Huffington Post - A new poll
of American scientists suggests that a large majority of them (82
percent) regard population growth as a major challenge, almost as many
as those who believe that climate change is mostly due to human activity
(87 percent). The poll, which was conducted by the Pew Research
Center, indicates that a clear majority of the American public (59
percent) are concerned that there won't be enough food and resources to
accommodate a growing world population, but the level of concern in the
scientific community, as with climate change, is noticeably higher...
What is remarkable, however, is
that given the levels of scientific concern about humanity's impact on
the planet, more scientists are not talking publicly about population.
When it comes to climate change, there is no shortage of scientists
willing to speak out about the need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
So if humanity is breaking "planetary boundaries" and imperiling, in the
process, humanity's future, why aren't more scientists speaking
publicly about the human-population trajectory and its implications?
3 comments:
Mostly they're not doing it because they don't want to get crapped on by the fundies, most of whom are man and many of them nominal lefties.
I've been arguing for a limit of 0.5 live birth per person, followed by, to avoid replicating the Chinese experience, post-partum medical sterilisation of both parties.
I get all kinds of objections, nearly all from men, about how the world has plenty space and the problems are all solvable by better distribution practices.
When I mention that freshwater is where it is and can't be easily moved around, and that moving things around is one of the major causes of the pan-extinction that we're facing, they fall silent. But they don't change their minds!
I joined Zero Population Growth in 1978... it was a small voice, ignored or 'feared'by a public who questioned 'zero'without background knowledge of its meaning. So... "Zero' changed its name to 'Population Connection' and survived but didn't grow...
Now, the Sierra Club(!!) has added Population as an Issue and Eco-Watch, fairly new, has Population in its list of issues. So, late in the game... but overpopulation is coming to the forefront...too late? Not really,
our appetite for slaughter knows no bounds.
And of course ZPG was opposed by the really big centers of psychopathy and exploitation: the churches that want big congregations and full collection plates, the politicians that want big armies, and the owner class that wants big, desperate labor pools.
How can we be heard over the megaphones of that kind of malignant power?
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