Looks like Gareth Morgan has some competition. No, he's not after cats, he's after us!
Erm, most of the country of Ethopia are farmers, and they rely on rain to water their crops! Maybe it's not too many people, but not enough infrastructure that's the problem? I wonder how most countries in the world would do if they were as underdeveloped as Ethopia, probably not well! From the World Information Transfer on Ethiopia:
Sir David Attenborough must be getting senile. He needs to watch this YouTube:
Related links:
David Attenborough - Humans are plague on Earth ~ The Telegraph
Famine in Ethiopia ~ World Information Transfer
Overpopulation is a myth
Humans are a plague on the Earth that need to be controlled by limiting population growth, according to Sir David Attenborough.
The television presenter said that humans are threatening their own existence and that of other species by using up the world’s resources.
He said the only way to save the planet from famine and species extinction is to limit human population growth.
“We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now,” he told the Radio Times.
Sir David, who is a patron of the Population Matters, has spoken out before about the “frightening explosion in human numbers” and the need for investment in sex education and other voluntary means of limiting population in developing countries.
“We keep putting on programmes about famine in Ethiopia; that’s what’s happening. Too many people there. They can’t support themselves — and it’s not an inhuman thing to say. It’s the case. Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a coordinated view about the planet it’s going to get worse and worse.”
Erm, most of the country of Ethopia are farmers, and they rely on rain to water their crops! Maybe it's not too many people, but not enough infrastructure that's the problem? I wonder how most countries in the world would do if they were as underdeveloped as Ethopia, probably not well! From the World Information Transfer on Ethiopia:
Ethiopia remains one of the world’s least developed countries, ranked 157 out of 169 in the 2010 UNDP Human Development Index with agriculture as the foundation of the economy, employing 80 per cent of the country’s 82 million people. Some 84 per cent of the population lives in rural areas and is mainly engaged in rain-fed subsistence agriculture. (WFP)
Sir David Attenborough must be getting senile. He needs to watch this YouTube:
Related links:
David Attenborough - Humans are plague on Earth ~ The Telegraph
Famine in Ethiopia ~ World Information Transfer
Overpopulation is a myth
Am I the only one who finds the phrase "a coordinated view about the planet" ominous?
ReplyDeleteKG, I find the whole thing ominous. Attenbourough is not the only public that has called for a reduction of human beings. The Greens are right behind this sort of thing, though they tend to stay pretty quiet about it.
ReplyDeleteA reduction in the number of human beings is a matter of birth rate lower than death rate, which is already the case in much of the developed world - there's nothing ominous about it. What would be ominous would be everybody continuing to breed like rabbits until the inevitable happens.
ReplyDeleteI find his view very scary.
ReplyDeleteWhat about that fact that humans were created ín the image of God?'
And if the Greens etc are for some humans to be wiped out in favour of nature, well, which ones?
Just nuts. Tree huggers!
And how exactly is the inevitable going to happen?
ReplyDeleteMilt, I think there is a difference between noting that "A reduction in the number of human beings is a matter of birth rate lower than death rate" and the attitudes arising from Attenborough's calling humans a plague. Those attitudes make it ominous.
ReplyDeleteHis cure for Ethiopia (his version of Jews?) seems blind to the fact that there are, according to his standards, far too many people in London, Paris and New York. His call might be for greater access to abortion, but you can see the seeds of ideas for mass euthanasia programs for the asset-less elderly, payments for sterilisation of young people and more ominous measures over time.
Enabling wealth in poorer countries would be a better solution.
His cure for Ethiopia (his version of Jews?) seems blind to the fact that there are, according to his standards, far too many people in London, Paris and New York.
ReplyDeleteIf the people of London, Paris and New York were to take up subsistence agriculture as their means of existence, I expect they would be forced to agree with that assessment within a remarkably short timeframe.
And how exactly is the inevitable going to happen?
ReplyDeleteThe same way it happens to any other living organism that out-breeds its environment's ability to sustain it. Exponential growth in a population can't go on forever for reasons that ought to be obvious.
I agree Milt, but my point was to think of the reverse.
ReplyDeleteWhy exactly cannot Ethiopians build a Paris or a London?
And the reasons are not the reasons, they are simply obstacles.
Exponential growth in a population can't go on forever for reasons that ought to be obvious.
ReplyDeleteOf course it cannot. But do you think we will manage to get past the 3 billion mark that will see the total and absolute collapse of civilisation, as self-professed experts and alarmists predicted in the 70's?