Most people are so busy earning a living, parenting, and trying to stay healthy, they have no time to think. The smart ones perhaps read the New York Times and/or the Wall Street Journal to educate themselves about the issues. Fewer are blessed with the resources and time to deeply contemplate the significance and source of such matters. One particular issue, the rate of human expansion, is worthy of analysis, trusting that the definition of the problem is half the solution.

The slope of human expansion on our planet is simply not sustainable. The global population has grown more in the past century than in our recorded history. We are at eight billion and projected to grow to eleven billion before any meaningful decline. It thus makes sense that our population will eventually reach its limits and then decline. But how? 

We might speculate: an asteroid?; a plague?; nuclear war?; or something else entirely? My hypothesis is that it might be technological innovation, somewhat ironic given technology’s role as the main driver of our population explosion in the first place. From the steam engine to the industrial revolution, from electricity and cars to computers and cellphones, technology has improved the quality and quantity of human life.  

But technology is a double-edged sword that could also cut our population down to size. It could certainly work in some dramatic fashion like, say, germ warfare or a nuclear event. But I posit that it could be something up-close and ordinary, therefore more insidious, like the effects of toxic air, pesticide-laden food, Atrazine and lead-contaminated drinking water, hormones in our meat, mercury in our fish, and even the off-gassing of the synthetic material in the clothes and shoes we wear, the car seat we drive in, and the bed we sleep in.

It is estimated that there are 85,000 man-made chemicals, 1,000 of which are endocrine disrupting chemicals. These chemicals lower male sperm counts, affect the reproductive systems of our unborn children, and can disrupt thyroid function, trigger cancer, and obesity. In short, technology is rapidly killing us and lowering our birth rates.

To that I might offer that City Club is hyper-conscious of all this, starting with its premises constructed out of bricks, stone, steel and wood, rather than constantly off-gassing synthetic materials. We strive to serve organic food, use only chemical-free cleaning compounds, and avoid Roundup or any other weedkillers in the gardens.

As such City Club strives to be a Securus Locus in many ways, from the protection of free speech to the pristine environment in which we eat, work, and commune without the fear of literal contamination.

Think of Highland as a shelter from the prevailing chemical storm.

— Sina.