July 23, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: It’s been 10 years since the PowerPoint presentation titled, “Climate Change: Impact Of An Outlaw Species,” aired in a church meeting room in Lexington.
Back then, there were 7.47 billion humans on Earth, today there are 8.16 billion, enough persons standing shoulder to shoulder to circle the planet at the equator, about two times. That’s a lot of humans.
And, back then, there were 1.45 billion cows (bovines and domestic buffalo). Today, there are 1.7 billion, enough critters to circle the Earth, nose to tail, at the equator more than 10 times. That’s a lot of cows.
Carbon dioxide emissions in 2015 came in at 399 parts per million, now CO2 measures at 422 ppm. That is already too much CO2, especially for plants, which have begun behaving in peculiar ways.
By impact, humans are the leading cause of climate change. Close behind is global Industrial Animal Agriculture followed at some distance by CO2 emissions. While there are dozens of other contributors to the climate problems we face as a species, these three problems require immediate remedy.
National governments, (sovereignties) have been the primary movers of mass human behavior since the substantial disappearance of kings and warlords toward the end of the 19th century. How will the human race organize itself to escape Armageddon in the form of a failing ecosystem with only a disaggregated collection of 195 nation-states, all in pursuit of their own interests? DON HENKE Goshen
