Sustainability issues exist among the filth in the Ganges River in India. Image: Wikispaces.com
Frosty Wooldridge
India expects its population to jump from 1.252 billion to 1.55 billion within 33 years. It adds 16 million, net gain, annually. Their human misery index explodes off the charts.
In 1960, India reached 500,000,000 people. Today, driven by religions that prohibit birth control, India suffers every kind of social and environmental consequence known to humanity with its 1.252 billion people. Even more catastrophic, it adds 16 million more people, net gain, annually.
India’s major river, the Ganges, which I once rafted, flows into the ocean with the most polluted, toxic and contaminated waters known to humankind. It features trillions of gallons of untreated sewage, industrial waste, hundreds of chemicals and millions of pieces of plastic that flow into the ocean 24/7. That watery, chemical-ized conveyer belt creates a 20,000 square mile dead zone at the mouth of the river. Once it hits the Indian Ocean, those contaminated waters spread all over the planet – poisoning marine life, avian life, reefs, the ocean floor and all that causes deadly acidification throughout the planet.
Of note, the U.S.A., China and India dump the most plastics into the world’s oceans. Latest estimates show 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic float on and flow under the surface around the world killing millions of marine creatures annually. As per investigations by marine biologist, Julia Whitty, published in OnEarth magazine, 46,000 pieces of plastic trash float on every square mile of Earth’s oceans. We’ve known this for 20 years, but there is no action to stop it by creating incentive-driven deposit-return laws internationally.
Within India, hundreds of millions of people lack a toilet. Therefore, they defecate and urinate on the land daily. In fact, the Indian Express said, “Best experts tell us that 60.4% of Indians lack a toilet.” The stench in the cities, the filth in the streets and the total contamination of soils and rivers by that many people injecting their waste upon the lands and waters 24/7 cannot be comprehended.
Thus, every day of the year, 1,000 Indian children under the age of 12 die of dysentery, diarrhea, other waterborne diseases, and from drinking contaminated water (Source: www.populationmedia.org).
Yet, as India’s population accelerates by 16 million net gain annually, they grow so fast, they cannot solve any of their problems. Disease and squalor top the “human misery index” beyond the concepts of the American people.
You can only imagine that India cannot support jobs, classrooms and housing for that many people added annually. Yet, there is not one word about population stabilization from India’s leaders. At one point, Indira Gandhi attempted to bring birth control to India when I visited in 1984, but she failed because of religious-cultural norms that overpowered reasoned thinking.
If you look at the beauty of the Taj Mahal, one of the most famous landmarks of India, a short trip to the river next to it shows millions of pieces of plastic clogging its waters. And, the water features endless chemical poisons leaving it unfit for human or animal use.
In the cities, air pollution poisons the lungs of everyone breathing that toxic air 24/7. You see everyone tapping into electrical wires illegally; trash and stench everywhere; the traffic is a free-for-all that confounds and confuses the Western mind; and The National Nutritional Monitoring Bureau estimates that only 15% of Indians receive adequate nourishment daily.
As can be imagined, because of adding that 16 million more people annually, India’s wilderness suffers encroachment via roads, housing, mining, lumbering and other development. Animal extinction rates soar. The Bengal tiger and the snow leopard will not survive in the wild within several decades. Elephants face an uncertain future. Birds of all kinds face extinction from loss of habitat. Fish and plants vanish.
With all the realities facing the people of India, no one raises a finger to address their population predicament. Even in the face of so much human misery, their leaders live in “cognitive dissonance” also known as “intellectual denial of reality.”
The Ganges flows into the Indian ocean with the most polluted, toxic and contaminated waters known to humankind. Image: Wikimedia
Please realize that this country’s dilemma is the tip of the iceberg. At any time, we may witness horrific outbreaks of cholera and other diseases that will kill millions in Asia.
By 2050, 33 years from now, India expects to out-populate China with 1.55 billion people. As it stands, they lack the ‘arable land’ to grow enough food. They clearly lack clean water as they dry up their ground water supplies.
When India starts facing hunger crises via lack of arable land, lack of rainfall, and growing ‘catastrophic climate destabilization’ with its 1.252 billion people—we’re all in trouble.
No amount of immigration solves anything for Indians. No amount of international aid will help them. Why? The answer is it’s because they keep growing human numbers beyond any solutions.
If you’re in your 30s or 40s, you and your children will see this international debacle on a stage unseen in human history. That’s why America, Australia, Europe and Canada must create an international discussion on human population stabilization before Mother Nature does it for us, rather brutally and without mercy.
Eleanor Roosevelt said it 50 years ago, “We must prevent human tragedy rather than run around trying to save ourselves after an event has already occurred. Unfortunately, history clearly shows that we arrive at catastrophe by failing to meet the situation, by failing to act when we should have acted. The opportunity passes us by and the next disaster is always more difficult and compounded than the last one.”
Frosty Wooldridge lives in Golden, CO. He speaks at colleges, civic clubs, high schools and conferences. As a six continent world bicycle traveler, his books include How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World (HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com). In the summer 2017, he rode his bike 4,100 miles from Oregon to Bar Harbor, Maine. Learn more at: frostywooldridge.com.
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