Population growing uncontrollably

Back in the 1970s I was one of hundreds of high school biology teachers impressing on our students that good health requires homoeostasis, or self-adjusting stability.

Stable cells, stable tissues, stable organs, stable individuals, stable populations, stable ecosystems, a stable biosphere.

And our Year 12s are still being taught this first principle of life.

When populations of any organism grow uncontrollably, they eventually destroy their ecosystem and then almost the whole population dies rapidly in a rather nasty fashion.

Human populations are not exempt from this basic law of life.

For the past 150 years the human population has been growing uncontrollably, and our biosphere is becoming more and more unstable.

It was 48 years ago that the “Club of Rome” scientists calculated that unless activities like vasectomies were increased ... the human population would grow to about 8 billion and then collapse to a few hundred million in the 2050s.

Eighteen months ago the high school Extinction Rebellion demonstrators were desperately warning their elders of this consequence to their reckless probaby, pro-consumption actions.

An age-old Polynesian story tells of Maui trying to conquer death, just like our medical school professors, GPs, hospital staff and health officials who have completely ignored their UE/Year12 biology lessons.

Maui failed in his attempt, and so will all those forgetful “health experts”.

Unless a health organisation ends each decade with approximately the same number of individuals in its care as when the decade started, then in my opinion it has failed totally in its primary mission of providing good health.

Paradoxically, and for all the wrong reasons, the anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, anti-isolators may be the ones who save the planet. JOHN ARCHER

Ohakune