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KILLING-US-SOFTLY1

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This means that for all intents and purposes the 7 billion people who are alive today have a much<br />

greater impact on the planet’s ecosystems than an equivalent number of our forebears in the<br />

distant or immediate past. Consequently, the planet is straining under our load. Soil erosion,<br />

carbon dioxide accumulation, rapid deforestation, global warming and the melting of the polar<br />

caps and glaciers are but some of the consequences of the environmental burden we have<br />

become as a species. Given the impact we have on the planet at 7 billion strong, it takes no<br />

scientist to foresee that the planet cannot possibly sustain 14 billion of us let alone 28 billion,<br />

which is where we would be heading in less than a century had there been no proactive<br />

intervention and aggressive interference with our ability to have children.<br />

As our needs and numbers increase, we are placing unsustainable demands on critical resources<br />

like water and fossil fuels, which are vital to our survival and define our standard of living.<br />

Water shortages are already an impediment to development and even a threat to bare survival,<br />

causing conflict within and between nations. Both our fresh water supplies and our fossil fuel<br />

reserves are in crisis. 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack<br />

adequate sanitation and these combined problems kill nearly 4000 children every day from water<br />

borne diseases.<br />

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