RURAL ROUTES/Margot Ford McMillen

Yes, the Planet Is At Risk

We’ve survived the driest April on record, hottest May, and record-breaking heat waves around the world. Mid-Missouri is seeing a glut of armadillos, an animal that has no known predators except for speeding automobiles. On my farm, after more than a month of hot drought, a downpour set back the tomatoes — a usual staple — but we think they’ll recover. The poison ivy, on the other hand, is robust.

Chore time has shrunk as the most comfortable hours to be outside are 6 to 10 a.m. and about the same, p.m. And we are watering waaayyy more than usual. The livestock are turning nocturnal — grazing through the night and lounging in the shade all day, which means the sheep are more at-risk for predators, so I have responded by making smaller paddocks that the guard donkeys can patrol more efficiently. Somehow, we keep getting by, like the proverbial frog in the boiling water.

Other parts of the world are less lucky. The temperature in parts of Asia has gotten so high that scientists say people will have to abandon their lands. A widely reported story, broken last year by Time, predicted much of southern Asia — parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh — will be uninhabitable and un-farmable by 2100. That means millions more climate refugees, looking for places to settle exactly when luckier nations are locking them out.

As I write this, Phoenix temperatures are predicted at over 100 degrees through the summer.

I only know one person living in Phoenix, a young mom with three little ones. “What do they do all day?” I ask. “Stay inside. Watch TV. Play on the computer,” she answers. So here’s the future: A generation raised indoors, heroes of their own video games, good at shooting enemies.

Now you may be concerned by global climate change, or even worried, but do you want to become downright scared? Take out your google machine and type “population clock.” You’ll get to a website where you can check out how the human population is growing. You’ll see, sponsored by the US Census Bureau, two side-by-side meters, like old-fashioned speedometers, clocking the growing numbers of people in the US and the world. The meters count births, subtract deaths, and click off an average.

The US meter creeps fairly slowly along, with a gain of one person every 14 seconds or so. The world population meter, however, is out of control. In 14 seconds, the world adds about 35 people. We were close to 7.5 billion worldwide the day I checked. We were just over 2.5 billion in 1950.

Now’s the sticky part … how do we fix things? Because any fool can see that there’s an eventual carrying capacity for Earth, even if we don’t have a clue what it is. Population gurus cite the solutions: Make school available to everyone, so that every human can have a meaningful life that frees them from the obligation to parent. Women, especially, need to be allowed school so that the one career that was once our only choice — having babies — is not so obvious.

That means that in many cultures, where having sons is crucial for the support of elders, the social fabric is disrupted. There is a long list of nations encouraging youngsters to have more sex — Denmark, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain. They don’t want refugees. They want more of their own gene pool. Racism, yes, but not so different than our system where crops rot in the fields and immigrants are turned back to the dangerous countries they came from.

So, can we put the brakes on a burgeoning population without stooping to social engineering (think: one-child policy, death panels)? The social engineering solution seems so cruel that we don’t allow ourselves to consider it.

As always, the best raw material we have is ourselves, and if we are sincere about solving global climate change, shrinking our carbon footprints, we have to honestly consider shrinking our families. I am extremely impressed by my family and friends who have opted for a child-free life. The choice has been easier for some — creative types that know their income will always be erratic. Others just got busy with careers and, well, um, forgot. For them, with more disposable income, the reward comes in cooler vacations and fancy cars.

As the child-free trend expands, grandparent-aged folks will have to reconcile themselves that they’re not going to be Yaya and Poppa, or whatever a family calls the elders. For some, that’s hard to swallow but, hey, we’re talking about the planet here!

If you really need to be part of some kiddo’s life, be the super cool aunt with independence and neat hobbies. Or find a neighbor that needs help with child care. Or volunteer with Big Brother/Big Sister or some other mentoring group. There are bunches of kids that need help.

And a planet at risk.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. Her latest book is The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History. Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2018

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