World Population Day Special: The Power Of Crowds
Sat, Jul 11, 2009
Environmental Graffiti Will be Changing Dramatically Soon. Get a Sneak Preview By Signing Up Here.
Image: Steve Jurvetson
World Population Day is not only a time to reflect on the many ways in which we could improve the lives of the Earth’s 6.7 billion citizens but also a chance to appreciate the power of the people – our energy, determination and ability to achieve when we put our minds together. The following ten images show that even in a crowd, everybody counts.
What makes us gather you ask? Good question. What could be strong enough to make us want to rub shoulders with people we don’t even know? As the following images will show, quite a few things have motivated us in the past and are continuing to unite us in the present. See for yourself.
1. Sports unite – then:
Image: The Brown Brothers
Sports have a great potential for uniting people from various socioeconomic, cultural and religious backgrounds. Here, the World Series filled up New York’s Times Square on 12th October, 1920 when tens of thousands gathered just to listen to updates from the Cleveland Indians vs. Brooklyn Robins game.
2. …and now – a sea of red, white and blue at the University of Florida:
Image: Pedro Alocer
3. People everywhere – the torch relay in Shenzen, China, at the 2008 Summer Olympics:
Image: Steve Jurvetson
Entertainment never fails to unite, even spontaneously when crowds gather on the street or at a planned event like a concert, fair, art event or even a book launch.
4. Houdini’s New York tightrope walk in 1916 united men in bowler hats who believed in magic:
Image via houdini tribute
5. The Woodstock crowd in 1969 united for peace, love and music:
Image via linds3y
6. The releases of the Harry Potter books drew huge crowds worldwide, here at a bookstore in San Francisco, CA:
Image: Zack Sheppard
7. Crowds watching and participating in the carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:
Image: Ygorrj359
Religion and religious beliefs and rituals, if coupled with tolerance, do unite rather than divide.
8. People bathing in the Ganges in Hardwar, India:
Image: Vikas Ragta
Grabbing an oppportunity and striving for success is something anyone can relate to. Even competitors will admire each other’s determination.
9. Chinese students at a career fair at the Shenzhen convention center in 2008:
Image via China Digital Times
Finally, a shared destination or goal brings people together, whether they want it or not.
10. Japanese commuters spilling out of a crowded train station:
Image via fareastgizmos
Inspired? We are. The motto of this year’s 20th World Population Day is to “build awareness of the importance of educating girls to a wide range of development issues, including poverty, human rights and gender equality.” Investing in the education and health of women and girls has already narrowed the gender gap and contributed to the empowerment and equality of women worldwide, resulting in increased national incomes, productivity and agricultural profits.
Fight poverty – educate girls:
Image via UNFPA
Source: 1
If you want to find out all the latest news on the environment, why not subscribe to our RSS feed? We’ll even throw in a free album.
You Might Also Like Our Friends' Posts From the Intertubes
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else.”
July 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
The biggest obstacle we face in changing attitudes toward overpopulation is economists. Since the field of economics was branded “the dismal science” after Malthus’ theory, economists have been adamant that they would never again consider the subject of overpopulation and continue to insist that man is ingenious enough to overcome any obstacle to further growth. This is why world leaders continue to ignore population growth in the face of mounting challenges like peak oil, global warming and a whole host of other environmental and resource issues. They believe we’ll always find technological solutions that allow more growth.
But because they are blind to population growth, there’s one obstacle they haven’t considered: the finiteness of space available on earth. The very act of using space more efficiently creates a problem for which there is no solution: it inevitably begins to drive down per capita consumption and, consequently, per capita employment, leading to rising unemployment and poverty.
If you‘re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, then I invite you to visit either of my web sites at OpenWindowPublishingCo.com or PeteMurphy.wordpress.com where you can read the preface, join in the blog discussion and, of course, buy the book if you like.
Please forgive the somewhat spammish nature of the previous paragraph, but I don’t know how else to inject this new theory into the debate about overpopulation without drawing attention to the book that explains the theory.
Pete Murphy
Author, “Five Short Blasts”
July 21st, 2009 at 4:37 am
No Spencer Tunick?
August 12th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Over population is one of those subjects that isn’t going to go away. If it is not put to the general population though it will never be seriously debated by any policy makers because it is so obviously a dangerous subject to approach when looking for votes.