Article on overpopulation
truthprevails
Posts: 878
OK, I know there's some scary talk about population control (and I don't condone killing people in any way!), but I do think that the planet is overpopulated - and is expected to become more so. Below is an article on this issue. My view is that we are ALL part of the many problems we and this planet are facing, and maybe we should start thinking of having no more than 1 child ourselves, if that... I personally don't want biological children (what's the point, in this messed-up world?), and hope to be able to adopt if I ever want kids.
Overpopulation: 9 Billion Things to Talk About
David Katz, M.D.
Any gardener knows that to solve a weedy problem, you have to get it at its roots.
We in Preventive Medicine know that, too, or certainly should. Our eyes were opened to this enlightened thinking by McGinnis and Foege in 1993. They were the first to note explicitly that the causes of chronic disease and premature death are not diseases, but the things that cause the diseases! Such as tobacco use, eating badly and lack of physical activity.
The evidence that they were right has only accumulated ... and accumulated since. I routinely invoke this literature to note that feet, forks and fingers are the master levers of medical destiny, as regular visitors here well know.
Viewed differently, bad use of feet, forks and fingers are the major causes of chronic disease. But these are the proximal causes, not the root causes. The root cause is modern living. Everything about modern living that makes it modern -- processed food, suburban sprawl, labor-saving technology, mass media marketing -- is obesigenic, and conducive to the insalubrious application of feet and forks. More on that, however, can be a topic for another day.
For today, how about those eggs? Why is it that some 500,000,000 eggs have been recalled in the U.S. due to salmonella contamination? Proximal causes have much to do with modern farming and food handling techniques, and something to do with FDA resource limitations. But what about the root cause?
And how about the drought in Russia, leading to massive crop failure? Inundation in Pakistan leading to massive displacement of the population? Flooding in China? And while we're at it, accelerated melting of the polar ice, with ramifications we are still just guessing at?
The root cause that connects these dots -- and many others besides -- is global population growth. There are too many of us.
This particular topic has something of a wince factor for me -- father of five! But former drug users often make the best addiction counselors and some of the top obesity experts struggle with their own weight. I suppose I can come clean about population pressures despite having done such a poor job of keeping my own genes to myself!
I raise the issue because it's ominously absent from almost all discussion of global warming and climate change, modern industrial agricultural practices, and the propagation and transmission of both infectious and chronic disease. This is odd, and worrisome. It suggests either obliviousness, fatalism or capitulation -- and none of these is good!
I was quite stunned when I spoke last year at the Imagine Solutions Conference in Naples, FL, that my fellow speakers addressing the trials and tribulations of the world spoke about a rapid ascent toward a global population of 9 billion or more as a fait accompli. Even though it was the driving force behind the problem they went on to discuss -- depleting of the oceans, climate change, deforestation, etc. -- it was not discussed as a problem in its own right. I had a similar impression when last I participated in the Aspen Ideas Festival.
If the harms of excessive global population have become a taboo topic, I didn't get the memo.
There are more than six billion of us here now. I am inclined to think there is no problem nine billion could solve that six-plus billion can't. However, nine billion may be the problem that the six-plus billion need to solve, if we are to solve any other. Because the growing horde of us consuming the resources of the planet in uniquely modern fashion is the problem underlying many other problems.
I could spell out how this root connects to the branches that populate our daily dose of bad news, but I suspect you can do that just as well yourself. For now, I am just saying we should all be thinking about it. And talking about it. And willing to say 'condom' in polite company -- and more importantly, in public policy.
The massive demands and ramifications of an ever-more-massive human population may be the root of the roots of many of our most urgent crises. It is something we can address by means at our disposal, but only if we are cognizant of it, and willing to talk about it.
So blame the eggs if you are so inclined. Or blame the chickens. But frankly, I think something else comes first. We have met the enemy, and in our ever-growing, voracious multitudes, it is us! We have nine billion -- or is it 12? -- things to start talking about, asap.
Follow David Katz, M.D. on Twitter: <!-- m -->http://www.twitter.com/DrDavidKatz<!-- m -->
Overpopulation: 9 Billion Things to Talk About
David Katz, M.D.
Any gardener knows that to solve a weedy problem, you have to get it at its roots.
We in Preventive Medicine know that, too, or certainly should. Our eyes were opened to this enlightened thinking by McGinnis and Foege in 1993. They were the first to note explicitly that the causes of chronic disease and premature death are not diseases, but the things that cause the diseases! Such as tobacco use, eating badly and lack of physical activity.
The evidence that they were right has only accumulated ... and accumulated since. I routinely invoke this literature to note that feet, forks and fingers are the master levers of medical destiny, as regular visitors here well know.
Viewed differently, bad use of feet, forks and fingers are the major causes of chronic disease. But these are the proximal causes, not the root causes. The root cause is modern living. Everything about modern living that makes it modern -- processed food, suburban sprawl, labor-saving technology, mass media marketing -- is obesigenic, and conducive to the insalubrious application of feet and forks. More on that, however, can be a topic for another day.
