In my lifetime, the earth’s human population has grown from2.6 billion to over 7 billion people. The following quote from The Matrix, offers this perspective on our species:

“I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had, during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you aren’t actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with its surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we… are the cure.”  – Agent Smith

Carl Sagan talks about how it’s up to us to save our species and preserve the earth in this quote from Pale Blue Dot:

“Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all the vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

If any other species on earth were reproducing at this rate, depleting the earth’s resources and destroying the environment, we humans, would do something about it…we are the cure.

“Two things are infinite: the Universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the Universe.”
– Albert Einstein

It’s getting crowded in here.