Water is necessary

What do you need? What is essential to every day of your life? In the world of instant gratification, global communication, and relative safety, you might find yourself thinking that you "need" more than truly necessary: Food, Water, Shelter.

When I wrote the survival series, it was about educating people whose basic needs are met in their daily lives. My hope continues to be that those articles can be a helpful resource and provide the knowledge which could save lives in unexpected situations. However, today is Earth Day and I'd like to take a more globally aware view.


URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:D-P005_Kein_Trinkwasser.svg

There are far more people in this world who live in a state of basic survival need everyday than those whose needs are met. People lacking proper nutrition, basic safety/security, and the most basic life need: water. In my articles about the human population reaching 7 billion, I mentioned some statistics about water and sanitation.

Lack access to safe drinking water (1.1 billion): 17.74%
and/or
Lack access to basic sanitation (2.6 billion): 41.93%

Years ago, I briefly shared a video from charity:water about their projects to bring clean drinking water to people around the world. Two years ago, I saw another video from them that I've been thinking about since.

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCHhwxvQqxg

The necessity of water to life is unmistakable, so too are the detrimental effects on the people and communities lacking clean water. Now and again, some people in the developed world are shocked into a life without basic needs (e.g. New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, New England after Hurricane Sandy, the disastrous Carnival Triumph cruise ship). It's in those situations that basic survival skills become the focus of every moment; imagine living always in that state. As the video notes, the time spent trying to meet our basic needs is time that can't be spent on developing ourselves and our community.

Not everyone has the resources, desire, or freedom to lend to the needs of others, but we all feel stress when our needs are being threatened. By keeping an awareness and empathy about that stress, maybe we can each make an effort to recognize and connect with others, helping to improve the overall human condition with the simplest kindness.

The tipping point of 7 billion

According to research on population density and growth [Science Magazine] this year, estimates are that the human population will reach 7 billion sometime in the next two weeks. You will recall that I began this year with an article discussing the importance of valuing our balance with the planet and the fellow inhabitants of it. The moment for each of us to recognize our place as one of 7 billion is nearly upon us.

As I detailed in another article at the mid-point of this year, "we need to also open our minds to the diversity and beauty of what it means to be human". Each human on this wonderful planet is an organism of unique evolutionary elegance. As we approach 7 billion, I implore you, each reader, to recognize how much you value your community (family, friends, etc.) and also accept that every person -- friend or foe -- has a community which they also treasure and value.

Try to take a step back in your own mind; imagine that you can look through another person's eyes. Especially when making decisions which will affect another being or a community of beings, consider what actions you would wish to have taken toward your own community. Some choices do result in necessary consequence, but weigh the necessity of each reaction upon the quality of the action. In a group as large as our global human community is about to become, it is far too easy to become detached from the very ethics and connections which make us distinctly human.

[sounce]

Consider this, "between now and 2050 the world population will increase by 2.3 billion" [Singularity Hub].
With such drastic growth coming, excercising empathy and understanding will become paramount. Our technological, data-driven world, separates us from the human interaction. Consider your community, consider your network of connections, value every human you meet, greet, email, link, like, or poke. We are each one in 7 billion; meaning, we our each unique and different, but we are also each as inconsequential as the people we choose to ignore.

7 billion "typical" humans

In an article published at midnight (UTC) on January 1st, I drew attention to the fact that this year (2011) the human population of our planet will reach 7 billion.

As part of their seven-part series on the subject of "Population 7 Billion", National Geographic took a look at "The Face of 7 Billion" [National Geographic] to study the "typical" human.

["The Face of 7 Billion" - National Geographic]

Right now is the date and time of the midpoint (182.5 days) of this year (2011-07-01 12:00:00 UTC). Inspired by the statistics National Geographic presented, I want to gather my own and add some detail to what we understand of our humanity.

PRIMARY LANGUAGE

Mandarin Chinese (845 million): 12.43%
Spanish (329 million): 4.84%
English (328 million): 4.82%
Arabic (221 million): 3.25%
Hindi (182 million): 2.68%
Bengali (181 million): 2.66%
Portuguese (178 million): 2.62%
Russian (144 million): 2.12%
Japanese (122 million): 1.79%
German (3 million): 0.04%
sum of all others: ≈ 62.75%

According to a statistical study by Ethnologue, over 62 percent of the human population doesn't recognize one of the top 10 languages as their primary language. Our ability to communicate with words is something which makes us somewhat unique among other animals. Even so, the breadth our diversity is clearly evident in this first statistic.

