Humanity in Crisis and Sustainable Future

Preface 1

Chapter 1. Humanity to Fight Pandemics 6
1.1 The Outbreak and Spread of COVID-19 7
1.1.1 From Wuhan, China to Global Pandemic 7
1.1.2 A Global Catastrophe 10
1.2 Invasion of New Diseases in the 2000s 12
1.2.1 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) 13
1.2.2 2009/2010 H1N1 Influenza 15
1.2.3 2015/2018 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) 17

Chapter 2. Apocalypse, Economic and Social Perspective 19
2.1 Limits to Growth and Scientific Apocalypse 21
2.1.1 Malthus: Food and Population 22
2.1.2 Club of Rome: Limits to Growth 26
2.1.3 A Catastrophe Caused by the Destruction of Nature 30
2.2 Retreat of Globalization and Economic Shock 33
2.2.1 Globalization, the Power Shaping One Global Village 33
2.2.2 A Setback in Globalization 36
2.3 Economic System Leading to Crisis 40
2.3.1 Market Economy on Infinite Growth 42
2.3.2 Mass Production beyond Consumption 46
2.3.3 Economy Supported by Endless Consumption 50
2.3.4 Expansion of Human Footprints 54
2.4 Anarchy in International Politics 57
2.4.1 A World Without World Government 58
2.4.2 Building Fences Leading to Collision 61
2.4.3 Social Conflict in the Movie Snowpiercer 65

Chapter 3. Environment Destruction 75
3.1 Changes in Aspects of Environmental Problems 77
3.2 From Local Problem to Global Problem 78
3.2.1 From Developed Countries to Developing Countries 82
3.2.2 From Human Problem to Biological Problem 89
3.3 Air Pollution and Climate Change 93
3.3.1 Acid rain 93
3.3.2 Destruction of the Ozone Layer 95
3.3.3 Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change 96
3.4 Threat to Biodiversity 101
3.4.1 The Concept of Biodiversity 101
3.4.2 Causes of biodiversity destruction 103
3.4.3 The extinction of living things 106
3.5 Response from International community 110
3.5.1 Collective Management 110
3.5.2 Sustainable Development 113
3.5.3 Biodiversity Protection 115

Chapter 4. Towards Our Sustainable Future 120
4.1 Our Common Future and The Future We Want 122
4.1.1 The 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals 124
4.1.2 Critical Debates on SDGs 128
4.1.3 UN SDGs Reports 133
4.2 Issues to be Contemplated 136
4.2.1 Restoration of Nature is Key to Our Survival 137
4.2.2 Over-Supply Management 142
4.2.3 Population Issue and Birth Control 145
4.2.4 Green Growth 158
4.3 What Can We Do? 162

Notes 166
Bibliography 172

요약, Preface

This is a follow-up and revised edition of my previous book, "A Seven-Billion Star: Humanity in Crisis," which was published in 2016 in Korean. As of 2020, when I started to write this new book, humanity globally was struggling with a new pandemic caused by the Corona-19 viruses. Also, humanity witnessed kinds of natural disasters occurring almost every day throughout the world, which were mostly precipitated by global climate changes.
At the time I wrote the previous book, the human population was 7.3 billion, but as of November 2022, the population was projected to stand at 8.0 billion. Now, it is more appropriate to call the Earth an "8 billion star" rather than a "7 billion star." According to the UN's 2022 population forecast, the human population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and 10.4 billion by the end of this century.
​However, it is unsure if this forecast will come true. The global human society faced severe threats caused by the spread of the novel Corona-19, which began in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. Almost all the countries in the world experienced the first-ever phenomenon of simultaneous global shutdowns, including the blocking of borders and strict controls on human movement. Looking back, even only in the 2000s, new diseases such as SARS and MERS have emerged in succession, threatening human safety. At the same time, various livestock diseases such as avian flu, foot-and-mouth disease and mad cow disease have also been rampant. Therefore, it has become questionable whether humans can survive by 2100 and reach 10 billion people on this planet.
​As heat waves, heavy rains, floods, droughts, and wildfires continue to erupt around the world, along with new zoonotic diseases occurring more frequently as days go by, humanity is now facing questions about whether it can have a sustainable future on this planet. We hear the news that polar ice caps are melting in the North and South, and so Artic bears and Antarctic penguins are both simultaneously facing the threat of extinction. Also, we see that environmental pollution and ecosystem destruction are endangering the survival of all living things around the world, so that "The Sixth Extinction" is looming. In this day, everyone knows that underlying all this depressing and ominous news lie the "anthropogenic climate changes" that humans have caused by demolishing the Earth.
​This book contains my concerns on these global crises issues and was written by revising and compressing the contents of the previous work.