More People, Less Sheep: Less Sheep for More People.

According to the US Census Bureau, as of February 24th, 2010,The World population is currently 6,804,600,000 and is predicted to reach nine billion by 2040. This increase has a strong probability of having devastating outcomes for the Earth's environment. As we have seen throughout history, increase in populations are usually complemented with environmental degradation. I use environmental degradation as a phrase to encompasses habitat alteration, climatic change, destruction of ecological balance, exploitation of nature and its members and pollution. In the 'Last of the Flock, we see a direct relationship between population growth and the demise of an animal population. In order for the author to feed his six children, he had to sacrifice his sheep, probably for slaughter. "I sold a sheep as they had said, and bought my little children bread"

We as a human population,are currently exceeding the Earth's carrying capacity ;The more persons added to the Earth, the more burden it will be on the Earth's environment to sustain us. When in times of economic struggle,as the author was experiencing "Six Children, Sir! I had to feed,Hard labour in a time of need!", the environment oft pays a heavy price.

Following the anthropocentric ethic, which many adopt, Human beings tend to reject the intrinsic value of our animal kin, but acknowledge and exploit the instrumental value of the animal kin. Surprisingly our author did not seem to genuinely adopt such an anthropocentric ethic, it appeared as if he genuinely cared for, loved and nurtured the sheep. He appeared to have an emotional attachment to the sheep which he bred and reared throughout his life. " Sir, 'twas a precious flock to me, As dear as my own children be"However due to his relatively large family, the author had to sacrifice his "dear" sheep to feed his children. This poem is a specimen on a small scale which depicts the effect of rapid population growth on a given environment(in this case an animal population). The needs of the six children decimated the flock.One can only imagine what the addition of billions of people on our Earth's fragile eco system could mean for the Environment. This poem gives you some perspective on population growth.

The more humans on Earth, the more we exploit, thus the less we have; The less we have, the more we need to exploit, to provide for the 'more' humans. Its a fatal cycle.