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Pakistan :: Environmental-Earth   ::   Print this Article
PAKISTAN’S CURRENT TRAGEDY MORE THAN STORMS: IT’S OVERPOPULATION
08-12-2010 1:44 am - Frosty Wooldridge
A quick glance at the human misery and suffering brought about by the flooding in Pakistan moves anyone to tears. The regular CNN, FOX and NBC depictions of human tragedy overwhelms anyone’s senses.

Every international relief agency from the United Nations to the International Red Cross calls on governments around the planet to send relief, food, water, shelter and medical teams.

Unfortunately, that will not help their short term and long term predicament. At 82 million people in a tiny landmass called Pakistan, that country, without any concern for birth control and family planning—expects to add another 80 million people by mid century. Even today, they cannot feed or maintain clean drinking water for their overloaded population. Ironically, ancient religions such as Islam fail to understand carrying capacity, water, environment, resources and quality of life issues that drill down into the harsh reality that behind all the misery suffered in third world countries stems from two accelerating dilemmas: illiteracy and human overpopulation. Without dealing with overpopulation, no country can deal with illiteracy.

As the third world countries grow by 77 million annually, they cannot educate their citizens and they cannot intellectually move past their cultural paradigms and human suffering.

Dr. Garret Hardin, author, Stalking the Wild Taboo, brings home their dilemma:

"Those of us who are deeply concerned about population and the environment-"eco-nuts," we're called, - 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, "unimportant" 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?” said Hardin. “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 important 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 eco-nuts 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."

As Hardin said, we abhor dealing with reality. In fact, in Joel Kotkin's recent book, he 'celebrates' adding 100 million people to the United States as if it amounts to a "Red Badge of Courage" in a diminishing world. He
speaks on NPR with glowing reviews from Jennifer Ludden. He enjoys interviews in papers as he crosses the country to pitch his book. He leads Americans down a primrose path of more denial, stupidity and ignorance of
their predicament.

Wouldn’t Pakistan be better off with only 10 million people? Wouldn’t it serve its own citizens to engage birth control and family planning. Wouldn’t it better to life within a safe and sustainable country? Would it be much more enjoyable a life experience to live with dignity and equality? Answer: you betcha!
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If any of us, no matter what our race, creed or color might be, refuse to engage our U.S. Congress as we have not for 30 years as to the population/immigration equation—our children will find themselves living in a terribly degraded America where the American Dream will be described by the history books as a ‘fleeting fantasy’ from the era of 1950 to 2010. These are several of the top organizations where you can take collective action to change the course of American history as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Take collective action at www.numbersusa.com ; www.fairus.org ; www.capsweb.org ; www.thesocialcontract.com ; www.populationmedia.org ; www.worldpopulationbalance.org ; www.populationconnection.org ; www.quinacrine.com ; www.familyplanning.org/ , www.skil.org ; www.growthbusters.com ; www.populationpress.org ; www.thinkpopulation.org ; www.carryingcapacity.org ; www.balance.org ; www.controlgrowth.org ; in Canada www.immigrationwatchcanada.org ; in Australia www.population.org.au and PublicPopForum@yahoogroups.com ; in Great Britain www.optimumpopulation.org ; and dozens of other sites accessed at www.frostywooldridge.com.

Must see DVD: “Blind Spot” http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/blind_spot/ , This movie illustrates America’s future without oil, water and other resources to keep this civilization functioning. It’s a brilliant educational movie! www.blindspotdoc.com

Must see: Rapid Population Decline, seven minute video by Dr. Jack Alpert-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTWduFB_RX0

Must see and funny: www.growthbusters.org ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXSTrW_dARc
Dave Gardner begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting’s Polar Bear in Bedroom: http://growthbusters.org/2010/03/save-the-polar-bear-in-your-bedroom ; Dave Gardner, President, Citizen-Powered Media ; Producing the Documentary, GROWTH BUSTERS; presents Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity, Join the cause at www .growthbusters.org ;760 Wycliffe Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 USA; +1 719-576-5565 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +1 719-576-5565      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Check out this link with Wooldridge on bicycle and Lester Brown and panel discussion:
http://www.upnorthmedia.org/watchupnorthtv.asp?SDBFid=1631
Tomorrow's America project on www.youtube.com/contemporarylearning.
Producer: GEORGE A. COLBURN www.tomorrowsamerica.com
DC: 202-258-4887
Email: gac@starbrightmc.com
Link to www.tomorrowsamerica.com for more discussions on America’s predicament.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.starbrightmediacorp.com
www.tomorrowsamerica.com



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Frosty 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 He is the author of: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans. Copies available: 1 888 280 7715









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