We should all be dead and gone according to the population hysteria created by bug scientist Paul Ehrlich who wrote The Population Bomb in the 1960s. But now even the New York Times admits it was all a crock of horse manure. (Like Malthus who in the 18th century believed there would be no place to put it all.)
Read an excerpt from the New York Times article:
Dr. Ehrlich’s ominous declarations cause head-shaking among some who were once his allies, people who four decades ago shared his fears about overpopulation. One of them is Stewart Brand, founding editor of theWhole Earth Catalog. On this topic, Mr. Brand may be deemed a Keynesian, in the sense of an observation often attributed to John Maynard Keynes: “When the facts change, I change my mind, sir. What do you do?” Mr. Brand’s formulation for Retro Report was to ask, “How many years do you have to not have the world end” to reach a conclusion that “maybe it didn’t end because that reason was wrong?”But liberals never have to say they're sorry. Ehrlich continues to be a doomsayer and he still desires tyranny against those who want to have the number of children they want to have. Some things never change.
One thing that happened on the road to doom was that the world figured out how to feed itself despite its rising numbers. No small measure of thanks belonged to Norman E. Borlaug, an American plant scientist whose breeding of high-yielding, disease-resistant crops led to the agricultural savior known as the Green Revolution. While shortages persisted in some regions, they were often more a function of government incompetence, corruption or civil strife than of an absolute lack of food. [This has always been the case!]
I promise that I am a staunch Catholic who hates the population control persons as much as anyone, but I know for a fact from Jim Rogers that the supply of strategic minerals has radically shrunk in the past century and is supposedly approaching the critical stage. As I understand it, in perhaps 40 years we will be either begging or invading Africa to make up for the dearth of such metals. Let's pray that God will provide; apparently our prayers will be needed!
ReplyDeleteThe Lord always provides what is needed for his people. Look at the stars at night and consider how many minerals are up there. No one in 1600 could imagine the car or the plane and certainly not space ships or computers.
ReplyDeleteI think it's in proverbs that we read, "You are a light unto my feet." The light the Scripture talks about was a little dish of oil with a wick -- only enough light to see the next step. The Lord never abandons his people and will provide what we need if we love Him and trust in Him. If we go our own way, telling Him we don't need Him, He won't force Himself on us and will be there to help us up when we fall on our faces. Malthus said we were overpopulated in the 1700s and the whole world would be buried in horse manure. Did he turn out to be a wise prophet? Has Paul Ehrlich?
The problems in the world are due to sin. When we change our ways and turn to God, solutions will be found. Perhaps one day we'll be mining the minerals we need on the moon.
I agree with Mary Ann. The Lord does provide. My wife and I never planned for any of our 11 children and it seemed that every time a new one was on the way something good happened to make it easier. There was no money to set aside for college educations or retirement but through the grace of God, Mary and St. Theresa of the Little flower everything turned out just fine. There were also many very rough spots along the road.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michael. Growing up in a family with ten children, I know first hand it was a challenge. I think my parents were amazing. Every Sunday and holy day were in the pew dressed in our Sunday best worshiping together. Every evening we gathered for family dinner. God bless my parents for the good start they gave us in life! And God bless you and your wife for your great faith!
ReplyDeleteMany communities have come and gone, because their populations outstripped their technology. Our world wars were because of large populations after the collapse of colonial trade. It is easy to overlook problems that loom large, as you sit in your family living room, laughing at how you threaten world peace and human survival. Men have overrun the planet on several occasion- just look at the Sahara, or the Gobi- this dead zone was created by people, and now it is just sand and rock like Mars.
ReplyDelete50 million Chinese starved to death.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese famine had nothing to do with overpopulation. It had to do with politics and Mao's tyranny. He caused the famine just as so many famines have been due to deliberate political decisions to starve unwanted groups -- like Stalin in the Ukraine. Starvation is a useful tool in ethnic cleansing.
ReplyDeleteBut don't take my word for it. Historian Frank Dikotter outlines the cause of the famine in his book, Mao's Great Famine. Farmers were forced into labor gangs while the harvest rotted in the fields.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017839/Madman-starved-60-million-death-Devastating-book-reveals-Maos-megalomania-turned-China-madhouse.html
Pace Stoic Person, the world wars had nothing to do with large populations--Europe's population was significantly smaller during both world wars than it is now--and neither the Sahara nor the Gobi was created by people; they are part of the great northern hemisphere desert belt that corresponds to the downflow of cool, dry air (following its rise as humid equatorial air, which loses its humidity as it cools in the upper troposphere), forming a string of high-pressure domes (Hadley cells) along the northern Horse Latitudes (approximately 30 degrees north latitude). Perhaps Mr. Stoic Person is confused by having read that the Sahara, within historic times (roughly corresponding to the Egyptian Old Kingdom) changed from savanna to desert; but this had nothing to do with the population density in that region, which was quite low, but with the changing of fundamental hemispheric wind patterns, for reasons earth scientists do not fully understand (although they speculate endlessly about them). In any case, a cursory reading of a world map will show that the world's great deserts line up like beads on a string along the aforementioned Horse Latitudes. A corresponding southern hemisphere desert belt exists along the southern Horse Latitudes, 30 degrees south of the equator.
ReplyDeleteN. B.: The above is just a rough-and-ready summary of the atmospheric factors causing desert formation. Many other factors, both atmospheric and geographic, are involved.
Thanks for your post, Carlos. That's very interesting information. But I bet most of those who believe in population control don't change their minds because of factual data.
ReplyDelete