollen depending on demand, especially in social species. Bees gathering nectar may accomplish pollination, but bees that are deliberately gathering pollen are more efficient pollinators. It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees, especially the domesticated European honey bee.

The Bee Movie takes the concept of the lack of bees to a new level. Without giving away the plot (for those of you who haven't seen it) it shows the drastic consequences of what happens when pollination fails to occur. Since the movie is extremely colourful, funny and made in a way to keep even little children entertained, the consequences of no pollination is a message it gets across with litle effort. Even children cannot imagine a world without trees and flowers.

Already we are seeing drop in yields of agricultural crops and further drop in bee populations will make the situation drastic. Many fruit, nut, vegetable, legume, and seed crops depend on pollination. Some crops that require pollination are: apples, avocados, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, cucumbers, melons, oranges, grapefruit, pumpkins, squash, sunflowers, tangerines, and watermelon. Also, forage plants like clover and alfalfa need pollination (cows feed on clover).

Perhaps the greatest value of honey bee pollination is seeds destined for worldwide distribution: 20 vegetables produce seeds only if their flowers are pollinated. Direct and indirect effects cannot be estimated: ornamental shrubs and trees, wild plants (on which wild animals and birds forage), beeswax, honey. Drop in bee population is going to have a direct impact on food production and ultimately global economy.

Scientist also say that the drop in population is also linked to the Bt toxin in GM plants which interfere with their systems leading to collapse of whole colonies - another reason to go organic. All of this only shows that human activities on the planet affect entire ecosystems with ultimate drastic effects on our survival as a species. The kingdom of heaven does indeed belong to the meek.