State of the Potential Union

December 25, 2008: A report.

6,871,059,884 humans.

Nearly seven billion people, how are they divided (pun intended) by belief system? A rough estimate.

Christians 2.1 billion

Islam 1.5 billion

Hinduism 900 million

Buddhism 376 million

Chinese folk religion 394 million

Primal indigenous 300 million

Sikhism 25.8 million

Which seem to leave well over a billion humans unaccounted for.

They are also divided by geography, technological opportunity, economic wealth and class. Another rough indicator of those divisions can be observed here, by which areas and populations have the wealth and technological sophistication to produce large amounts of electric light…

Currently the major strife on the planet consists of religious and political leaders (a subtle difference) opposing each other over the above enumerated belief systems. Most notably Christian vs. Islam. The subtext of those conflicts has to do with energy supplies.

In order to gain what is referred to as “a higher standard of living,” the industrialized regions and factions are dumping huge…..and ever increasing ….amounts of carbon waste into the atmosphere. Rapidly, by planetary standards, making the planet uninhabitable for human life. There are ongoing and developing conflicts being waged to be able to produce more carbon waste for each participants region and economic interest.

The average income on the planet is around $7,000 per year.

In developing countries nearly 16 million children die every year from preventable and treatable causes. Sixty percent of these deaths are from hunger and malnutrition.

There are about 153,000 deaths per day, and 367,000 births each day.

Humans have created sophisticated communication and energy systems and have vast computational and problem solving abilities, yet continue to war among themselves and view nearly all other members of their species with suspicion. Example after example exists of humans working together to solve problems of all kinds, from technological problems to political problems. And yet they still, on the whole, have not found ways to overcome an ingrained tribal nation state mentality that leads them to engage in nearly constant conflict.

Conclusion: If the nearly seven billion inhabitants of the planet could find a way to unite in purpose and overcome what must be viewed, in light of the stakes involved for their mutual survival, petty bickering over relatively minor things such as belief systems and resource allocation, the human species could accomplish great things. They are capable of uniting to conquer all the challenges associated with planetary survival and providing for each individual.

However they have yet to truly develop a consciousness that is capable of viewing themselves as members of one species and engaging in cooperative effort, as opposed to viewing themselves as collections of individuals or as tribes competing against one another.

At the time of this report, it is essentially a “coinflip” situation as to whether they will be able to come together in some form of planetary union for mutual survival, or commit a form of species suicide by continuing on the path of division.

A formal request for solutions is hereby submitted.