- China suffered worldwide condemnation 20 plus years ago
when it instituted one child families. Since that time, it slowed its
12 million annual net gain race-horse population growth down to eight million
annually. Even so, it expects to grow from 1.3 to 1.55.
-
- More ominously, India at 1.16 billion, adds 12 million
net gain annually on their way to overtake China in the population bracket
at 1.55 billion by 2050. One wonders how the top leaders around the world,
both religious and governmental, can remain silent?
-
- In a recent report, E & E reporter, Debra Kahn said,
"A leading Chinese industrialist called yesterday for worldwide population
constraints and an end to government-sponsored consumerism as solutions
to climate change and other environmental issues. Speaking at a conference
put on by Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a group that helps
businesses institute environment and social sustainability programs, Zhang
Yue, chairman and CEO of Broad Air Conditioning, also said governments
should stop stimulating the economy by appealing to consumers' sense of
patriotism."
-
- "Encouraging folks to have kids is an encouragement
to have more and more markets to buy more stuff," Zhang said through
an interpreter. "Some people say it's a human rights issue [to control
birth rates]: 'My right to have kids is tied to my quality of life.' I
say it'll take us in a direction that you have no right to take us in."
-
- Kahn said, "The issue of population control has
made headlines in recent days, with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh
attacking New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin for speculating that birth
control could be used to limit greenhouse gas emissions (Greenwire, Oct.
21)."
-
- Zhang said, "China's one-child policy should be
emulated around the world, calling population growth "humankind's
first big problem."
-
- "We haven't connected population to environmental
protection yet in China," Zhang said. Doing so would make clear the
connection between population growth and greenhouse gas emissions, as well
as the issue of dealing with an aging populace, he said. "In the next
two-three decades we've got to come down to a one-child policy. Only through
population control can we really address some of these major issues."
-
- Kahn said, "Zhang, who has been listed by Forbes
as one of the 100 richest businesspeople in China, also said businesses
and government need to slow down development or risk catastrophic climate
change."
-
- "The planet right now is in some ways an equation
that can't continue," he said. "We'll become extinct." Although
Broad sells air conditioners in 40 countries, the company is prioritizing
higher salaries over expansion, he said. "Our company isn't growing
as fast as others, but we haven't had a loan from the bank in 15 years."
-
- Zhang said, "Governments, particularly the Chinese,
should stop exhorting consumers to fix the economic downturn by shopping
more. Countries are misguiding the public and driving consumption. We've
tied consuming to patriotism almost in China, and it's a very dangerous
concept, a dangerous attitude to give the public.
-
-
- "There's no financial crisis really in China, but
we use it as an excuse to get people to buy stuff. Even people in the
countryside who don't have electricity are being encouraged to buy refrigerators."
-
- In response to a question about correlating economic
growth with happiness, he said it was not so: "The more you develop
economically, the worse the food is. Seventy percent of the antibiotics
in the United States are used for livestock."
-
- ___________
-
- Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents
- from the Arctic to the South Pole - as well as six times across the USA,
coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic
Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents "The Coming Population
Crisis in America: and what you can do about it" to civic clubs, church
groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world
population balance at .frostywooldridge.com He is the author of: America
on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans. Copies available: 1
888 280 7715
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