Overpopulation Quotations 7_11
Aug 20
Ann Gets It Right!
There are two reasons why we will not see any curbs on human population growth any time soon.
1. Our economic system is dependent upon a constantly expanding population.
2. Leaders of certain religions forbid any kind of family planning — because the bigger their flock, the more power they have.
Until we resolve those two factors, we’ll have to leave it up to Mother Nature, who will deal with it the old-fashioned way — war, famine, pestilence and disease.
Ann Harroun: Denver Post.com
Hot, Flat and Crowded
It is getting hot, flat, and crowded. That is, global warming, the stunning rise of middle classes all over the world, and rapid population growth have converged in a way that could make our planet dangerously unstable. In particular, the convergence of hot, flat, and crowded is tightening energy supplies, intensifying the extinction of plants and animals, deepening energy poverty, strengthening petrodictatorship, and accelerating climate change.
Thomas L. Friedman: Hot, Flat and Crowded
Pakistan’s Perspective
He (Muhammad Atif Ali, District Population Welfare Officer) said that the national issues such as inflation, unemployment, environmental degradation, food and water shortage, energy dearth and law and order are directly linked with overpopulation.
Don’t overlook population issue: The Nation: Pakistan
Illegal Immigration Slows
The extraordinary Mexican migration that delivered millions of illegal immigrants to the United States over the past 30 years has sputtered to a trickle, and research points to a surprising cause: unheralded changes in Mexico that have made staying home more attractive.
A growing body of evidence suggests that a mix of developments — expanding economic and educational opportunities, rising border crime and shrinking families — are suppressing illegal traffic as much as economic slowdowns or immigrant crackdowns in the United States.
Better Lives for Mexicans Cut Allure of Going North: Damien Cave: NY Times
World Population Day
The world population is expected to soon surpass seven billion. That is more than double the number of people living on Earth just 50 years ago. Monday is “World Population Day,” a yearly event created by the United Nations to highlight the significance of population trends. But just what is that significance?
Every day, one billion people go hungry. One billion people don’t have access to clean water. According to CBC News, part of the message of World Population Day is that despite declines in fertility rates around the world, 215 million women in developing countries don’t have access to effective family planning methods. A goal of the U.N.’s 7 Billion Actions campaign is to “break the cycle of poverty and inequality to help slow population growth.”
World Population Day: A Connection Between Global Warming And Overpopulation? : Joanna Zelman: The Huffington Post
Quality of Life and Overpopulation
After thirty-three years of implementation, China’s controversial One-Child Policy has come under government review. China is unique in many respects, not least because it alone has imposed strict population controls on its citizenry, preventing about 400 million births since 1980. Unlike public sentiment toward other strict and unpopular policies in non-democratic regimes, China’s populace has largely accepted regulating childbirth..
Despite sustained criticism abroad, the policy is supported by 76 percent of Chinese. Widespread support derives from recognition that overpopulation reduces quality of life. Further, decentralized implementation coupled with loopholes for rural and minority Chinese leaves only 36 percent of families restricted to a single child. (Those families can opt to pay a fine for a second or third child.) The “double-singles” loophole, for example, allows some spouses who are both single children to have two children. The majority of urban Chinese in their 20s and early 30s now fit this category. As a result, the average Chinese family has roughly 1.8 children per household.
Dangerous Demographics: China Revisits the One-Child Policy: Erik Walenza-Slabe: International Affairs Review
Immigration Scams
Overpopulation + Drought = Hunger + Starvation + Chaos
More than 10 million people are desperately in need of food assistance in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, the World Food Program estimated this week, as the worst drought in 60 years continues to ravage eastern Africa.
The situation in Somalia in particular is the “worst humanitarian disaster in the world,” the U.N. refugee agency said on Sunday, and child deaths at refugee camps are spiking to three times average emergency levels.
The French Are With Us
The specter of overpopulation was raised once more in 2008 by the decline in global food stocks and rapid deterioration of the environment. The figures are frightening — 218,000 more mouths to feed each day, 80 million more each year, a global population now close to 7 billion.
In 1997 Salman Rushdie wrote to the six billionth world citizen, due to be born that year: “It has proved impossible, in many parts of the world, to prevent the human race’s numbers from swelling alarmingly. Blame the overcrowded planet at least partly on the misguidedness of the race’s spiritual guides. In your own lifetime, you may well witness the arrival of the nine billionth world citizen. (If too many people are being born as a result, in part, of religious strictures against birth control, then too many people are also dying because [of] religious culture.)” In 2011, or early 2012 at the latest, we are expecting the arrival of the 7 billionth world citizen. He or she has a 70 percent chance of being born into a disadvantaged family in a poor country. Should we be preparing a welcome or an apology?
Too Much Life on Earth?: Georges Minois: LeMonde: NY Times
Another Film Solution To Overpopulation
What I like about the movie is that it examines a number of current societal trends and imagines what might happen if they developed to their logical conclusion, just as great science fiction should. Already in 2011, time is more important than money to many people, while overpopulation is an issue to the extent that countries such as China have been restricting growth artificially for decades. It’s probably only a matter of time before scientists work out how to halt the ageing process – how will we work out what to do with all those people if nobody ever dies? In Time offers an intriguing suggestion.
Is In Time the intelligent sci-fi film we’ve been waiting for? Film Blog: guardian.co.uk
Remember: The More People On The Planet, The More Problems On The Planet
