Global Population of elderly will increase by 351% by year 2050

This is written by Mr. Anand Siva and is a follow up to Part 1 which was published on World Earth Day - April 22nd. 

In 1990, the average life expectancy was about 65, and the number of unhealthy or ‘medical intervention dependant’ years was 8. Today, in just 20 years, the numbers are 72 and 12 respectively. What does that tell you? Science and medical interventions are now extending life spans, making people live longer and also, ensuring more people are falling sick and living more unhealthy years! That leads us to another set of whacky numbers!

 Fasten your seatbelts!

The human population that is 85 years and above is projected to increase at a whopping 351% between now and 2050, compared to a 188 increase for the population aged 65 or older, and a 22% increase for the population under age 65. IVF procedures are defying nature’s birth control processes, while organ donations and replacements are making the invalid turn valid, and many of them with half the quality of life they should be having. And that to you means we will now be spreading our already depleting resources thinner, and be sharing it with a larger number of people - as our uncles, aunts, and parents keep loading the top while adding nephews and nieces and children in the bottom – stretching the planet from all sides. Increasing demand, while rapidly short-circuiting the supply! 

So, if you were born any time after 1978, and by the current span of 70-75 years, you are likely to be one of the first to see the species disintegrate. And if you are having a child any time now, after 2015, the child is likely to get past middle age. And I am using the word likely only to stay polite and not play god by being absolute – though personally, I think we will.

"We are overpopulated by about 4 times, and scientists give us less than 35 years in all to see the fall of the human species!"

Our World is Shrinking

Getting into some hard facts

Based on 2016 studies, UNICEF pegs the number of orphans worldwide to be in the range of 140 million, that’s roughly the population of Russia! There are about 170 million children below the age of 15 who are employed as child labour and this is important data – because these children remain uneducated, unaware of the problems of global warming and human breeding, and with age become parents of kids born into families below the poverty line. Over 60 million children today suffer from malnutrition and are vulnerable to deadly diseases already, and when water-related problems strike, they are likely to be the start and spread of epidemics!

In developing countries like Indonesia and India and many African countries, there’s more room for worry. The strain on resources is forcing unskilled labor to resort to other means of livelihood – which is why in spite of so many measures, we haven’t seen the end of poaching and mine mafias. This is impacting the larger biodiversity as more of the ecosystem is destroyed, more forests reclaimed and forest areas merging with rural and rural with urban!

1 out of every 8 children born, is born into a conflict zone – and remember, we haven’t seen the worst of civil wars and territorial conflicts yet!

With an increase in population also comes an increase in pollution

The Urban Problem

Globally the salaried middle class of the mid-1900s has given way to an entire burst of high salaried individuals and professionals. Changing lifestyles, exposure to varied cultures and globalisation have blurred geographic boundaries, distance no longer a roadblock for people with needs. Japanese Sushi in California, Kerala parotta in Oslo and Chinese products all over the globe means millions of tons of products and produce criss-crossing the globe. And that translates to larger land areas being flattened out for container yards, ports, airports, warehouses, logistic centers and football sized supermarkets. On one side, while economists are showing these as signs of a bubbly economy that’s generating employment and consumer spending, they are overlooking the impact it's having on our resources. More people can afford more automobiles, more gadgets and appliances, more travel and more consumption – with scant regard for its consequences, we are powering a mass euphoria in consumption! And how is that dangerous?

• Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted.
• Food losses and waste amount to roughly US$ 680 billion in industrialised countries and US$ 310 billion in developing countries.
• Food wastage from restaurants and fast food outlets account for a third of food wasted, takeaways for a third. More than 30% of takeaway foods is wasted, and is one of the largest culprits for disposable plastics!
• When 135 million tons of food is wasted in America every year, 25% of all freshwater and huge amounts of energy and land are also being wasted.
• Today, we buy double the number of gadgets we need, more than half the furniture we buy don’t last their full life, and luxuries like non-stick cookware, upholstery, replaced car parts and discarded clothes account for half the landfills, and is growing at about 24% year on year.

Put them all together – not simply to portray a dismal picture of the planet, but to show in how many ways we are making life on earth difficult for ourselves – the changes to lifestyle, reversal of habits, ending of traditions and make a blue shift in our ways of living are all required at the same time and really rapidly if we must slow this down.

So, in a way of living where our actions are only imposing irreversible challenges on the planet, what promises would you want to make to the child you will have or already have? Do you have the confidence to promise the child a safe full-life span? Promise that you have done enough to stop and reverse global warming, so your child can live without the dangers of rising sea levels and toxic air? Can you promise your child that he or she will never have to worry about running out of drinking water? And bequeath a planet with a healthy water table, unpolluted land, and peaceful living, without having to worry about dropping missiles, tanker lorries or famine and floods?

Water Water, not so everywhere these days

Rationality and the Sustainable Answer

Why would you want to bring forth a life into a planet in this precarious situation? Simply because your parents and people like me and of my generation did so, so very oblivious to the stupid act of producing biological offspring? Simply because we have been told only our own children will love and care for us and we need someone to carry our legacy and family name forward? What legacy do you have to be proud of that you want your child to flaunt with her or his peers? What did you do for this planet that cannot be measured by currency and size, but by a million light years? Imagine this scenario. You are looking down into a faucet, and find the drain blocked and dirty water of the night before stuck there, bad odour repelling you. Would you add more garbage to the block, simply because you believe it will clear up on its own, or its someone else’s problem? Or will you want to take steps to stop the clog and try and clear it as much as you can?