Human Population . . . again!

On occasion, some of you haven’t exactly supported/subscribed to my assertion that the world is quickly being overpopulated by human beings, who are resulting in climate change, aka: global warming. Granted, I’m much more of a wiseacre . . . wise guy . . . wise ass – take yer pick – than an actual wise man, but I am certainly not alone in my contention.

A reader of Parade Magazine, a Mr. Don Vollmer, posed to “Ask Marilyn” if the growing human population was enough to cause climate change.  The noted genius, Marilyn vos Savant, pointed out what I’ve said numerous times.  It took around 100,000 years for us to get to a population of 2 billion by the year 1900 – or so – which was just as the Industrial Revolution was getting into full swing, but since then we’ve skyrocketed to nearly 8 BILLION souls!  In a mere 122 years we’ve quadrupled what took us 99,878 years (998 CENTURIES) to *achieve*!  A lot of the growth is because we’ve solved smallpox and many other major killer diseases, but also it’s because of how of our modern conveniences have increased our standard of living.  Until a few hundred years ago human life expectancy averaged around 28.5 – 32 years.  By the 1950s it had grown to an average of 45.7 – 48 years.  Now, the world average is up to 72.6 – 73.2 years.  And, it’s even higher in first-world countries, like the U.S. and Canada.

Marilyn pointed out that if we lived the simpler agrarian lives, of days gone by, the population increase would be sustainable, but because of how we now live – our increased standard of living – the continued growth cannot be sustained.  She didn’t go into detail, but one can infer she meant we’ve all become such huge consumers, and a lot of that consumption comes in the form of burning fossil fuels, both in the generation of electricity, and in powering our automobiles.  And, also the petroleum we use to create all the plastics, that so much is made of these days, and the rare earth metals that our electronics use.  And, all of our single use paper products – like toilet paper, napkins and paper towels – are contributing to the global deforestation, just as the reliance on palm oil – in the foods that we eat – is causing deforestation in the rain forests of the world.  We’re spoiling too much of our ground water, and we’re running out of places to put our trash.  The genie is out of the bottle, folks!

Marilyn vos Savant has the highest recorded I.Q. in the Guinness Book of Records.  She has served on numerous boards of directors, and was the Chief Financial Officer for Jarvik Heart, Inc., as well as authoring “Ask Marilyn”.  No one is saying that she’s the smartest human on the planet, or anything, but she is a very respected thinker.  Dismiss my diatribes if you will, but don’t mess with Marilyn!  Be well and do good, friends.   —   YUR

Image courtesy of DeviantArt 

Sunday Jumble Solved – 04/10/22

Visual Description:  A grounding undertaking.

NJLIEG  =  JINGLE,  SARUBD  =  ABSURD,  PHEAPN  =  HAPPEN,  NXULIF  =  INFLUX,  LMMEBU  =  MUMBLE,  GATUEO  =  OUTAGE   —   Giving us:  JNESDHAIFLMBLOA

Clue/Question:  The former airline pilot purchased the farm so he could – – –

Pre-Answer:  Four Words  (4-letters)  (7-letters)  (1-letter)  (3-letters)

Answer:  LAND HIMSELF A JOB

(A very impressive Sunday Jumble!  Not an automatic solve on my end today.  I had to work on it a bit.  And, the pun could almost get by with nary a groan.  But of course some folks are going to groan, just like yer Uncle Rave – occasionally – likes to gripe about some Jumbles being too easy.  Not everybody is going to be happy/satisfied every day.  Dems da breaks!

All six of today’s clue words have been used a plenty.  I never complain about seeing the word “absurd”!  I just love that word.  I did pause for a few seconds with “influx”, because besides the word meaning something coming in the phrase in flux means being in a state of change.  Mine – and most of our – moods are constantly in flux.  Five of today’s jumbles appear to be new, to me.  Though we’ve definitely seen “gatueo” before.  The answer letter layout was a fantastic fifteen letter jumble.  It really kept me guessing for a couple minutes, as there was nothing obvious about it.  I essentially worked backwards from A JOB.  Thought the first word might be HAND, for a couple seconds, before realizing it was LAND.  The remaining ESHIFLM gave me HIMSELF.

Fine cartoon of a former sky-jockey buying himself a farm.  The farmer looks like a farmer, but the buyer looks like he could be anyone.  Only his cockpit reference, and the clue/question, clues you into what he used to do.  Jeff probably sees plenty of farm scenes, living in Indiana.  It’s a big farming state.  Very satisfying Sunday Jumble.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google

Happy birthday to Katrina Leskanich, of Katrina and the Waves!  (First:  her lesser known Top 40 hit, then the one almost everyone knows!)