The Earth is Crying Out “Please Do Not Live Too Long!”.

Can Humans (we) really Manage the Impact of this Demographic Shift While Ensuring that Our Future Generations will be able to Inherit a Habitable Planet.

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a friend over brunch in town.

Halfway through, our conversation touched on the issue of ageing.

That was when this friend said “ Hey, let’s live a little longer. The world is a beautiful place to live in. Do we have to go that early?”

Replying her, I said in an almost articulate fashion as if to lecture to high school students “Hey, eighty is not too bad. Like it or not, are you aware that remarkable achievement in modern healthcare and living standards has resulted in an increased Global life expectancy from 60 to 80 years.”

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After saying that, it made me begin to think. Can we really live this long?. And what if we can?.

Reaching home and feeling rather concerned on the question, I literally sat down and thought of two main issues which I think are multi-faceted in nature namely:

1. HOUSING and

2. The ENVIRONMENT

The way I see it, the above two issues that surrounds us as we commute day in day out to our places of vocation, require a complex trade-offs as managing an aging society could also invite additional costs to all governments of the world which are already faced with the financial burden posed by an increased population and an ageing one too.

The Scary Impact of Increased Housing Demand

With people living longer, exacerbated by population growth and urbanization the demand for housing continues to rise.

This continued rise drives the need for expanding residential areas; and often, this expansion comes at the expense of natural ecosystems, including the cutting down of virgin jungles and forests to make space for housing developments leading to catastrophic events that we often see on TV screens today which is :

Global Warming, an inevitable danger:

1. Global warming poses long-term threats to human health and agricultural productivity, leading to food insecurity and further economic strain on the many governments of the day.

2. An issue not overly shown on screen, the destruction of forests to accommodate the ever increasing demand for increased housing areas would reap the effects of global warming and eventually threaten the very habitability of those newly developed areas.

3. It is a known fact that as we age, we would tend to require more medical care, including treatments for chronic diseases, long-term care facilities, and other health services.

4. With already overburdened healthcare systems, this growing demand places a strain on the various governments requiring more funding and resources.

5. An aging population can lead to a shrinking workforce, which means fewer people are paying taxes to support government services, including healthcare.

Hypocritical as we may seem, we could find this topic as unpopular and at times unpleasant to embark during any political discourse among friends as it could touch on issues relating to increased taxes and reduced social benefits.

Without sustainable solutions, the ageing population could put significant pressure on economic growth and social welfare systems.

Can anyone wonder now as to why I went home and seriously pondered on the utterance of my friend who said to me on that day we met.

I repeat.

She said “ Hey, let’s live a little longer. The world is a beautiful place to live in. Do we have to go off that early?”

At which after some hours pondering, I said to comfort myself, “ Well, surely the many governments of the day have already put solutions in place or perhaps they are still ‘action in progress’. For the moment, maybe, let’s just brace ourselves up in case the so called ‘act of God’ catastrophes still continue to pound.

Thanks for reading.

By the way, wouldn’t you want to live a little bit longer?