Grappling with the Population News Through New Journalism
On November 15th the planet earth had her eight billionth baby born. On November 16th, I was at the Bronx Zoo.
I had just exited the “Jungle World” exhibit located in the Wild Asia section of the Zoo. After stepping out of the last dark room, the one dedicated to promoting activism to combat deforestation, I squinted as the grey light of the overcast sky hit me.
The last room of Jungle World was a mandated and bleak one after a cheerful viewing of playful lemurs and exotic fish. Numerous television screens surrounded me in the empty room bombarding me with images of burning forests and tree-less animals. I noted a separate small screen by the door playing a video of a small fire that stated exactly how many acres of rainforest would be destroyed by the time I was done watching said video. I felt obligated to watch the rest.
Back outside the exhibit in the cold November air, I discovered an outdoor extension of the last room of Jungle World. In front of me stood a podium with an ominous red counter. Above the counter read, “When Jungle World was constructed on June 21, 1985, there were 1,163,700 mi2 of South Asian rainforest left. As of now, there are….”
I looked down at the counter.
Significantly less.
I walked past the podium only to find a second one in the courtyard. Jungle World made the relationship between preserved rainforest acres and the human population clear. It would only make sense that this podium had a counter for the human population.
We are crowding out nature…
I looked at the counter expecting at least 10 numbers or more but my eyes only fell on one.
0
Well, how ominous.
“Didn’t we reach 8 billion just yesterday…?”
The old podium lacked the ominous red numbers, 1985.
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Our planet has been home to 7 billion people ever since I could remember…well, ever since I cared to. To clue you in, the earth reached 7 billion people in 2010, it made 6 billion in 1999. I don’t even have two decades on me.
Regarding population and other harrowing global issues, when I’m not thinking about the catastrophic impact they will have on our way of life, I like to think about how they’re represented in movies.
Akira is an animated film that was released in 1988 and was directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. It was groundbreaking as an animated film that incorporated mature content and still remains relevant today with not only its message but its numerous references in modern pop culture. Akira takes place in 2019; interestingly enough the Olympics were set to be in Tokyo that year in the real world as in the world of Neo-Tokyo. Prophetic much?
In Neo-Tokyo alone resides a population of over 20 billion people. The art of the film accurately portrays this with all its sci-fi might, skyscrapers practically layered upon each other, and humans drawn in every nook and cranny of the underground.
While this overcrowded future city is what I picture our population reaching 8 billion some are seeing 8 billion as not enough.
Background painting of Otomo's Akira,1988.
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In this case, the “some” refers to a certain Elon Musk. Just because.
In response to falling birthrates being in the headlines, Musk expressed his opinion via Twitter. His use of “population collapse” and “bigger risk to civilization than global warming” struck me as odd at first, well, somebody’s overreacting.
I suppose it would make logical sense, and it would align with my father’s fear of there not being enough of my generation to take care of his when they no longer can take care of themselves. As I let this thought marinate, I couldn’t help but think of Jungle World. Jungle World says that population would be the downfall of rainforests and ecosystems globally.
So, who’s right?
The humans old enough to feel that they’re going be left all alone now that the global birthrate has fallen from 34.741 (per 1000) since 1965 to 17.668 today?
Or the humans young enough to worry about the planet and ecosystem they’ll inherit?
I’m not sure quite how I feel about it right now. I suppose it is easiest to be a human in the U.N. as they sound happier about the population announcement.
“today's milestone is a celebration of human longevity due to improvements in public health and medicine”
E. Musk tweets a prophecy, 2022.
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When I’m forced to think about what’s next for our population, whether it’s for a blog post assignment or my nightly 5 minutes of existential dread before bedtime, I suppose the young and old humans can both be correct.
When we reach 15 billion, all the young humans, now middle-aged humans, will have their hands full with, let's say, 11 billion supercentenarians. But. Give them maybe another 20 years, and earth will just have the 4 billion slightly-older middle-aged humans left living upon her surface. Sorry, Elon.
If the environment manages to somehow bounce back, I suppose the remaining 4 million will have plenty of green space to graze. Jungle World’s dark room makes me think we won’t.
What I have now is a lovely picture of the 4 million left with scorched earth.
I guess less Akira and more Mad Max?
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