1992 Series 1 Number 2 Page 10
Tough Decisions [about Managing Humanity.]
At the time, Buzz Nixon was the Chairperson of CACOR. He headed a comprehensive policy analysis group in the Privy Council Office during the late 1960s and 1970s, and for several years was Deputy Minister of National Defence.
In this essay, Buzz described triage at a civilian mass casualty incident. Next, he described procedures at a military field hospital receiving multiple battle casualties. Next, he described the decisions that might be made by the person in charge of a lifeboat at sea receiving additional swimmers when it is already full.
The decisions involved are extremely difficult, but actually fairly common.
As the world’s human population has exploded, modern leaders are being forced to confront similar decisions at the population level. At the time, the population was growing by almost 100 million per year and it was clear dozens of megacities, prime targets for disease epidemics, were going to developed in the coming decades [which has happened].
The food supply for living humans was already in jeopardy in the 1990s. [We have survived by eating wildlife and native plants out of existence.]
Buzz was uncertain how we would face all the difficult problem that would soon emerge and whether we would do what we could to reduce suffering and early death.
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