For today, how about those eggs? Why is it that some 500,000,000 eggs have been recalled in the U.S. due to salmonella contamination? Proximal causes have much to do with modern farming and food handling techniques, and something to do with FDA resource limitations. But what about the root cause?
And how about the drought in Russia, leading to massive crop failure? Inundation in Pakistan leading to massive displacement of the population? Flooding in China? And while we're at it, accelerated melting of the polar ice, with ramifications we are still just guessing at?
The root cause that connects these dots -- and many others besides -- is global population growth. There are too many of us.
This particular topic has something of a wince factor for me -- father of five! But former drug users often make the best addiction counselors and some of the top obesity experts struggle with their own weight. I suppose I can come clean about population pressures despite having done such a poor job of keeping my own genes to myself!
I raise the issue because it's ominously absent from almost all discussion of global warming and climate change, modern industrial agricultural practices, and the propagation and transmission of both infectious and chronic disease. This is odd, and worrisome. It suggests either obliviousness, fatalism or capitulation -- and none of these is good!
I was quite stunned when I spoke last year at the Imagine Solutions Conference in Naples, FL, that my fellow speakers addressing the trials and tribulations of the world spoke about a rapid ascent toward a global population of 9 billion or more as a fait accompli. Even though it was the driving force behind the problem they went on to discuss -- depleting of the oceans, climate change, deforestation, etc. -- it was not discussed as a problem in its own right. I had a similar impression when last I participated in the Aspen Ideas Festival.
If the harms of excessive global population have become a taboo topic, I didn't get the memo.
There are more than six billion of us here now. I am inclined to think there is no problem nine billion could solve that six-plus billion can't. However, nine billion may be the problem that the six-plus billion need to solve, if we are to solve any other. Because the growing horde of us consuming the resources of the planet in uniquely modern fashion is the problem underlying many other problems.
I could spell out how this root connects to the branches that populate our daily dose of bad news, but I suspect you can do that just as well yourself. For now, I am just saying we should all be thinking about it. And talking about it. And willing to say 'condom' in polite company -- and more importantly, in public policy.
The massive demands and ramifications of an ever-more-massive human population may be the root of the roots of many of our most urgent crises. It is something we can address by means at our disposal, but only if we are cognizant of it, and willing to talk about it.
So blame the eggs if you are so inclined. Or blame the chickens. But frankly, I think something else comes first. We have met the enemy, and in our ever-growing, voracious multitudes, it is us! We have nine billion -- or is it 12? -- things to start talking about, asap.
Follow David Katz, M.D. on Twitter: <!-- m -->http://www.twitter.com/DrDavidKatz<!-- m -->
Comments
I agree with you ROFL...that is precisely the problem. Imagine how different the world would look if we lived simply and knew how to take care of ourselves (growing our own food and making our own clothing, etc...). It could be much different and it wouldn't matter how many people there were.
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We have already started in our household. We only buy what we NEED and not what we want. We save our money to take a nice vacation, so that we have memories and not stuff that will go in the trash in a week. We never buy bottled water, our water is just fine out of the faucet. I could go on and on. At first, we were doing this because of the economy, but then we noticed how little waste we had that was ending up in the landfill, that now we do it for the earth. I want this world to be around when my children have children. If everyone would go back to the way it used to be 30 or 40 yrs ago, even on just one thing. It would make a world of differrence.
We live in a world of consumption, we always want more and often unuseful things, that's the major problem, we need a more simple life and return to more spirituality and forget the material things of this earth that in the end do not bring us happyness because when you obtain a desired object this desire just finish to vanish with the purchase of this object and people only find themselves in the chase of another desired object and it goes like that on and on. It's like people only existed by the act of purchase. I buy so I am. Well I digress a little just wanted to say that the number of people is not the real problem for me.
Actually that is not accurate. The population density of Chicago is approximately 12,750 people per square mile and the population density of the whole world packed into Texas is 6.9 billion people divided by approximately 269,000 square miles which equals 25,650 people per square mile. So, it is essentially 2 times the population density of Chicago. However, this is smaller than the population density of Kolkata, India and Cairo, Egypt.
Population is definitely an issue, but if people (particularly in more developed, richer countries) would live more sustainably and responsibly instead of wastefully, population wouldn't be as much of a concern. The increasing demand on our world's already taxed fresh water supply is quite possibly the biggest concern of all. Folks in the more developed countries not only tend to waste water, but also tend to take its availability for granted, while folks in poorer countries oftentimes have to go to great lengths to access safe drinking water. Sadly, rich countries tend to exploit the resources from poorer countries as well, usually at the expense of the poorer country's people.
No matter how hard you try, you can't really reduce the amount of waste you produce.
