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!