The “hockey stick curve” of population growth.
Human population in the year 1 A.D. was about 200 million.
By 1000, population rose to 275 million.
In a thousand years, we added a lot of people: 75 million.
Compare that to population growth today.
- Every year in the last fifty years, we have added in excess of 75 million people.
- Every year in the last fifteen years, we have added in excess of 80 million people.
- Currently, we are adding about 83 million people annually.
The above graph illustrates what is known as the “hockey stick curve” of population growth.
As noted above, in 1000, human population was about 275 million.
In 1500, population rose to 450 million.
In 1800, population reached its first billion and began to skyrocket.
At this writing, human population is close to 8 billion and continues to skyrocket.
After births and deaths, we add in excess of 1,500,000 people every seven days!
The sharp upshoot of this curve changes everything.
With this many people and the addition of in excess of a million and a half every week, on a tiny planet with fragile ecosystems, we can no longer continue to exploit each other, destroy our biosphere (sum of all ecosystems), and deplete our resources.
Transformational, systemic, paradigmatic changes are essential if we want to stick around, i.e., continue to exist.
- Our social and political attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs must rise to a higher level.
- A new model of behavior must emerge that makes our existing model obsolete.
- Our primitive behavior and our antiquated, divisive, and dysfunctional religious beliefs must be abandoned.
It’s time to get grounded in reality.
The required shift, and its global scale, is an unprecedented challenge for humanity.