Overpopulation is everyone's problem

[redqueen]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-population-contraception-20120810,0,109280.story

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How big one's family should be is a highly personal choice that should not be subject to any form of coercion. As it happens, though, many women would choose to have fewer children. According to the Worldwatch Institute, 1 in 5 births results from an unwanted pregnancy. If just those pregnancies were prevented, the birthrate would fall below replacement level.

What keeps women from keeping their families smaller? Most often, poverty; they can't afford contraception. As Weiss' series showed, in many places where free or low-cost birth control is made available, demand far outstrips supply. But political, religious and cultural forces also play a part. In the Philippines, Weiss wrote, pressure from the Roman Catholic Church led to the virtual elimination of birth-control services at public clinics. In some countries, women have so few rights that they are not allowed to decide how many children they will have.

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Even if it went only to nations that want it, increased family planning aid would make an enormous difference. Yet U.S. funding for such aid has been flat-lined for two decades, and the difference has not been made up by others.

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Because of the political sensitivities around birth control, abortion and family choice, too few world leaders have been willing to openly address what is clearly one of the most important factors affecting hunger, international economics, agriculture, energy and the environment. It's a topic we have minimized at our peril.

I know that not everyone agrees about the issue of overpopulation, but family planning assistance should be an idea we can all support.

[WebZines]

1. Earth Can Support is 4 Billion People Only

Some reputed scientists say "healthy human population Earth can support is 4 Billion people only".

Already there is less food and inflation is soaring high. World resources are in serious trouble. Forests, Trees and animals are at serious risk of disappearing and getting extinct.

200 Billion Burgers and 15 Billion Chickens Every Year

Source: http://dangerousmother.com

[RC]

2. Just wait till the cheap energy of oil runs out.

It will be a long time, if ever, before we get back up to 4 billion people again.

[RKP5637]

5. And that will happen, it's just a matter of time. Earth will survive, people not so much unless

we get our act together better.

[RepublicansRZombies]

16. Isn't it possible, we could grow a brain and stop doing what we are currently doing?

The earth could support a lot more people if we say, started generating all of our energy through solar, wind, tidal.

Instead of complaining all the time about global warming, activists could set in to motion a major tree planting operation across the globe.

Instead of Bill Gates giving out vaccines, how about paying people to plant trees anywhere and everywhere?

How about giving money to Africa for wells, so they can grow more food? Water is life!

How about instead of just using cloud seeding for ski resorts, Bill Gates offer up some money for cloud seeding to stop the drought right now?

How about instead of talking about taxing us more, Congress end the damn wars and spend the money buying up land, planting trees and cleaning up the environment?

How about we just stop with the learned helplessness and complaining, and start in on some concrete solutions.

Too many people are not the problem, too many selfish, greedy, ignorant people with no will to change ARE the problem.

[mopinko]

3. it's pretty amazing the ripples that come from the oppression of women.

fortunately, the reverse is also true- it is pretty amazing the ripples that come from empowering women.
i say we start right now.

[redqueen]

6. At least liberate them...

and encourage them to empower themselves.

Increased family planning and education will change the world.

[RKP5637]

4. Reasonable population control just makes good common sense IMO. A finite space, earth,

can only hold so many people and support so many people. It's a grave fallacy for any to believe population can continue ad infinitum.

[Romulox]

7. The myth that over-reproducing has less impact on the environment than over-consuming must end.

The idea that, through the very act of reproducing (!), impoverished nations are "improving" their per-capita energy consumption is logically preposterous.

In other words, having lots and lots of children is horrible for the environment.

[Gregorian]

8. I'm losing hope. It's as if everyone were a global warming skeptic. That's how bad this is.

But just seeing a logical discussion here is heartening. I've spent years trying to explain the various facets to this monstrous problem. No one is listening. I'm convinced this is a Kamikaze flight we're on.

But we keep trying.

[Romulox]

10. It's hopeless. Every little bit of CO2 we limit here in the US will be emitted tenfold

in the developing world.

There's nothing we can do.

[Gregorian]

11. Carbon emissions is only a fraction of the resulting population problem.

Depleted fisheries, ocean acidification, deforestation. The list is bigger than people even know yet.

I watched the Olympics, and was inspired by the stories of fantastic accomplishment over hardship and adversity. I also looked at the insane fossil fuel use. And this is exactly what people just are not seeing. We're dumbed down. Those swimming pools are heated right now. The lights are on. The heating is on. The massive carbon output that it took to simply determine the 2012 location. The flights required to get family members over there. How many thousands of gallons of propane was used for just the Olympic torch alone.

It's easy to dismiss all of this, if one looks at each individual piece. Like your vacation. My trip to the grocery store. And on face value those things are not a problem. But, and this is where population enters the picture, multiplicity by a billion turns my little grocery store store into a global monster. Now it's a billion little trips.

I'm convinced it's not going to change. There are too many people who don't even have the consciousness yet. And by the time they are conscious, it'll be too late. If it isn't already. Besides, we can't stop. So until we decrease population dramatically... well, you get the picture. But not many others do.

And on a personal level, I have a dental implant that failed. And to have it replaced will take a minimum of 1000 miles of driving. I live 125 miles from the closest prosthedontist.

Fuck.

[Romulox]

12. It's all of a piece. If "ability to pollute" is looked at as a "resource", then it's just another

variant of "overpopulating humans devouring all available resources".

[hamsterjill]

9. But...but...but..."overpopulation is a myth!!!"

Per Jim Bob Duggar... (Sarcasm, of course.)

Limiting the need for finite resources only makes sense. It always has made sense and always will. It is incredulous to me that we, as a society, are moving away from this ideal rather than embracing it more than ever with the shape of things. We have a predicted food shortage on the horizon. The fewer people to feed, the better overall. Rather than have to stretch resources, it is always advisable to have an abundance.

[Zalatix]

13. Prosperity (and sustainability) is as important as access to birth control.

Instead of the US Government fighting wage increases in places like Haiti, we should be encouraging livable wages worldwide, and refuse to trade with nations that don't agree.

Prosperous populations do not grow as fast as poor ones.

Edited to add: we need to have an even BIGGER conversation about sustainability on an individual level. Each person needs to reduce their resource and pollution footprint.

[arcane1]

14. Having seen the population double within just my own lifetime

I wholeheartedly agree. The Vatican is no help, unfortunately, because more children born in poverty = more desperate people to control and exploit

[MineralMan]

15. Of all the benefits that universal health care would provide,

free, open access to contraception and information on family planning is one of the most important. In a modern society, contraception should be free, easy to obtain, and should come with all the information people need to be able to control their reproductive lives. Nothing is more important, frankly.

That contraception is not free in the US is a great shame on our nation.