I just want to share some Bible verses that talk about the future paradise on earth (not heaven) after the Messiah returns to rule. (We simply lack good leadership right now on earth.)
Revelation 22:1-4 The name on their foreheads reminds me of earth girl on the TII paradise who had the mysterious writing on her forehead. Don't know if that has been mentioned before in relation to that verse. Maybe it has.
These verses are similar to Ezekiel which also talks about Israel and the future earth, showing that it is not heaven being spoken about. Ezekiel 47:12
Sadly waste is another way the richer countries exploit poorer countries. We send our "e-waste" overseas and whatever the poorer countries don't sell to their people ends up in dumps with NO liners. Sometimes the stuff is literally thrown right into streams that are supposed to provide drinking water. This is seen throughout many subsaharan coastal African countries as well as coastal areas in poorer Asian countries. Why predominantly coastal areas? Because the stuff is shipped in huge containers on large ships.
Anyway, enough of my soapbox!
We don't NEED a shopping mall around the corner! <!-- s
Also, people could start spreading more into the countrysides.
(Not cutting trees in the process of course..)
But this all starts with people letting go of their capitalist, materialistic mentality.
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Of course the problem is not the number of people per se, but our way of life... But as long as we, as a civilization, don't live in an environmentally-friendly way, and every person adds more consumption and waste to the Earth than they can neutralize, the number of people IS the problem. All of you have been saying that we could do this and that, and if we did then things would be OK, but the question is: ARE we going to change? ARE we going to think long-term more than short-term? And if we do change, will we do it before it's too late? OK, that's more than 1 question... I don't know the answers (one can carry different levels of optimism or pessimism in this respect), but I think the questions should weigh heavily on all people.
It is NOT too many people, it is only ONE...
The one in the mirror. <!-- s:oops: -->:oops:<!-- s:oops: -->
And it IS TIME. NOW. To make a change.
First, in how we think, and then in how we do.
The One who designed things here SAID to go forth and FILL the earth with people. He said His house shall be <!-- s:D -->:D<!-- s:D --> FULL. It's not full, yet. <!-- s:? -->:?<!-- s:? --> We did the fun part, and then got all lascivious (without restraint; too lazy to restrain our own selves) on Him. We got lax on instilling virtue and values (good, conscientious, responsible character) into our children, for a GENERATION or two. We let things go to pot, thinking someone else would do it...And, mostly, people STILL do.
I don't know about the old countries, but, <!-- s:( -->:(<!-- s:( --> HALF of America (where we, here, are free to do almost anything, ourselves) are waiting and complaining for "the government" to do something, as if we are little kids with NO authority, or ambition, ourselves.
There have always been vast areas of earth which were unpopulated, due to harsh environmental issues. America used to be such a place. Men of CHARACTER ambitiously CONQUERED these, by sheer will power and dilligence to do the hard thing for the great benefit: WORK. (I'm talking about the Natives, here, who occupied the harshest coldest and hottest places, here, from coast to coast. Eventually, in cooperation with these, the very first (NOT talking about later...) Europeans were able to make it work, here, too.)
The first people here respected the earth, killing animals and cutting down trees only to live, not for greed.
Now, we've gotten to the point that even other people are expendable (LEGAL <!-- s:!: -->:!:<!-- s:!: --> <!-- s:x -->:x<!-- s:x --> <!-- s:shock: -->:shock:<!-- s:shock: --> "voluntary" euthanasia, after they've mind-F'd you or your relatives and drugged the victim...(yeah, why do you THINK you have to sign paper for this? <!-- s:?: -->:?:<!-- s:?: --> they can't do it without you----YET <!-- s:? -->:?<!-- s:? -->; legal <!-- s:!: -->:!:<!-- s:!: --> <!-- s:x -->:x<!-- s:x --> abortion, street executions---do you think neighborhood thugs thought these things up?, etc....)
Please...be very, very careful in believing the <!-- s:!: -->:!:<!-- s:!: --> LIE <!-- s:!: -->:!:<!-- s:!: --> that the earth is overburdened with people. In doing so, you set your self and your children up for methodical extermination, by your peers...
God's Word says it ain't over until HE says it is. He said, ..."there will be seedtime and harvest...", which necessarily means, we will never run out of resources--perhaps just different ones, though, as we let things go extinct) , and nothing we made with our (only next to HIS <!-- s
now i have to go back up and read everyone else's post . i couldn't wait to get to yours.
i am sure responses will follow. armor up.
yeah and add to that the way they build one by using what used to be farm land and ten years down the road abandon it and tear up a new area of farmland to build a new shopping mall.
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i love yyyyyyyyyyyooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <!-- s
WHAT can I say to THAT <!-- s:?: -->:?:<!-- s:?: -->
As long as we are quoting the Man, I'll do it, <!-- s
I LOVE YOU MORE <!-- s:!: -->:!:<!-- s:!: --> <!-- s