- As you follow this series, I hope you understand that
all of us and our children face this sobering future-IF, and only IF we
allow our population to grow by an astounding 100 million people as well
as the rest of the planet growing by another three billion. It's not in
the cards and it's not a fait de compli. In other words, it's not a done
deal.
-
- We can change it; we must change it; our offspring demand
that we don't force them into this mega-population predicament. That's
why I offer you the top websites at the end of every column. It's up to
you to take action.
-
- I mail letters to the top TV networks to interview 32
of the finest minds in America on overpopulation, resource depletion, energy,
climate change and other aspects of demographic realities. I regularly
write the producers of "60 Minutes" GMA, Today Show, 2020, Frontline,
Anderson Cooper and all NPR producers and hosts. Additionally, Time, Newsweek,
US News, The Atlantic and many more media outlets receive my queries.
Yes, they continue ignoring, evading and avoiding this issue, but they
cannot continue as conditions degrade. You can join these efforts as I
will give you the letters, email addresses and templates if you have the
time: frostyw@juno.com .
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- In his book, Too Many People, Lindsey Grant addresses
our species extinction predicament. You may find his book at www.sevenlockspress.com
and www.amazon.com. Grant is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
for Environment and Population Affairs.
-
- "The recent expansion and commercialization of agriculture,"
said Grant, "our alteration of forests and wetlands, our chemical
assault on the biosphere, and our newfound capability for genetic manipulation-will
play out in complex ways."
-
- Looked at another way, we mimic 4th graders that tear
apart a computer, spray it with chemicals, dump it into a vat of oil, take
a hammer to its hard drive, and when we try to put it back together-we
don't have a clue. In other words, you can easily squeeze the toothpaste
out of the tube, but you have no idea how to put it back into the container.
When we take such destructive tendencies onto an entire planet, nothing
good can come from it.
-
- Last week, in the Associated Press, Olympia, Washington-biologists
examined a grey whale that died on the beach with a large amount of garbage
in its stomach: a pair of sweat pants, a golf ball, 20 plastic bags, small
towels, duct tape and surgical gloves.
-
- Does that not sicken you? It sickens me because, as
a Scuba diver for 45 years, I watched the ocean bottom transform from beauty
to a junk yard around the oceans and seas of the world. The Great Pacific
Garbage Patch, greater than the size of Texas, contains three million tons
of plastic floating debris, in places 60 feet deep, that kills indiscriminately
marine animals into the millions. According to ocean biologists, 46,000
pieces of plastic debris float on every square mile of the oceans. It's
beyond sickening! And yet, most states fail to engage a bottle/return
deposit law to ensure return of plastic containers.
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- 100 SPECIES SUFFER EXTINCTION WORLD WIDE EVERY DAY
-
- Known as the "6th Extinction Session", humans
radically kill off species by destroying their habitat at an ever increasing
rate of speed-via human population expansion.
-
- "We worry about our destruction of species, but
at a rather simplistic level," said Grant. "We don't want to
lose species we are familiar with, mostly mammals, birds, and fish. Under
the Endangered Species Act, Americans go to great lengths to try to protect
them. We seem incapable of understanding that we are losing their company
primarily because we are usurping their environment."
-
- At the larger level of whales and bears that suffer diminishment,
we don't possess a clue as to the world of microbes and smaller creatures
such as bees, moths and bats.
-
- "The preservation of a healthy environment requires
a much broader look at our companion species," said Grant. "Start
with honeybees. Nobody has put them on an endangered species list, because
they are not approaching extinction. But they are being harmed by insecticide
sprays, to the degree that it has affected the pollination of plants in
some agricultural areas."
-
- Today, in many states, honeybees must be brought to fields
to pollinate the crops. Unheard of 50 years ago! Why? No chemicals used
to grow crops!
-
- Professor Lyn Margulis said that microbes are the most
important part of the biosphere in maintaining the livability of Earth
systems: "If you lost the animals and plants, you might lose the
speed, but you would never qualitatively lose the cycle. If you lost the
microorganisms, you'd lose everything; you'd unhinge the articulations
of the biosphere."
-
- If we allow the USA to add another 100 million, and then
another 100 million on top of that-we face accelerating consequences on
multiple levels. We need to change our fate by reducing our numbers, and
very fast!
-
-
- 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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