Horning In

Yesterday, it seemed that the world had converged on Costco. Maddie and I went to return something and were going to replace it, but I couldn't justify standing in line for what looked like may be an hour. A favorite thing for Maddie and I to do at Costco is surf the floor looking for appealing food samples. Yesterday the poor sample-givers did not seem to be able to keep up with the demand; as soon as the sample would hit the little table, it was swept away by greedy, sample-grubbing fingers, ours included.

Our progress was halted at every turn. We had to stop every few feet to let people squeeze by, just as they did for us. Amazingly, though, as filled as people's carts were, the shelves of goods at Costco never seemed to dwindle.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the world population is projected to grow to nine billion by 2040. Since the population hit six billion in 1999, this 50% increase will have taken only 41 years. Scarily, just a mere 108 years ago, there were only 1.5 billion people in the entire world. Because of exponential growth, even though the increase rate is only about 1.5% per year, this little number produces staggering results.

How earth is going to sustain so many people is a point worth pondering. I do not believe it will. It can't. Just as Costco can hold only so many people, so can the earth. But the earth's "shelves" will not magically replenish their supplies. Where will food come from to support so much life? Available land will decrease.

I love to walk though the neighborhood. The three of us are endlessly enchanted by the abundance of rabbits that permeate the yards in our area. They are so cute, those little bunnies. We also have owls, a billion geese, deer, and coyote. Of course, except for the geese, those others don't show their faces often, but they do lurk, in fact in the retention area right beyond our house. A captivating idea, yes, especially for city-folk. But then I started to think about how we have horned in on their territory. Those who have gardens complain about their booty being eaten by the annoying little animals, but where else are they supposed to go and what else are they supposed to eat? We're taking up all their space.

I am so happy that a Whole Foods finally just opened a few miles away from us. There is a whole new and beautiful glorified strip mall there with my favorite stores: Loehmann's, Home Goods, World Market, Nordstrom Rack. Hurray for me! But now even more rabbits, deer, and the like are going to have to try to find another place to go, or risk the fear and/or wrath of humans when they show up where we think they don't belong.

So, as we "make room" for our expansion, we take room away from others.

And I cannot even fathom half again as many people in Costco in 32 years!