NOBODY EVER DIES OF OVERPOPULATION
Denver Post
http://neighbors.denverpost.com/blog.php/2008/05/14/nobody-ever-dies-of-overpopulation/
By Frosty Wooldridge
In the past week, a cyclone ripped through Burma with devastating results.
Death estimates exceed 100,000 and may rise to a million if survivors do
not
find food, water and housing. What the cyclone didn't render, diseases
may
bring even greater disaster.
China suffered an earthquake at 7.9, which caused thousands of deaths.
In America's heartland, dozens of tornadoes destroyed entire communities
while killing American citizens. Wildfires rage across California,
Florida
and other states at this moment. The destruction and death toll continue
mounting as Colorado and other states race into the upcoming fire season.
Eleanor Roosevelt said it 50 years ago; "We must prevent human tragedy
rather than run around trying to save ourselves after an event has already
occurred. Unfortunately, history clearly shows that we arrive at
catastrophe by failing to meet the situation, by failing to act when we
should have acted. The op****tunity p***** us by and the next disaster is
always more difficult and compounded than the last one."
After a typhoon hit Bangladesh thirty some years ago, Garrett Hardin wrote
a
piece for Science, February 12, 1971, volume 171, Number 3971, American
Association for the Advancement of Science. The late Professor Hardin
taught
biology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
"Those of us who are deeply concerned about population and the
environment -"econuts," we're called," Hardin said, "are accused of seeing
herbicides in trees, pollution in running brooks, radiation in rocks, and
overpopulation everywhere. There is merit in the accusation.
"I was in Calcutta when the cyclone struck East Bengal in November 1970.
Early dispatches spoke of 15,000 dead, but the estimates rapidly escalated
to 2,000,000 and then dropped back to 500,000. A nice round number: it
will
do as well as any, for we will never know. The nameless ones who died,
"unim****tant" people far beyond the fringes of the social power structure,
left no trace of their existence.
"Pakistani parents repaired the population loss in just 40 days, and the
world turned its attention to other matters. What killed those
unfortunate
people? "The cyclone," newspapers said. But one can just as logically say
that overpopulation killed them. The Gangetic Delta is barely above sea
level.
"Every year several thousand people are killed in quite ordinary storms.
If
Pakistan were not overcrowded, no sane man would bring his family to such
a
place. Ecologically speaking, a delta belongs to the river and the sea;
man
obtrudes there at his peril.
"In the web of life every event has many antecedents. Only by an arbitrary
decision can we designate a single antecedent as "cause." Our choice is
biased - biased to protect our egos against the onslaught of unwelcome
truths. As T.S. Eliot put it in Burnt Norton:
'Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind cannot bear very much reality.'
"Were we to identify overpopulation as the cause of a half-million deaths,
we would threaten ourselves with a question to which we do not know the
answer: How can we control population without recourse to repugnant
measures? Fearfully we close our minds to an inventory of possibilities.
Instead, we say that a cyclone caused the deaths, thus relieving ourselves
of responsibility for this and future catastrophes. "Fate" is so
comforting.
"Every year we list tuberculosis, leprosy, enteric diseases, or animal
parasites as the "cause of death" of millions of people. It is well known
that malnutrition is an im****tant antecedent of death in all these
categories; and that malnutrition is connected with overpopulation. But
overpopulation is not called the cause of death. We cannot bear the
thought.
"People are dying now of respiratory diseases in Tokyo, Birmingham, and
Gary, because of the "need" for more industry. The "need" for more food
justifies over-fertilization of the land, leading to eutrophication of the
waters, and lessened fish production - which leads to more "need" for
food.
"What will we say when the power shuts down some fine summer on our
eastern
seaboard and several thousand people die of heat prostration? Will we
blame
the weather? Or the power companies for not building enough generators? Or
the econuts for insisting on pollution controls?
"One thing is certain: we won't blame the deaths on overpopulation. No one
ever dies of overpopulation. It is unthinkable!"
Hardin poked the population balloon with his razor-sharp reality pin.
Today, Bangladesh houses 144 million people in a landmass the size of
Iowa.
Within 40 years, Bangladesh expects to add 144 million MORE people in that
delta region-total 290 million people living in a sardine can of space!
We
can expect a monumental human disaster that will make the recent cyclone
in
Burma look like a church picnic when it hits-and it will hit. Do the
Banglade****'s possess a contingency plan? Yes! Allah declares that they
must have as many babies as possible. It's Allah's will!
Does the United States possess a plan for the future? Yes! We continue
im****ting 180,000 to 200,000 worldwide refugees in the form of immigrants
into this country every 30 days, month in and month out, year in and year
out. Demographers expect the USA to add 100 million people in 30 years
and
hit 1 billion within 90 years. Do you find that comforting for your
grandkids and your civilization?
As China, India, Bangladesh, Burma, Mexico and other nations bumble and
stumble into the 21st century, the citizens of United States follow as if
deaf, blind and dumb to the realities of their fate. Will the projected
40
million added to California in four decades become our "Burma Cyclone" or
"Bangladesh's monsoon" or "China's earthquake"?
Per Eleanor Roosevelt's sage advice, will Colorado and America create a
strategic plan to avoid those other countries' fates?
No!
Will Colorado and America suffer horrific environmental consequences,
countless American deaths and more misery than anyone can imagine?
Yup!
Take action: www.thesocialcontract.com ; www.numbersusa.com ;
www.fairus.org
; www.frostywooldridge.com
To take action: www.numbersusa.com
www.thesocialcontract.com
www.fairus.org
www.proenglish.org
www.capsweb.org
www.vdare.com
Final note: I am looking for thinkers, writers and advocates to add to my
monthly "Master Mind Think Tank." In reality, our politicians foment the
problems that they campaign to solve. They never solve them; thus we
spiral
into deeper national chaos. I need new ideas and new creative thinkers
to
help me bring our most pressing issues onto the front burner:
overpopulation
in America caused by ceaseless legal and illegal immigration. As you
know,
the recent PEW re****t shows immigration adding 100 million people to our
country in 30 years. We need to stop it and we need to stop it now. Join
me in saving our civilization. xxxxxxxx@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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
Listen to Frosty Wooldridge on Tuesdays and Thursdays as he interviews top
national leaders on his radio show "Connecting the Dots" at
www.republicbroadcasting.org at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. Adjust tuning in
to
your time zone.
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Iconoclast
alt.politics.immigration
www.rescuewithoutborders.org
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