When I was in grad school (say around 1970), the Earth’s population stood at 3.5 billion. Today, it’s more than 7 billion. That would seem to be enough people.

Unfortunately, all these people want the same standard of living America has; that is, after life’s necessities like clothing, food and shelter, they also want at least one 40-inch TV, a car and a computer. To meet this demand requires energy.

Last year the U.S. consumed more energy than any nation except China. Last year we also consumed more energy than in any previous year in our history. In fact, nearly every developed country on the planet, including China, used more energy than ever before. (Sweden may have been an exception.) Given the world’s increasing population and the demands of Southeast Asia, India, Africa and Central and South America, within 20 years the demand for energy could easily be three times what it is today.

Though governments and businesses are exploring new sources of power – the ocean’s tides, wind power, solar and atomic energy – for the immediate future our main source will still be fossil fuels. The world is currently burning 23,000 gallons of oil every second. China constructs a new coal-burning plant nearly every week.

The relationship between fossil fuel, carbon emissions and the earth’s rising temperature is currently a popular, public topic. In the past 100 years, the earth’s climate has warmed by roughly three-fourths of a degree Celsius, making the 20th century the hottest century in at least 1,000 years. Our glaciers and ice caps are melting, raising the sea level. The tide station at Miami Beach has increased by seven inches since 1935. Alaskan permafrost is melting, causing entire towns to shift and sink. In the past two decades, the world’s deserts have expanded by thousands upon thousands of acres.

Big Oil and conservative politicians argue that the earth’s rising temps have nothing, or at least little, to do with fossil fuels. They claim it’s just a natural occurrence and point out that during its evolution Earth has gone through several hot spells and, for that matter, cold spells, too.

On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of scientists argue that fossil fuels are a major contributor to global warming. If this is true, the best solution is simply to stop burning them but, of course, no government or people on earth are about to do that.

Based upon current trends and projections, it’s predicted the earth’s population will double in the next 30 years; that is, there’ll be more than 14 billion people. This is ridiculous and it will never happen because certain tragic events will prevent it, like wars and more wars, mass starvation on an unimagined scale, and unknown and unpreventable plagues that will kill millions of people.

That’s a pretty bleak picture.

However, this is the worst case scenario and it may not occur. Our predictions might be woefully off base because of factors we haven’t foreseen. For example, there might be a sudden, sharp and unexpected plunge in birth rates.

Depending upon your age, if this holocaust actually happens you may not be around to see it. But your children will certainly be here and they’ll have to face it, straight on. Best of luck to them.