I have been thinking lately, about a college ecology class where we were given the final exam question at the beginning of the semester. It was, how would you measure the carrying capacity for the human race? Interestingly, a couple decades later, and my answer has not changed all that much.

Carrying Capacity is the number of individuals in a population, in a particular ecosystem, where adding just one more individual causes a catastrophic decrease in the population. A population tipping point, if you will. It is a hypothetical concept designed to make people think a certain way since it is impossible to ever understand the millions of variables in any ecosystem well enough to calculate such a thing accurately. Herein lies the rub…

My answer, so many years ago, was that it is a psychological question of emotional interaction or maturity, because humans have displayed an amazing technological and creative ability to problem solve in the past few centuries. If we wanted to, we could grow more food and ensure more clean water, but the reasons we do not are all psychological.

Today, my answer is the same, which scares me a bit. I keep thinking of the people in power, the people in the Think-tanks and boardrooms who believe they have all the answers, who most likely have an answer to that question that is focused on a particular resource… like oil. And instead of managing the resource better, instead evolving and adapting, they think the population needs to be culled so that the resource lasts longer.

The reason I think this is because the act of becoming a leader in this country requires a very shallow and materialistic perspective of the world, of people, and of populations as a whole. Our leaders are reactive people who repeatedly fail to display understanding:

• The only reason to manage a populations numbers is to maintain a status quo.
• To maintain a status quo is to arrest evolution.
• To consciously manage a populations numbers involves emotionally difficult choices and discipline.
• To consciously allow a population to grow until nature pushes back involves emotionally difficult choices and discipline.
• The difference is that nature is always right… and when people try to manage populations, they tend to be shallow, racist, and jingoistic about it.

I choose to put my faith in human ingenuity. People should try their hardest to live in their environment as balanced as possible, but never try to manage their numbers. Let nature decides who lives and dies and how many is enough.

For a person to attain a sense of dominance, to FEEL like they are in control, without having a plan or vision of leadership, requires them having someone to blame.