Photo: iStockphoto & Microsoft

Contrary to what seems like the whole world’s belief that the Earth will soon become unable to sustain all seven billion of us, the author of this article thinks that we’ve got “plenty of room for all.” He argues that the decrease in fertility rates coupled with increased harvest of “the three biggest crops: wheat, rice, and corn” (while maintaining essentially the same sized farmland as centuries ago), allows the Earth to sustain us with few problems in the near future.

I agree, but what interested me most was the notion that governments are greatest to blame for the Earth’s ‘doom’. Relating to Stakeholder Theory, a government is much like a business. In order to garner a nation’s support, it needs to be more inclusive of its stakeholders’ (i.e. taxpayers’) interests regarding decision making. Why spend taxpayer money on political campaigns and random statues, when we could be working towards greater economic efficiency instead?

While it’s important for consumers to reduce their carbon footprint, if the governments don’t play their parts efficiently, we might have to cross our fingers and hope to find a suitable substitute for our friend Earth.