Requiem for Mankind

Requiem for Mankind

By Jon Van Loon

Copyright 2015 Jon Van Loon

Smashwords Edition

Preface

"The bells which toll for mankind are—most of them, anyway—like the bells of Alpine cattle; they are attached to our own necks, and it must be our fault if they do not make a cheerful and harmonious sound".

-Sir Peter B. Medawar, awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

My Credentials

I present the following only because the reader deserves to know whether anyone audacious enough to write a book of this nature has a wide and deep enough background in this subject area to be suitably qualified to do so.

I possess a double major BSc degree in Geology and Chemistry and a PhD in Chemistry. Thereafter I became a Full Professor at the University of Toronto and was cross-appointed to 3 divisions, the Departments of Geology, and Chemistry and The Institute for Environmental Studies. In the case of The Institute of Environmental Studies I am a founding member. In addition I was involved closely with guiding graduate students in the Department of Botany.

My research team was focused mainly towards environmental chemistry. But a factor that really broadened my perspective relating to environmental problems was being a contributing member on several multidisciplinary teams that studied and produced recommendations that related to a broad range of environmental problems. As examples those teams included ‘The Lakeshore Capacity Study’ and the ‘Toronto Lead Study’.

As a result of research from all these sources I published over 150 Peer reviewed research papers and 6 research text books. In this regard it is important to acknowledge the contribution to these publications the efforts of a variety of talented co-workers and co-authors.

I must stress 3 factors of greatest import to the content of this book.

Firstly, the multidisciplinary teams at the Institute for Environmental Sciences having been formulated from a large pool of world ranking professors typical of a university the size and high standing of the University of Toronto provided an unusually authoritative perspective on environmental problems. These studies involved such abroad range of disciplines including not only all relevant branches of pure science and engineering but also for example medics, economists, sociologists and lawyers. Thus it provided a uniquely capacious educational perspective to all members and an important opportunity to view, discuss and report on environmental problems in a uniquely comprehensive and meaningful manner. I should add that a group in the university setting has the important advantage over similar groups formed in governments and at worldwide agencies of being relatively free from partisan political pressure as well as lacking undue influence from lobbyists and other especial interest groups.

Secondly, I was accorded the rare experience of for short periods of time living and working in a variety of jurisdictions on 6 Continents worldwide. This came about because of the development within my own research group of unique relatively inexpensive equipment and uncomplicated methodology for chemical determination of particularly noxious metals and their compounds in complex environmental and clinical samples. My involvement in these instances was sponsored by various scientific bodies, UNESCO and the World Bank.

Thirdly, it was my passion to avoid living in typical North American accommodation such as that provided by the well-known mega hotels that abounded in the larger cities. Thus I insisted that I should stay in accommodation, usually small local hotels, to maximize my exposure to the people and practices of each location. This occasioned not only these desired objectives but resulted in amusing and sometimes heartrending stories some that I have written about separately in a widely available free eBook entitled Brief Encounters with Real Life.

This book I present for your consideration is so contentious that I have taken the position that my own perspectives would be more believable with related views of others. Of equal importance many of these quotes also serve as a record of what if enacted likely would have dismissed the necessity for this ‘requiem’. Thus I have included a variety of common quotes, some repeated in appropriate locations, from high profile individuals who have comments that are relevant to each specific issue being discussed.

The majority of quotes used in this manuscript have been made in a number of sources and if this is so I have acknowledged them with the authors name only.

Premise

In this book I am envisioning that through some Einsteinian relativistic means I have reached a date sometime in the future and have discovered that I am the last individual surviving on earth. Thus it seems propitious that I should compile a short statement in the memory of those billions who died in calamitous fashion before me and seek the whys and wherefores for their demise. The ‘I’ that appears in illustrative incidents throughout this manuscript is the ‘me’ before my mysterious transportation in time to sometime in the future to become the last surviving individual on the planet and who writes this book.

For my memorial discourse I have chosen the time interval 2010 to 2015, this being a particularly crucial period in which key issues challenging man’s future sustainability on this planet were at their tipping point. Mankind’s typical propensity to disregard substantive remediation of those issues judged not to be immediately cataclysmic is particularly well demonstrated during this interval.

Warning Concerning Mass Extinction of Mankind-June 19 2015

ScienceDaily published an article on June 19 2015 based on results originally published in the Journal ‘Science Advances’ containing the results of research by an eminent group of scientists headed by Paul Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

The following are a few short quotes from the ScienceDaily report.

[The study] shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event,

-Paul Ehrlich

Focusing on vertebrates, the group for which the most reliable modern and fossil data exist, the researchers asked whether even the lowest estimates of the difference between background and contemporary extinction rates still justify the conclusion that people are precipitating a global spasm of biodiversity loss. The answer: a definitive yes.

