Time, Running Short

HARVARD PROFESSOR E.O. Wilson, a renowned biologist and climate change alarmist, wants to designate one half of the Earth's surface, land and water, as wildlife refuge and habitat. He does not, he emphasizes, wish to exclude humans from the natural half of the planet, but rather to merely limit the scope of humanity activity therein, including, presumably, limitations on the size of population centers, land use, and so forth. To read some of Dr. Wilson's thoughts on the subject is well worth the effort; he makes a convincing case. The projection now is that there will be nine billion people in the world by mid century, and eleven billion by the end of the twenty first century. Both figures are unsustainable, according to many environmental scientists. All indications are that climate change is proceeding far more rapidly than we had thought; glaciers are melting rapidly, sea level rise is accelerating, wildfires are proliferating, and severe forms of weather are becoming the norm, as all weather patterns have been disrupted. Letting nature take over might be a wise idea, here in what we are starting to call the "anthropocene" epoch, the age of humanity, the age during which the entire planet was transformed physically by the activity of a single species of life, humanity. A little less urban sprawl and some population control might be wise. That, plus a massive tree planting effort, and immediate conversion to green energy. Then too, for human habitat to focus on vertical structures rather than horizontal would free up land for natural purposes. Time, according to Dr. Wilson, is running short.