When Graham wrote his book, he uncovered uncomfortable aspects of humanity’s race toward endless population growth on a finite planet. Let’s examine what he addressed and summed up in the quote above.
Each year, with the current world population at 7.1 billion human beings, an average of 57 million people die off from all causes—old age, war, disease, starvation and other violence. Not only does human fecundity replace those 57 million people who died, it adds another 80 million to total 137 million newborn babies every year of every decade without pause. Thus, the human race adds one billion new humans onto the planet every 12 years. Humanity expects to break 10 billion by 2050—a scant 37 years from now. Demographic projections indicate the human race could very well reach 14 billion by the end of the century.
First of all, with that huge number of newborn children, the countries that give births to that many people cannot educate them. Thus, illiteracy, the barometer for all poverty and human misery,accelerates. Further, they cannot feed them; and the United Nations estimates that a low of 10, and a possible high of 15, million children starve to death annually. Even this high death rate leaves 122 million to feed, water, house, educate and eventually create work for their lives.
As you can imagine, it’s not working. The eruptions in Africa in the past several years revolve around food crises. Egypt alone with its 82 million subsisting on desert sands expects to reach 150 million by mid century. Egypt depends on grains from the West to feed its human multitude, but as oil depletes and costs more, Egyptians will not be able to buy food. They face mass starvation. Hundreds of thousands live on the brink in Somalia, Sudan, Congo, and South Africa. All of Asia lives on the edge. A full one billion human beings worldwide cannot secure a clean glass of water daily.
Nonetheless, political and religious leaders of the world and the developing countries refuse to take action. The human mob accelerates without a word from NBC’s Brian Williams, ABC’s Diane Sawyer or CBS’ Scott Pelley. ABC’s David Muir toured Somalia last year when 100,000 children faced immediate starvation — but that crisis quickly lost the public eye and the children continued starving.
How Many Refugees Are in the World?
According to www.brycs.org , a 2009 report by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), 42 million people around the world were uprooted from their homes due to conflict or persecution. Of this number, 16 million were considered refugees, while 26 million were displaced within their own countries or were considered asylum-seekers in other countries. Approximately 45% of the world’s refugees are under 18-years-old. About 80% of the world’s refugees are hosted by developing countries. The largest refugee producing countries at present include Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan, while Colombia, Iraq, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have the largest internally displaced populations.
Some estimates by the UN show in excess of 50 million refugees looking for a new country to move to by 2050. A recent survey found:
- More Than 100 Million Worldwide Dream of a Life in the U.S.
- More than 25% in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Dominican Republic want to move to the U.S. See: http://www.gallup.com/poll/161435/100-million-worldwide-dream-life.aspx
However, no one ever asks the most logical question: when will the immigrant line to First World countries end? Answer: the line grows by 80 million net gain annually, which means the line never ends, but grows and grows and grows.
Since developing countries refuse to engage birth control for cultural and religious reasons, they use First World countries for a human exhaust valve. But, at some point, countries like the United States, Canada, European countries and Australia will exceed their carrying capacity — resulting in water shortages, food crises, energy depletion and resource exhaustion.
Africa, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Middle East and Bangladesh continue growing their populations without pause.
As soon as their refugees flood into First World countries, those refugees grow their carbon, water, energy and ecological footprints to 10 to 30 times greater than in their native environments .
Thus, nothing gets solved and everything consequential happening to the planet accelerates. Therefore, Graham spelled it out in his quote: “…but to absorb our global brothers and sisters until their horrid ordeal has been endured and shared by all—ten billion humans packed onto an ecologically devastated planet.”
First world countries must ask themselves if they want to tread that path? Can the United States sustain the projected 100 million immigrants within the next 37 years—by 2050? Why should it? What will it mean to quality of life and standard of living? What will it mean as to water supplies and energy?
From my world travels to all those places facing human chaos, I can unequivocally state that the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia stand on the edge of a demographic cliff. They cannot and will not save those developing world countries from their own fecundity folly, but, if they continue immigration without pause — those first world countries will surely sink into the abyss of the same conditions that the refugees fled.
At some point, the United States must take stock of its path. It must decide on its future. On the current path, it faces demographic disaster. That’s a mathematical certainty. It’s only a matter of time.