WEMJ Volume 113 No. 2 - June 2014
Only one article in this issue of the WEMJ. Very kindly provided by Professor John Guillebaud it is based on his presentation to the Bristol Medico Chirurgical Society entitled Sex and the Planet. Is sex the most dangerous human activity- for humans themselves and ultimately all life on Earth.
This article is important and provides a radical look at a problem to which a blind eye is often turned...overpopulation of our planet.
This article is important and provides a radical look at a problem to which a blind eye is often turned...overpopulation of our planet.
WEMJ Volume 113 No. 2 Article 1 June 2014
A perfect storm approaches as our finite earth is taken to its limits through exponential growth of consumers and of consuming
Professor John Guillebaud
INTRODUCTION
The Government’s Chief Scientist and the last President of the Royal Society both referred
to the approaching ‘perfect storm’ of popula- tion growth, climate change and fossil fuel scarcity. Reliable reports on the planet’s health have found water, land, plants, animals and
fish stocks all in “inexorable decline”. Climate change is terrifying enough, especially with the risk of runaway positive feedbacks (methane re- lease from permafrost; less albedo effect as the white ice disappears). But it is far from being the only life-threatening global problem.