The Question of Too Many People

Is Overpopulation a myth?

Let's set the abortion issue aside for a moment and examine the question: "Is there an overpopulation problem today (July 2004) on planet Earth?

Let's ask the question again in a couple of other ways:

1) Does everybody on the planet have adequate food, clothing, shelter, and basic medical care?

Two Billion people do not even have access to electricity. Each and every day,40,000 innocent children. starve to death or die from curable diseases. And the latest UNICEF report tell us that over one billion children suffer the severe effects of poverty. *¹

*¹ LONDON, 21 October 2003 - Drawing from the largest, most accurate survey sample of children ever assembled, a new UNICEF-sponsored report has found that over one billion [over one-thousand million] children suffer the severe effects of poverty. The survey measures the extent of child poverty, in terms not only of income, but of deprivation of basic human rights such as shelter, food, water, sanitation, health, education and information.

UNICEF says that the physical, emotional and intellectual impairment that poverty inflicts on children can mean a lifetime of suffering and want - and a legacy of poverty for the next generation.

“Eradication of the worst manifestations of poverty is not only a moral imperative,” said UNICEF Executive Director, Carol Bellamy. “It is a practical and affordable possibility - and it starts with investing in children.

UNICEF believes that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress.

Spending on a child's health, nutrition, education, equality and social, emotional and cognitive development is not only an investment in a more democratic and a more equitable society, it is also an investment in a healthier, more literate and, ultimately, a more thriving and safe population.

The above statements were taken directly form the Unicef
web site: <http://www.unicef.org/media/media_15082.html>

2) How many of the major problems facing humanity today would simply not be a problem if the human population were one billion instead of six billion?

The Billy Meier Web site offers some thought on this problem: <http://www.figu.org/us/overpopulation/index.htm>

3) Is the present population level sustainable given the speed at which we are depleting and/or irreversibly destroying our non-replaceable natural resources?

4) How many of the major problems facing humanity today are aggravated and made worse by having more people on the planet? Consider problems such as poverty, starvation, overcrowding, wars, crime, gang violence, child abuse, environmental destruction, rainforest destruction, ozone depletion, topsoil destruction, air pollution, water pollution, and species extinction.*²

*² (Present estimates are that life forms on Earth are becoming extinct at the rate of one per hour - - that is 24 extinctions each and every day, 168 extinctions per week, 720 extinctions pre month, and 8,760** extinctions per year. That’s an extinction rate equaled only by the demise of the dinosaurs. And, as you well know, EXTINCTION IS FOREVER!)

** A more recent estimate of the species extinction rate places the rate at one every twenty minutes, that over 26,000 extinctions per year.

Constant population growth requires a constant increase in goods and services -- More food, clothing, houses -- an increased infrastructure to meet their needs care for them (i.e. more water systems, more roads, more electricity, more hospitals, and schools, etc.)

3) How long can we continue abusing and destroying our environment before we trigger a major disaster? Many scientist are telling us that we have already caused irreversible changes that will soon produce devastating consequences. The evidence indicated that it's not a question of whether or not an environmental disaster will strike, it's only a question of when.

4) If there were fewer humans on the planet, would that reduce the percentage of the population that is presently living in poverty, misery, sickness, and war zones?

What will happen when disaster does strike? In just a moment, we'll answer that question from the fundamentalist Christian anti-abortionist's perspective.

Overpopulation ,Wars, and Social Chaos:

Humans are stuck in a rut called:
"Treat the symptom -- Ignore the Cause."

When you look at religious wars, social conflicts, and the like, the fundamental underpinnings of these problems go deeper than differing religious beliefs. The first cause of most major social conflicts is the imbalance between population and the production and distribution of the goods and services required to care for all the people.

When adults are living in squalor, and feeling helpless as they see their children suffering and in many cases dying, religion becomes an easy place to find a scapegoat -- an easy point to release one's frustrations. The groundwork for violence has already been programmed into many mindless true-believers in this or that religious-based fairytale. Many religious devotees have been trained to dislike, distrust, or even hate those who hold different beliefs about God. Religious organizations are structure within which to seek solace and to seek answers to problems.