RELIGION

Christianity (2.1 billion): 30.88%
Islam (1.5 billion): 22.06%
Hinduism (900 million): 13.24%
Irreligious/agnostic (theistic) (550 million): 8.09%
Atheistic (550 million): 8.09%
Chinese traditional religion (394 million): 5.79%
Buddhism (376 million): 5.53%
Animist religions (300 million): 4.41%
African traditional/diasporic religions (100 million): 1.47%
Sikhism (23 million): 0.34%
sum of all others: ≈ 0.1%

In 2005, Adherents.com listed "Major Religions Ranked by Number of Adherents". As you can see in my summary, no one religion is in the majority. In fact, if we combine the irreligious and atheistic, we see that those who are not religious and/or are atheistic rank 3rd among the beliefs of humanity.

WATER AND SANITATION

Lack access to safe drinking water (1.1 billion): 17.74%

and/or

Lack access to basic sanitation (2.6 billion): 41.93%

The numbers above are from a UNICEF (UNICEF is the United Nations Children's Fund) estimate in 2005. Thanks almost entirely to humanitarian efforts throughout the years, especially by the UN*, those percentages have gone down. Today, almost 90% of humanity has access to safe drinking water, but that remaining 10% is still serious as it constitutes nearly 700 million people in our world of 7 billion.

LITERACY

Age 15 and over can read and write: 82%

Much of the human population is literate, which is very important considering the impact that education has on the other demographics I've listed. That said, it's worth noting that "over two-thirds of the world's ... illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan)" [CIA World Factbook].

If we seek to balance our relationship with our planet, as I suggested in January, we need to also open our minds to the diversity and beauty of what it means to be human and check our "resolve to becoming an organism who seeks the balance of a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with Earth and the other approximately 6,999,999,999 people on it." ["2011: The year of 7 billion" - INDY Blog]

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* To be honest, I think the United Nations deserves far more recognition for all it does in the way of improving the lives of humans all over Earth. The organization and the people who truly drive its efforts are nothing like the portrayal in minds and media: the bureaucratic soap-box for arrogant and selfish politicians.

2011: The year of 7 billion

2011-01-01 0:00:00 UTC
Welcome to the year 2011*!

This year, the human population of our planet will reach 7 billion.
That fact alone is immensely significant, considering our population was only 2 billion 81 years ago.

National Geographic is launching a seven part series "Population 7 Billion" to draw attention to the impact of our species' growth on Earth. (I've embedded the 3 minute promo video in this post.)


YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc4HxPxNrZ0

As the promo points out, it's not that there isn't enough space; it's that we, as a species, lack a balance for our planet to sustain us at our current growth rate. Allow me to paraphrase it another way....

If we were the essential bacteria within one's digestive tract, we've long passed the point of helping our host with necessary process of digestion and have become an internal infection: We would be killing our host. (Mutualism vs. Parasitism [wikipedia])

In the year 2011, resolve to becoming an organism who seeks the balance of a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with Earth and the other approximately 6,999,999,999 people on it.

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* 2011 actually began for Earth 14 hours ago in Kiritimati, Christmas Island, Kiribati [Time and Date.com]; Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the standard international time reference, therefore I'm using it.

Your impact on the planet

Consumer Consequences | Sustainability Coverage From American Public Media is a "game" of sorts I recently found that calculates your ecological footprint [wikipedia].

It's a fun resource and a real eye-opener. Even though both LK and I are pretty environmentally conscientious, we each still scored 1.9 Earths before "changing policies" (you'll learn what that means after playing the game) and 1.7 Earths after changing policies!

The real advantage to trying this out is that you will see what areas of your life have the most impact (e.g. the amount of meat and dairy I eat). So give it a try and see how many Earths it would take if everyone lived like you.

Here's an excerpt from the Consumer Consequences main page:
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Consumer Consequences will ask you a series of questions about your lifestyle, and as you play, it will show you how many "Earths" of natural resources it would take to sustain all 6.6 billion humans… if everyone lived like you.

Keep an eye on the background graphics of your in-game world as you play. They'll slide across the screen like theater scrims as you answer questions to illustrate what your "world" of consumption would look like. They'll reflect the waste you produce… the infrastructure (commercial, residential, industrial and transportation) you require… the energy (fossil, nuclear, and renewable) you consume… and how your lifestyle impinges on forests and other undeveloped land.

The impact of your lifestyle is calculated based on the "ecological footprint" model created by our research partner, Redefining Progress. Learn more about ecological footprinting or about the calculations that underlie Consumer Consequences.
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