Richard Day's picture

    ERLICH & THE POPULATION BOMB

    Then God said "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures...

    (Genesis http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+1&version=NIV)

    PAUL R. ERLICH

    I just found an intriguing essay along with a fine video at NYT.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/us/the-unrealized-horrors-of-population-explosion.html?src=me&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Most%20Emailed&pgtype=article

    For some reason this display gets me to thinking of  so many issues at one time, that I swear I almost became erect.

    OVERPOPULATION

    Paul R. Erlich wrote about this subject over 40 years ago.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_R._Ehrlich

    His Population Bomb was written in 1968.

    I was 18 years of age.

    The Vietnam War was raging, the Cold war was raging with universal[u1]  fears concerning Atomic War(s), China was experiencing severe loss of life due to a deficit of food, India was suffering from the same problems as China (so here was a communist nation experiencing the same problems as a democratic nation), cities in the good ole US of A were exploding, and the repubs decided to start screaming about Law & Order.

    In 1970 the world’s population was estimated to be 3.7 billion people.

    http://www.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_world_population_in_1970

    This year our globe will sport 7.2 billionhttp://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2014/12/31/us-pop....

    http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2014/12/31/us-population-2015-320-million-and-world-population-72-billion

    ISSUES RAISED BY THIS POPULATION EXPLOSION

    The NYT presentation brings a number of issues to the fore going back 40 years, and all these issues are present today.

    BIRTH CONTROL

    China and even India (much to my amazement) began extreme measures to make birth control mandatory. And recall that in those days our middle class was pouring out five to seven kids for each family. And the Roman Catholic Church and many other organizations in this country perceived that birth control was a sin. Birth control involves many different measures of course including pills and rubbers and forced sterilizations and abortions and….And we have these state republicans closing down health facilities for women? This is 2015 for chissakes.

    Just one note, Erlich actually lobbied for chemicals in our water that would shut down our abilities to procreate. hahahha

    Sorry to be so insensitive, but we are all insensitive sometimes.

     

    AGRICULTURE

    Herbicides and pesticides and a host of other issues concerning how 'we' grow our foodstuffs.

    I think the Green Folks go overboard.

    WE HAVE TO ATTEMPT TO FEED 7.2 BILLION PEOPLE FOR CHISSAKES.

    But then again, we must oversee the agricultural corporations or we might all die of a number of poisons.

    AIR POLLUTION

    There is a short speech given by Nixon about the dangers of pollution and its relationship to overpopulation in our urban areas.

    So China whilst inviting all the peasants to the urban economies, is experiencing smog just like we did in the 1970's.

    India has its own problems.

    WATER POLLUTION

    7.2 billion people need energy sources.

    And rich people make money from finding those energy  sources.

    But we are experiencing poisoning from our sources of water that could only be imagined yesterday in places like India and the continent of Africa.

    CLIMATE CHANGE

    i aint getting into this issue except to point out that most of the world's population are found on our coasts.

    And except to point out that we are looking at climate change, not just global warming.

     

     

    ( I have used this song so many times, I cannot count those uses)

    Take a look at this exposition by NYT.

    We are still arguing the same issues we did 40 years ago!

     

     

     

     

     [u1]

     

    Comments

    Here is another short essay from Think Progress along the same lines.

    http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/06/01/3653348/sixth-extinction/

     


    What I remember was that he was mostly ignored.  He did make his rounds on late night TV and Sunday morning news interviews. I think that was because he was outside the mainstream and the producers liked controversy to get people to watch. Some of his predictions and in the time frame he put them in was really nutty. At the time people were mostly grappling with civil rights, Vietnam and the cold war. I remember his book but never bought it or read it.  We did talk about him later when I was in college in the mid 70's by that time his 15 min. of fame was gone. 

    Global warming caused by our use of fossil fuels is scary.   


    So many issues today are related to population explosion.

    Repubs just ignore it like climate change and the rise of the rich and the rise of the poor.

