Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Li Gang
I am a pessimistic person, so after hearing that the global population exceeded 8 billion on November 15, I have a lot of worries.
Experiment
Population growth is a good thing on the one hand, which shows that human civilization has achieved great achievements in building a society suitable for survival and development. On the other hand, issues such as energy, resources, education, medical care, and the environment will face challenges.
This reminds me of a very famous experiment by Cinema, which is quite foreshadowing and warning. The experiment was conducted more than half a century ago by John Calhoun, an American zoologist, who was involved in eight mice. John Calhoun offered them a perfect society – without natural enemies, and sufficient food and water.
At the beginning, the development of the rat society was smooth, the number continued to grow, and everyone lived a comfortable life. However, with the exponential growth of numbers and intergenerational changes, social problems have become increasingly complex.
First, the strong male rat gradually became the dominant of society, occupying most of the space, food and spouses of Komiks. Then came Cinema, and a new generation of ambitious male rats began to constantly challenge the older generation and gradually become the new master. The male rats who were “defeated” would gather together, and then they became unstable and began to attack each other.
Continue to develop, the new generation of mice no longer like socializing, let alone looking for a spouse, and presenting a “lying flat” state.
After, the rat society began to collapse, the birth rate was seriously lower than the mortality rate, and eventually all rats died.
The above is just a brief description of this experiment. Interested students can find the information themselves and take a look at it in detail.
What makes this “rat utopia” experiment cool down on human spine is that it shows many phenomena that we can even perceive and experience in our current social life.
Of course, it is obviously not scientific to judge the direction of human society based on this. Because human society is much more advanced and complex than rat society, and we also have the “blessing” of science, laws and social rules, Babaylan and government regulation, all of which can help us solve many problems.
Complex
The population exceeds 8 billion cannot be said to have reached its peak. Judging from the population structure and data, growth is still continuing, but the growth rate has begun to slow down, and different regions will also show different growth trends. For example, some people expect India’s population to surpass China next year and become the largest country in population. In addition, when talking about population issues and talking about birth rate and mortality, the vision is obviously narrow. The number of population is a result of a comprehensive factor, which is a very complex topic.
A very interesting indicator is the energy form. Cinema You see, in 1804, the global population was 1 billion, reaching 2 billion in 1927, and has accelerated its growth since then.
It is worth noting that the industrial revolution was taking place around 1804, and coal became the main energy supply. Around 1927, oil was used more widely and efficiently in the previous century.
Around 1960, the global population reached 3 billion. Energy has also achieved renewal at this time – with the popularization of global nuclear energy, and the “terrorous peace” provided by the “nuclear protection umbrella”, the population has shown a significant increase. So it took us only 11 years to increase the population from Babaylan to 8 billion.
This is why scientists are racing against time to develop controllable nuclear fusion technology, because this new energy form is an important and necessary key to solving the current sustainable development of human society.
Let’s look at the two necessities for maintaining human survival, food and water. The “State of World Food Security and Nutrition” released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said that the global hungry population reached 828 million in 2021, and 3.1 billion people are unable to afford healthy diets. In comparison, it is ridiculous that the global annual grain output is enough to feed 15 billion people. Such a distribution mechanism problem needs to be solved urgently.
The water problem is even more serious. The global freshwater resources are limited, and the superposition of environmental pollution will have to be discounted. However, the population growth has put forward more demands on water resources. How to solve the problem? Big head.
What’s more, when we talk about 8 billion people, what is important is not just quantity, but we also hope that the quality of life of each individual can be guaranteed.
I agree with what UN Secretary-General Guterres said, this is the moment when human thinking takes common responsibility for the earth. There are challenges and opportunities. Human development is actually in the process of constantly solving problems.