The population bomb and the increasing tax on global resources

November 6, 2011, 7:41 pm


Welcome

Welcome to the sixty fourth edition of this regular column. Here, we discuss a wide range of topics around Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), many aspects of Business, SME Development, Agriculture, Education, Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Innovation and the Society at large.

Population

The world population reached the 7 billion mark last week. While it’s a milestone, it is also a thought provoking point.

The world population hit 6.5 billion in February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the approximate day on which the world population reached 6 billion. This came about 12 years after the world population reached the 5 billion point in 1987. The growth is extremely rapid.

This was not the case many thousands of years ago. Humans just like any other animal species were subject to the laws of nature. This meant that the survival of the species depended on the abundance of food and evasion of predators. It’s a cycle which regulated the population of every species. However, during the course of the history humans realised that their food can be produced; vegetables and fruits can be grown and animals can be farmed. From this point onwards the journey of the human kind took a different path from that of the other species. Abundance of food meant fewer restrictions on population growth.

Population growth increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. The drastic advances in medical technologies meant a significant drop in mortality and infant mortality rates. The advancement in industrial machinery resulted in substantial increases in agricultural productivity.

Let’s be happy for where we are, for all the achievements and everything else. But there are few things to be looked at to have a sustainable future.

It’s good to be able to live a secure life with the ability to produce our own food and attend to ailments with proper medical care. However in the bigger scheme of things we should not forget that there is an ever increasing tax on the scarce global resources.

Author of "The Population Bomb", Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University recently gave an interview where he emphasized that global population has more than doubled since he wrote the book in 1968. He notes that although there has been a reduction in birth rates, it is not nearly enough.

It is projected that the Earth will have to support 2 billion additional people by 2050. Regarding this he says:

"To support 2 billion more, it will be necessary to farm ever poorer lands, use more dangerous and expensive agricultural inputs, win metals from ever-poorer ores, drill wells deeper or tap increasingly remote or more contaminated sources to obtain water, and then spend more energy to transport that water ever greater distances. All this will require vastly more energy than is now used. As a result, the next 2 billion people probably will do disproportionately much more damage to our life-support systems than did the last 2 billion. Of course, if humanity got serious about protecting the environment, and now especially the atmosphere, the next 2 billion could do less damage."

In a nutshell, the increasing population need more land area for living to build houses and flats. On the other hand more land area is needed for agriculture to nurture the increasing population. And not forgetting the need to produce ever more increasing amounts of furniture and consumables among other things. All this is while sharing the limited amount of water, oil and other natural resources.

So, it’s crystal clear that we need to manage the population for our future generations to survive on mother earth. There are a few areas to that can help.

Empowering women to make their own decisions about child birth and bearing is one area. More than two in five pregnancies worldwide are unintended by the women who experience them. Women must be able to make their own decisions about childbearing free from fear of pressure from partners, family, and society.

The other main area is around consuming fewer resources and minimising waste. Humans use the finite resources of the world to unbelievable levels and they also waste large quantities of food every year. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, industrialized countries waste 222 million tons of food annually. If fewer resources and less food were wasted, the world would be able to feed more people and use fewer resources in producing them.

Not to forget, we are already talking of a potential famine where food could be in short supply. I am sure all of us have heard about the issues with drinking water.

Sustainable development and due attention to this is a need of the hour.

125th Anniversary of Ananda College

Quickly moving on to a different topic, last week saw the 125th anniversary of the Ananda College Colombo, the alma-mater to me and many others.

On 1st November, 1886, a daily English school was opened at No: 64, in Maliban Street, Pettah, pioneered by Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thero and inspired by Col. Henry Steele Olcott. Starting with a mere student population of 37, it was soon re-located to Maradana, where it blossomed into present day pristine glory, accommodating over 6000 students.

It’s a place that helped to mould our nation and many individuals. Ananda has battled all the way for the betterment of Sri Lanka throughout its history of 125 years. The latest is the contribution of Anandians during our win over terrorists in 2009. Among them are Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara, Maj General Jagath Dias, Maj General Kamal Goonarathna, Brig Prasanna Silva and Brig Chagi Gallage.

Among notable old Anandians who have excelled in various fields are Basil Rajapaksa, Thilak Karunaratne, Deva Rodrigo, Arjuna Ranatunga, Ashok Pathirage, Imthiaz Bakeer Markar, Karu Jayasuriya, Upali Dharmadasa, Dullas Alahapperuma, Prof.Tissa Vitharana, Gomin Dayasiri, Mohan Pandithage, Kinglsly Ratnayake, Nimal Lakshapathiarchchi, Kasun Kalhara, Prof. Sampath Amaratunga, Dr. Gamini Wickremasinghe, Ossie Abeygunasekara, Ranjith Pandithage, Deepal Sooriyarachchi and Titus Thotawatte.

The key thing with Ananda culture is the ultimate love for our country, people, culture and motivation to help the society while taking up challenges.

Reader Feedback Corner

Our topic last week was about the tea sector in Sri Lanka. We discussed about opportunities that exist for Sri Lanka as well as the challenges to get over. Mr Ranjith Abeygunawardane, who has over 29 years experience in the plantation sector, has written in detail to us. Below are some of his concerns about the sector.

Quality of the tea produce is deteriorating day by day because of adulterating at the producer end and there is no proper mechanism to detect it at the factory end. Adulteration is done mainly on the black colour appearance. This takes place in most of the factories that are aiming for poor green leaf standards to increase their quantity and they do not have enough machinery to remove the stalk in the made teas.

The main cause for adulteration is the substandard green leaf accepted by the factory. There seems to be no collective agreement among the stakeholders to get rid of this problem. The high cost of production for the factories is area cause that pushes them towards this unethical practice. The capital expenditure on stalk extracting machines is very high and manufactures find it difficult to bear the cost.

This will be a black mark for our black tea in the global markets unless proper measures are not taken.

On other matters raised, the agro climatic conditions and individual factory can be better utilised in branding. Brokers seem to be not promoting our branding and value adding because of hidden agendas on their own profit.

As I also pointed out, the people factor is key for this industry and that needs attention. According to Mr Abeygunawardane, human resource management is disgraceful in the industry as it still uses manufacturing processes. This also raises the point that the sociological aspect of tea is being ignored. More can be done for estate workers. Support should be given to tea small holders as well. They are the life blood of this industry.

I agree with his comment on lapses in research. This was noted in the column last week. Research and development work is not done by the manufactures but has been handed over to the tea research institute (TRI). However, it is only a research station but not in a manufacturing environment according to Mr Abeygunawardane.

I hope this feedback from a participative reader in the sector will give some things to think about for all those who are involved in the tea industry.

If you also have any feedback or things to be raised, please drop a note to yva@lankabpoacademy.lk

See you next week!



The Columnist

Yasas Vishuddhi Abeywickrama is a professional with significant experiences. In 2011 he was recognised as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in Sri Lanka. Yasas has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from University of Colombo and a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from Swinburne University in Australia. He has worked in the USA, UK, Sri Lanka & Australia and being trained in the USA & Malaysia. He is currently involved in the training organisation, Lanka BPO Academy (www.lankabpoacademy.lk). Apart from this column, he is a regular resource person for ‘Ape Gama’ program of FM Derana (Sunday 3-5pm). Yasas is happy to answer your relevant questions – email him at yva@lankabpoacademy.lk .