730
years”.
28
Added food security might well militate against demographic trends, suggesting that Africa’s population will easily reach 2.5 billion by 2050.
29
But at the
same time, demographers project that “Africa could have one billion undernourished, malnourished and hungry children and young people by 2050 if current levels
continue unabated”.
30
One thinks back to England, nearly 30 million people, when
Thomas Hardy’s final novel involving his character of Jude discovers that his son
has killed his two young cousins before hanging himself. The perceived motive is
too many kids, insufficient means, a wretched life. A ruthless Judgment Day (Jude
the Obscure, 1894/1895).
So far there has been no correlation in Africa between new farming technologies,
the revival of earthworms, their contribution to global greenhouse gasses, and hunger trends among humans. But it is not enough to simply say that it is a complex
puzzle. Of course it is. But there are clear ethical trade-offs looming for all involved.
Thus far, earthworm taxa have been studied extensively in South Africa but incomparably less so elsewhere on the continent.
31
It should come as no surprise that our
engineering and science remain fragmented and, ultimately, when it comes to
actually saving lives, periodic and short-lived. It has taken more than 40 years for
researchers to develop an HIV vaccine that can at least, generally speaking, neutralize antibodies. Cancer cures remain all but elusive. No truly effective international
treaties regarding anti-poaching, population stabilization, transboundary pollution
control, carbon and methane neutral societal behavior, or comprehensive nonviolence have yet to be consecrated. Our species is not even close. So many continue to look to New Zealand as a relative Utopia in this melee of global problems.
28 See “No soil left behind: How a cost-effective technology can enrich poor fields,” International
Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Libère Nkurunziza, Ngonidzashe Chirinda, Marcos Lana,
Rolf Sommer, Stanley Karanja, Idupulapati Rao, Miguel Antonio Romero Sanchez, Marcela
Quintero, Shem Kuyah, Francis Lewu, Abraham Joel, George Nyamadzawo, Alvin Smucker. “The
Potential Benefits and Trade-Offs of Using Sub-surface Water Retention Technology on CoarseTextured Soils: Impacts of Water and Nutrient Saving on Maize Production and Soil Carbon
Sequestration.” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2019; 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/
fsufs.2019.00071, Science News, October 9, 2019, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/
191009131746.htm, Accessed January 19, 2020.
29 See Quartz Africa, “There’s a strong chance a third of all people on earth will be African by
2100,” by Giles Pison, October 11, 2017, https://qz.com/africa/1099546/population-growth-africans-will-be-a-third-of-all-people-on-earth-by-2100/Accessed January 19, 2020.
30 See “Nearly half of all child deaths in Africa stem from hunger, study shows,” by Saeed Kamali
Dehghan, June 5, 2019, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/
jun/05/nearly-half-of-all-child-deaths-in-africa-stem-from-hunger-study-shows, Accessed January
19, 2020.
31 BioOne African Invertebrates, Vol. 56, Issue 3, 29 December 2015 An Annotated Key Separating
Foreign Earthworm Species from the Indigenous South African taxa (Oligochaeta: Acanthodrilidae,
Eudrilidae, Glossoscolecidae, Lumbricidae, Megascolecidae, Microchaetidae, Ocnerodrilidae and
Tritogeniidae), by Jadwiga D. Plisko, Thembeka C. Nxele, African Invertebrates, 56(3):663–708
(2015). https://doi.org/10.5733/afin.056.0312, https://bioone.org/journals/african-invertebrates/
volume-56/issue-3/afin.056.0312/An-Annotated-Key-Separating-Foreign-EarthwormSpecies-from-the-Indigenous/10.5733/afin.056.0312.full, Accessed January 20, 2020.
80 Temptational Obscurity That Brings Hope to Life
years”.
28
Added food security might well militate against demographic trends, suggesting that Africa’s population will easily reach 2.5 billion by 2050.
29
But at the
same time, demographers project that “Africa could have one billion undernourished, malnourished and hungry children and young people by 2050 if current levels
continue unabated”.
30
One thinks back to England, nearly 30 million people, when
Thomas Hardy’s final novel involving his character of Jude discovers that his son
has killed his two young cousins before hanging himself. The perceived motive is
too many kids, insufficient means, a wretched life. A ruthless Judgment Day (Jude
the Obscure, 1894/1895).
So far there has been no correlation in Africa between new farming technologies,
the revival of earthworms, their contribution to global greenhouse gasses, and hunger trends among humans. But it is not enough to simply say that it is a complex
puzzle. Of course it is. But there are clear ethical trade-offs looming for all involved.
Thus far, earthworm taxa have been studied extensively in South Africa but incomparably less so elsewhere on the continent.
31
It should come as no surprise that our
engineering and science remain fragmented and, ultimately, when it comes to
actually saving lives, periodic and short-lived. It has taken more than 40 years for
researchers to develop an HIV vaccine that can at least, generally speaking, neutralize antibodies. Cancer cures remain all but elusive. No truly effective international
treaties regarding anti-poaching, population stabilization, transboundary pollution
control, carbon and methane neutral societal behavior, or comprehensive nonviolence have yet to be consecrated. Our species is not even close. So many continue to look to New Zealand as a relative Utopia in this melee of global problems.
28 See “No soil left behind: How a cost-effective technology can enrich poor fields,” International
Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Libère Nkurunziza, Ngonidzashe Chirinda, Marcos Lana,
Rolf Sommer, Stanley Karanja, Idupulapati Rao, Miguel Antonio Romero Sanchez, Marcela
Quintero, Shem Kuyah, Francis Lewu, Abraham Joel, George Nyamadzawo, Alvin Smucker. “The
Potential Benefits and Trade-Offs of Using Sub-surface Water Retention Technology on CoarseTextured Soils: Impacts of Water and Nutrient Saving on Maize Production and Soil Carbon
Sequestration.” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2019; 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/
fsufs.2019.00071, Science News, October 9, 2019, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/
191009131746.htm, Accessed January 19, 2020.
29 See Quartz Africa, “There’s a strong chance a third of all people on earth will be African by
2100,” by Giles Pison, October 11, 2017, https://qz.com/africa/1099546/population-growth-africans-will-be-a-third-of-all-people-on-earth-by-2100/Accessed January 19, 2020.
30 See “Nearly half of all child deaths in Africa stem from hunger, study shows,” by Saeed Kamali
Dehghan, June 5, 2019, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/
jun/05/nearly-half-of-all-child-deaths-in-africa-stem-from-hunger-study-shows, Accessed January
19, 2020.
31 BioOne African Invertebrates, Vol. 56, Issue 3, 29 December 2015 An Annotated Key Separating
Foreign Earthworm Species from the Indigenous South African taxa (Oligochaeta: Acanthodrilidae,
Eudrilidae, Glossoscolecidae, Lumbricidae, Megascolecidae, Microchaetidae, Ocnerodrilidae and
Tritogeniidae), by Jadwiga D. Plisko, Thembeka C. Nxele, African Invertebrates, 56(3):663–708
(2015). https://doi.org/10.5733/afin.056.0312, https://bioone.org/journals/african-invertebrates/
volume-56/issue-3/afin.056.0312/An-Annotated-Key-Separating-Foreign-EarthwormSpecies-from-the-Indigenous/10.5733/afin.056.0312.full, Accessed January 20, 2020.
80 Temptational Obscurity That Brings Hope to Life