    First we have to trust the water we drink and bathe in, second we must trust the air we breathe and third we have to trust our foods.

     


    One would have to conclude that Ehrlich was and still is unhinged.

    Here is his proposal for a 'birth lottery' and sterility chemicals in the water supply. The plan might have been good to go if the 3rd Reich had won, with the lottery restricted to 'pure Aryans', or, as in Dr. Strangelove, generals like the one played by George C. Scott.

    Malthus was also off the deep end, he opposed changing the 1830's  'poor laws', believing they were already too lenient, Dickens made a career out of highlighting the cruelty to the poor in Britain.


    People took Darwin's findings and turned it into some mean attack on the poor.

    Erlich is still interesting to me; on add on to Malthus.

    I just found the essay  and video revealing and it got me and I recall the old days.

    We cannot put things in our drinking water intentionally to cope with the rising population anymore than we can just demand sterilization.

    Alex Jones would love this stuff. hahhahhahaha

    We are looking at 9 billion people over the next couple of decades.

    I will not be here, but my kids and grandkids will be here.

    We must keep our water clean.

    We must keep our air clean.

    We must keep our foods free of poisons.

    We must make available medical care, including birth control pharmaceuticals.

    At least we are charged to make the attempt to do so.

    That's all I got.


    The answer is we, as a society, have to evolve past greed; our greed to have more time, more money, more property, more stuff.  We have to learn to be satisfied with the boundaries of living in a physical plane of existence.   We have gotten so competitive and greedy about our lives ... we think we deserve more, need more, have to have more ... we don't.  We have to learn to be satisfied; with the life we've lived, the stuff we have, the things we've done, the time we've got, etc.   Our desires and competitive spirit and our sense of unlimited entitlement has to be reined in.  We need to encourage people to be satisfied with enough and give up trying to accumulate more than everyone else.  He who has the most toys does not win, they destroy the planet for everyone else ... or that's just a thought i had. 


    My son purchased this suburban home, hell he wanted this years before he met his bride.

    He finds this 'deal' on a swing set with slide et al. My son aint some idiot. He got it at some estate sale or whatever. The American deal. hahahahah

    Precious loves it of course!

    But he sends me this picture and there are six tots playing on this set.

    Much to the ecstatic emotions of my Precious.

    Baby Jolee aint even there at eight months of course. Jolee is on a nap. hahahaha Like I am most of the time.

    Sharing.

    Sharing brings great joy.

    We must teach our children how to share and how much fun it is!

    This is probably so trite, but damn.

    Trite can be nice!

     

     

     


    Great thread as usual Dick...

    Although I have one question. How did Adam and Eve get these?

    Hmmmmmmmmmm....

    ~OGD~



    Oh. I was gonna say they got them on eBay. Nevermind. laugh


    eBay is somewhere on the Eastern Coast?

    Right?


    The same place their sons got wives.


    Well God just figured he did not wish 'them' to feel different from their offspring. hahahah

    I did not even catch this, but you can damn better bet the painter did!


    Ya see, OGD, that's where God had to apply the nozzle from the hose, so that when He breathed life into them, they would inflate, and not just, you know, have the breath pass right through 'em.

    Next Holy question?


    LOL...I needed that laugh. I just got done explaining how school lunches are handled in Redneckastand. I get angry when I have to talk about it.   


    This is a day late.

    But there is help out there.

    I know you live in Canada, a thousand miles from the nearest health care center, kind of like Alabama. hahahahaha

    Surely there is someone around (16 miles or so) with a BA in psycometrics or something?

    Otherwise there is Phil or Dr. Phil on the TV.

    I mean you do have TV right?

    Okay, that is enough, for now. hahahahahah

    There are proper texts concerning anatomy near you?

    Oh well, do the best you can.

    Just stay away from civilized folks; just to be safe.


    "You build it and they will come."  That is kids will always gather around play sets. 


    yeah, they certainly do!!!!

    And that is exactly what my son wanted!


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