Before the housing crisis in 2008, many mortgage bankers of high-profile lending institutions were encouraged to keep selling mortgages to those who were clearly unable to pay back the loans. The goal was to make fast money, of course. The ensuing chaos was predictable even by those who are naïve about how capitalism works. The consequences were ignored, and the truth was covered up. It’s pretty simple, you can’t take out loans if you have no way to pay it back before it comes due. There is only so much money to loan out and short cuts do not work because there is an ultimate due date, and they must be paid back with interest.
The Earth’s biosphere is letting us know that we have been taking out too many of her loans, taken without her permission, and those loans are coming due nearly all at once. We have abused the ability of the earth’s systems to absorb our pollution and provide 8+ billion of us with enough of its essential services. When we can smell the smoke from1500 wildfires all over Canada, the loan is coming due. When the Weather Channel reveals temperatures hotter than ever in places that are not used to the heat, the loan is coming due. When Phoenix Arizona puts a moratorium on new development because there is no water to promise new residents, the loan is coming due. When millions of birds are disappearing before our eyes, we are getting a painful message that our loan is way overdue.
The solutions that are offered by those who have come late to this party are afraid to address the organic reasons why all of these loans are coming due. The whole human enterprise is not just what we do but how many of us are doing it and we are making unrealistic demands on our limited planet. The growth we have experienced since the 1800’s, when we reached our first billion, has overwhelmed all of the earth’s resources.
We are a top predator, who cannot help but consume our limited resources. We tend to look to technology to get us out of our pending loan dates, but every single tech-fix comes with its own resource price tag. Every time we have a net gain of people in a world of over 8 billion, we are taking out a sub-prime loan which is coming due now, when we can least afford it.
Dialing it all back with policies of less is a good thing, something we should all applaud from both sides of the political aisle. We can encourage less growth by putting our tax structure in reverse. Reward people for having small families and buying used goods. Enforce E-verify policies to check for citizenship before hiring and incentivize citizens to fill the many job openings by offering living wages, free education credits and better public transportation. There is no shortage of real solutions, but we must first understand the reason it's so important. We must take our foot off the gas pedal of growth just like those with high blood pressure must take medication to make sure their vessels can handle the blood flow. We have to push back on all of these due dates from within our political borders. We have to have less demand so that our rechargeable resources can do just that and create less pressure to extract degraded ones.
I wore a button back in the 70’s that said, “Do you really believe in the unlimited possibilities of limited resources?” Apparently, we do and that will the downfall of every country who allows their population growth to continue to overwhelm their resources. We cannot stop growth on only one front. We cannot dismantle growth by discouraging large nuclear families while encouraging growth from migration. Imagine trying to encourage weight loss by banning trans-fat in restaurants while building a bakery on every corner. That is just what we are doing by embracing more and more immigrants to the US, but we must also keep our conversation on the collective numbers which overwhelm our resources and not on who is making up the unsustainable demand.
We must understand the nature of our planet’s limits which can only be dealt with within each country’s borders. According to the UN Environment’s Global Resources Outlook 2019, “The extraction and processing of materials, fuels and food contribute half of total global greenhouse gas emissions and over 90 per cent of biodiversity loss and water stress.” That is exacerbated by the fact that we are heading towards more billions because we are still growing by over 80 million a year. No, we are not depopulating at all, not yet.
We must be courageous, and not be afraid to see overpopulation as the enemy. We cannot allow it all to get worse by offering up lame downstream solutions which will never prevent the knock on the door by the most frightening loan officer of all, the Earth.