Give me my space, please: Seven billion and counting!

When a little baby girl arrived into this world on the dawning of Monday 31 October, she received a little more attention than usual. She was one of the early members of the seven billion club, to which the human society has now grown.

Demographers at the United Nation’s Population Division had set 31 October 2011 as the ‘date’ when the world population hits seven billion. Of course this is based on birth rates and death rates and is as a result of modelling.

Sri Lanka is yet to complete the current nationwide census and the macro picture and our contribution could vary. Some may recall 1999, when we last spoke of such an event when we heralded six billion people on this planet.

For some of those who may read some old text, we were not supposed to have seven billion so soon. The addition of a billion has happened within 12 years. It is interesting or worrying when considering that the world witnessed three billion in 1960.

Science at play

It is perhaps a no secret that this increase in our numbers was as a result of contributions from science and technology. Today we experience 75 million more births than deaths. The world at some stages witnessed millions being wiped off the face of earth due to events such as plagues and famines.

When we understood the effect of microorganisms and about disease vectors on our health and well being, the controls came in and many a disease contributing to an early demise brought to a halt.

In this regard the contribution from scientists like Louis Pasteur is legendary. We have today added years to life and are looking forward to adding life to years via many more scientific advances.

Seminal event

Many babies across many countries had moments of undivided attention and publicity due to this seminal event on Monday. The UN agency had decided also to reward the newcomers.

While life may be a celebration, some may be thinking out not so loudly about the status of tomorrow’s world for these newcomers. This latter aspect is quite important and should be considered in moulding the new generation.

We have developed a yardstick of quality of life and our consumption patterns have not slowed down. Our interest in all things material is today quite well known. In addition to the extravagant digital necessities, the need for basics – food, clothing, shelter and energy – is important.

Each of this seven billion has an equal right to have the basic requirements. Their subsequent way of living may mean asking for much, much more. The planet, as it is, is finding it difficult to meet even the basic obligations and that is why when the numbers increase, planetary stress needs to be understood.

The answer is better planning the future and changing over to more sustainable modes of behaviour. The way to live in a sustainable manner in a world of seven billion people is different indeed from a world of six billion and we never were doing that in the last 12 years.

Sustainable

We today have words such as sustainable consumption, sustainable production and of course the more famous sustainable development in our vocabulary. Mahatma Gandhi was perhaps years ahead when he answered bluntly and quite wisely to a comment of the British.

This incident had happened during the struggle for Indian independence. Gandhi had been asked whether his liberated country would achieve the same standards of living as its colonial power. “It took Britain half the resources of the planet to achieve its prosperity,” he replied. “How many planets will a country like India require?”

Today we calculate carrying capacities and ecological, water and carbon footprints of our activities and declare that we are living well beyond our means and highlight the urgent need to change the way we live.

Gandhi’s statement at the time was exactly a calculation of an ecological footprint and it is only today that we see its wider applicability. For example, if one is wearing a pair of blue washed denims, the production of that item can use up to 13.2 cubic meters of water. This is quite a significant amount for a unit of clothing. Such calculations are carried out to indicate to us the impacts of our actions.

We may be ever-refining the ways of calculations and presentations, but we do require refining the way we live and consume resources. Gandhi was against mere mimicry of cultures, especially the culture of consumerism.

His most celebrated and often quoted statement – “The earth has enough to satisfy the need of all the people, but not for satisfying the greed of some” – has become astonishingly relevant in today’s world. His contribution to ecological thinking was distinguished between ‘need’ and ‘want’ of the human being.

‘Buffet table behaviour’

Some times in front of a buffet style luncheon or a dinner, our impulse is to taste as much as possible as the unit price is the same! We today look at costs and benefits and our thinking has quite corrupted by the short-termism approach.

Planners in turn do follow this approach. We plan to make more stuff and use more stuff. The residuals are externalities. Text book environmental economics may ask for extended cost benefit analysis with internalising externalities and thus appearing to account for some of the negative impacts.

With Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) we appear to carry out these with the objective of actually implementing the decisions yet time usually indicates that once the approvals are obtained, mitigating impacts are not at the top of the mindset of implementers. The main elements of a project take the centre stage and impacts, especially the negative aspects, turn into being peripheral issues.

Finite resources

It was against the ‘buffet table behaviour’ that Gandhi demonstrated the following. When he was taking a bath in the freely flowing and unpolluted water of the Sabarmati near the Ashram in Gujarat, he consciously used only the minimum required water needed for taking a bath.

On being asked one day by an onlooker why he was using the river water so sparingly when it was available in abundance – and indeed the river had plenty – he had remarked that all that was flowing in the river was not his.

The concept of free goods, services and resources for tomorrow needs to be understood well. The picture on the ground may indicate abundance though as a planet we should understand the finiteness of all our resources.

Our thinking such as a plastic bag to carry produce at a supermarket as a mandatory free right is perhaps thinking that needs modifying. Working and living with the future in mind is not about laying down laws and blindly following them, but understanding the values.

Crying need of the hour

We are today trying to switch into clean energy systems, efficient processes and minimise wastage. However, we are not doing this fast enough.

Recently James Lovelock who laid down the Gaia Philosophy is reputed to have stated that the world has passed the tipping point in managing climate change and the request to get ready for a warmer world and with much less people! A chilling call for action even at this late hour.

While we become efficient in what we do, we must also limit ourselves in our overall consumption. That is what the seven billion asks us to understand. By simply being efficient, we may only prolong the agony.

Sustainable development in an overcrowded planet is a tough calling. The initial cry of that baby on that Monday morning is not only to signal another arrival, but to draw attention to the crying need of the hour of sustainable consumption.

Our celebrations should also be stretched to indicate our collective responsibilities as the newborn child’s life is more dependent on the latter than the celebrity picture-taking opportunity.

(Professor Ajith de Alwis is Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. With an initial BSc Chemical engineering Honours degree from Moratuwa, he proceeded to the University of Cambridge for his PhD. He is a Science Team Leader at the Sri Lanka Nanotechnology Institute. He can be reached via email on [email protected])