Artwork > Environment Vessels

Environment Vessel #8: Cannot Endure
Environment Vessel #8: Cannot Endure
copper, enamel, silver
12 x 7 x 7
2023

The Earth, as of this day, has over 8,000,000,000 people on it. That is approximate because when I looked up a sight that gave the numbers, it increased constantly as I watched. The population is projected to reach 10 billion by 2058. At the dawn of agriculture (about 8000 B.C.) the population of the world was approximately 5 million. It is estimated that by 1 A.D. (8000 years later) it had grown to 200-300 million, a rate of 0.05%. The growth rate in 2023 alone was 0.88%. I don't think it takes a scientist or a mathematician to see that this increase in human population cannot go on forever. There are already non-human creatures that are going extinct because of loss of food or habitat, and replacement by food-source animals. Do we wait for war, plague, or environmental disaster to stop the population explosion? Is that the most humane approach?

This cannot endure.
We were never meant to be
The only ones left.