- Too many people, too little water, too little energy,
too few resources...
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- In a brilliantly written book, Too Many People by
Lindsey Grant, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment
and Population Affairs, he brought a lifetime of global experience into
his profoundly direct book.
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- No matter how much the mainstream media, which includes
all major television networks, radio and print-do, to avoid, ignore and
evade the population issue-it rears its ugly head in every newscast-daily
across the United States and around the world.
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- Notice how National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting
Service and local TV stations do not mention or engage any connection of
any problem of "too many people." For example: if you wander
through the streets of India, their 'sacred cow' is actually a cow. And,
those cows by the hundreds of thousands wonder all over the streets in
India, creating horrid cow waste, urine waste and generally mess up everything,
but since Indians consider them 'sacred', no one will do anything about
them.
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- While ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and FOX report on terrible problems
with collapsing fisheries, extinction rates, air pollution, acidified oceans
and climate destabilization-they won't touch the 'sacred cow' of human
overpopulation. They cannot avoid its brutal reality much longer.
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- "In this essay, I will survey the current evidence
and make the case that we can turn the present deteriorating system around
only by ending infatuation with growth and embracing the idea of a return
to a smaller population," said Grant. "Our future depends on
learning to come into better balance with the rest of nature and to find
a sustainable relationship we have yet to achieve."
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- SOMETHING NEW ON EARTH
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- "Human systems have grown to the point at which
the damage we do has become intolerable, not only to other species,[Human
encroachment causes the extinction of 80 to 100 species daily around the
globe. The die-off is so great that it is called the 'sixth extinction'
session.], and thus, dangerous to our own future," said Grant. "As
our problems have been caused or compounded by the growth of populations
and economic activity, their solutions requires that we turn growth around."
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- Consequently, we stand at a critical juncture as indicated
by Dr. Jack Alpert, www.skil.org, where he calls for a 'rapid population
decline' of one child per woman worldwide if we are to survive the 21st century.
He makes the cogent case, that if we desire to live at the present wealth
and resource use level as the United States, we must drop to 100 million
humans worldwide. If we fail to make the drop gracefully by birth control
and family planning, Mother Nature will do it for us, rather brutally.
See Alpert's video: Rapid Population Decline, seven minute video by Dr.
Jack Alpert- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTWduFB_RX0
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- Grant states the ugly obvious, "All these issues
have a self-evident connection to population growth. I find it astonishing
that the technically literate seldom touch upon that connection and never-almost
literally never-mention population policy as part of the solution."
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- Energy expert Richard Heinberg said the same thing after
last year's Global Climate Conference in Denmark:
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- "...the discussions in Denmark took place in a
conceptual fantasy world in which climate change is the only global crisis that
matters much; in which rapid economic growth is still an option; in which
fossil fuels are practically limitless; in which a western middle class
staring at the prospect of penury can be persuaded voluntarily to transfer
a significant portion of its rapidly evaporating wealth to other nations;
in which subsistence farmers in poor nations should all aspire to become
middle-class urbanites; and in which the subject of human overpopulation
can barely be mentioned.
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- ... It's no wonder more wasn't achieved in Copenhagen." http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=311db31977
054c5ef58219392&id=1853646c28&e=411677039a
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- In Grant's second chapter, he hits on the simple reality
of our predicament, "The United States' population was 75 million
in 1900. It hit 300 million in 2006. It expects to hit 438 million in 40
more years. World population adds 77 million annually. Migration pressure
is a product of overcrowding on the land, of unemployment and wage differentials,
all of which are driven by population growth. Those driving forces would
subside if somehow the growth should stop or turn around."
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- FASTER AND FASTER TO A HIGHLY DESTRUCTIVE ENDING
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- In my world travels, I witnessed horrific ocean damage
in dead zones at the mouths of rivers out of the U.S., China, India, Brazil
and Europe. Really ugly stuff! Also, it's beyond imagination that humans
could and are, for the past 20 years, killing 100 million sharks annually.
Humans 'clear cut' the oceans with 40 mile long drift nets that grab
everything and kill it. Then, when cut away and left hanging on reefs,
those plastic nets continue slaughtering millions of hapless marine creatures
forever.
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- "The whole world is engaged in a pell-mell race
to grow faster-driving toward an impossible objective. It is a daunting
objective: the idea of a race to increase economic activity in a world
already under stress," said Grant.
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- THE FINAL ARBITERS FOR HUMAN EXPANION: WATER AND FOOD
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- While we enjoyed the 'green revolution' to produce more
food back in the 1970s, it unfortunately resulted in another three billion
humans added to planet in a blink of time.
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- To give you an idea of how crazy our human predicament:
Bangladesh, with a landmass the size of Iowa, carries an astounding 144
million people. Demographers predict they will add another 100 million
in 40 years with their extraordinary birthrates. Canadian environmentalist
Tim Murray laments, "Humans are too dumb to survive."
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- Currently, you can look this up: 18 million human beings
die of starvation or starvation related diseases annually around the world.
(Source: World Health Organization) That's eight million adults and 10
million children.
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- Grant talks about food and we will address that in the
next part of this series.
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- _______________
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- 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 www.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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