Think about this for a moment: If all humans on the planet had available to them goods and services equivalent to that of an upper-middleclass American, how may people would be our protesting in the street, or sneaking around committing crimes, of going off somewhere to become a rebel and kill someone?

How Can Fewer People be a Problem?

The anti-choice voices also tell us that if the human population was reduced that that would somehow create a problem. But none of them tells us why.

Is more open space a problem? Are more forests and wetlands a problem? Are more unspoiled natural setting a problem? Is sharing the planet with eagles, panda bears, lions, and elephants some kind of a problem? If we weren't causing irreversible destruction of our oceans, our forests, our grassland, and our agricultural soil, would that be a problem?

If we didn't have polluted streams and rivers, would that be a problem? If we didn't have acid rain, ozone depletion, poverty and wars over land rights, would that be a problem? Would fewer cars on the freeway be a problem? Or how about the absence of the waiting lines that pop up just about everywhere humans gather? Would shorter or fewer lines cause some kind of problem?

NO! But having fewer people on Earth conflicts with the fundamentalist Christian view of the world. The next section below answers, why?

When Disaster Strikes, Will That Be a Problem?

The way we (the collective we) are treating Sacred Mother Earth, it's only a mater of time before before disaster strikes. From the fundamentalist Christian anti-abortionist's perspective, is that a problem? No. Why not? Here's a portion of their belief system. That will answer the "why not" question.

They believe in the literal word of the Christian Bible. The Bible say "subdue and conquer the Earth," (which humans have done to excess.) In their belief system, what happens to Earth is irrelevant because the Earth was created at 9:00 am Monday morning about six thousand years ago and the end of the Earth is coming very soon with what the fundamentalists call "The Rapture." On the day of rapture, disaster will strike the Earth and all good Christians will be instantly taken by God directly to heaven, and everyone else will be left to perish or live in misery on what's left of planet Earth.

According to their belief, fundamentalist Christians are required by God to convert as many others to their belief as possible, so in this scenario, an increase in the human population is a good thing. More people means more people will be born as Christians and there will be more people to convert to Christianity. According to their belief system, this is good because, it gets more people into heaven on rapture day. What happens to all the plants and animals and to Earth, itself, is completely irrelevant. The Earth and everything on it was created by God for one reason and one reason only. Earth is a testing ground -- a ticket to Christian heaven.

Is overpopulation a problem?

So now, let's put abortion and overpopulation back together again and ask our initial question. Is overpopulation a problem?

From the fundamentalist Christian ant-abortionist perspective the answer is, "No, it's a blessing."

From almost everyone else's perspective, the answer is: "YES, of course it is and we know is." Not only is it a problem, it's the most fundamental and basic problem facing humanity today. Overpopulation creates and/or aggravates every other problem on the planet.

Human overpopulation is causing a global environmental disaster and a species extinction rate of proportions not seen since the demise of the dinosaurs. Human overpopulation is causing social and political disasters on a magnitude never seen before on Earth. Human overpopulation is causing grief and misery for billions of human beings. Forty thousand innocent children starve to death each and every day. That's twenty seven dead kids every minute.

In the face of this already-in-process disaster, the anti-abortion promoters are denying the existence of a population problem -- and they're promoting the birth of still more people! They are literally forcing unwilling women to birth still more unwanted babies so that they, the fundamentalist Christian anti-abortionists, can get more people into Christian heaven.

Is it possible that some of the inhabitants of Wonderland have climbed out of Alice's rabbit hole and are now running the Earth's most influential institutions. Or could it be that the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny are secretly ruling the world?

But all is not lost. Out of all the millions and millions of hours that our no-choice friends have spent attempting to save embryos, someone managed to discover the absolute irrefutable reason why abortion should be a government crime. Here's the real truth:

"Water is water because it's wet
and its wet because it's water,
therefore abortion should be be illegal."

What do you suppose would happen if the mindless Christian sheep turned their brains on for just one minute each day?