To history's steady drumbeat, a human population growing in numbers, per capita consumption and economic inequity has altered or destroyed natural habitats.

If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover, and our species itself would likely disappear early on, said lead author Gerardo Ceballos of the Universidad Autónoma de México.

Ehrlich and his co-authors call for fast action to conserve threatened species, populations and habitat, but warn that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.

What Went Wrong?

"Some doomsayers think the collapse will be triggered by runaway government spending, excessive taxation, oppressive regulation, food shortages, fuel shortages or natural disasters such as deadly pandemics or lethal changes in the world's climate".

-Robert Higgs

"This is a beautiful planet and not at all fragile.  Earth can withstand significant volcanic eruptions, tectonic cataclysms, and ice ages.  But this canny, intelligent, prolific, and extremely self-centered human creature had proven himself capable of more destruction of life than Mother Nature herself.. We've got to be stopped". 

-Michael L. Fischer, 

My views on this matter constitute much of what follows.

Chapter 1

World Overpopulation – Red Flags Raised 2010-2015

"All our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people and harder — and ultimately impossible — to solve with ever more people."

-Sir David Attenborough

Using the worldometers website, (www.worldometers.info/world-population/) world population, in April 2015 was 7.3 billion and increasing by 200,000 persons a day. In 2014, according to the Population Reference Bureau there were 4.5 births and 1.8 deaths every second.

In the 1820’s, a watershed event with numerous emerging environmental consequences took place - the Industrial Revolution. Prior to this time the world population was 1 billion, technology was relatively rudimentary and the biosphere was in a basically sustainable condition. Consequent drastic changes in mankind’s lifestyle began to occur.  Industry proliferated and manufacturing placed accelerating demands on existing energy reserves and other natural resources.   Meanwhile oil, its refinery products, and natural gas, entered the scene.   Greenhouse gas emissions, the product of combustion processes, accelerated. 

Then in the 1920’s industrial automation emerged. Notably Henry Ford introduced the production line for mass production of motor vehicles.  Such industrial processes were highly electrified. Over the years the largest percentage of electricity production involved combustion of carbon containing energy resources to produce steam that in turn powered electricity generating turbines.

In North America, and other technologically advanced regions of the world, significant anthropogenic contribution to the natural atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, accelerated lock step with rapidly evolving technological innovation.  Meanwhile, in less developed world regions with exploding populations and inceptive technology, accelerating requirements for energy contributed substantially to this problem.   Drastic alterations in worldwide weather patterns occurred suggesting that the world was accelerating towards the brink of climate change exigency.

Pursuit of environmentally friendlier sources of energy provided few potential practical alternatives.  Despite contrary claims proffered by vested interests and in sources like the bestselling book Abundance, the favored solar and wind technologies never contributed more than a small percentage of energy requirements.  Many reasons can be cited including immense space requirements, damage during weather related disasters, infrastructure investment, high cost maintenance, intermittency of operation, public and political obstacles (eg. NIMBism) and most importantly, lack of technology to provide large scale energy storage for use during periods of solar and wind power electricity generation idleness.

Then just a mere 200 years later, at the beginning of the 21st century the population had increased an alarming 700%. Although the population growth rate was slowing, with a World already overpopulated, a 30% increase from 7 billion to 9 billion in 2050 was truly frightening as by this time essential resources such as fresh water and arable agricultural land had suffered a significant decrease.

In July 29/11 the influential journal Science devoted a special edition to the question of population. The lead editorial written by Babatunde Ostimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, stated As the World’s Population reaches 7 billion this year (2011), we should reflect on the many ways in which population dynamics matter to the planet’s future. Population growth patterns are linked to nearly every challenge confronting humanity, including poverty reduction, urban pollution, energy production, food and water scarcity and health. So even at that time those dealing in the subset collateral damage of world population growth and overpopulation were constantly forced to play catch up with the variety of resultant predicaments. The most pressing of these other than those mentioned by Ostimehin included climate change, resource depletion, economic inequities, recycling and waste disposal.

In 2012, David Pimentel, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Agriculture at Cornel University, stated that With the imbalance growing between population numbers and vital life sustaining resources, humans must actively conserve cropland, freshwater, energy and biological resources. Further within this time frame a United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) entitled ‘Global Environmental Outlook’ involving 1,400 scientists over a 5 year period found that Human consumption had far outstripped available resources. Each person on earth now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the planet can supply. It faulted humanity, stating there was a failure to respond to or recognize the magnitude of the challenges facing the people and the environment of the planet. It further noted The systematic destruction of the earth’s natural and nature-based resources has reached a point where the viability of economies is being challenged – and where the bill we hand to our children may prove impossible to pay.

The pre-eminence of the overpopulation problem prompted