As you know, there is a fierce and long-standing debate over the environment and population control. If the ecosystem is to remain healthy and livable, then humans will certainly have to limit our population, as part of getting ourselves in balance with our environment. But as we have seen, the effects of population range widely -- those in the developed world have an impact many times greater than our numbers. Thus many have charged that calls for limiting population growth are inequitable, classist, or even racist (as they probably would be, if we were to take only population into consideration). Here is a response by Laurie Mazur of the Population Justice Project to a recent accusation of this sort:
http://www.truthout.org/1122094
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6 comments:
there is no life without a quality of life, and as i am an advocate for the importance of a positive attitude and mental health, it doesn't mean anything without a balanced diet. the percentage of overweight children in america doesn't outweighs (literally HAH) the percentage of children who go hungry every day. both extremes are malnourished, our schools cut out gym class for children to have health classes to learn to eat healthy and exercise. i do not understand the root of this problem, i beg anyone to shine some light on the subject!!!
in response to brandon: the food industry can be blamed as a root cause of this problem; fertilizers make food less nourishing and cheaper to produce, and the abundance of cheap corn has allowed the creation of cheap meat and sweeteners. This allows us all to eat more food for less money and so we become overweight.
I agree with Hartmann that the answer is not population control, but more population education. The under developed world's populations are rising and are lacking effective government and resources to educate these women. Women of third world countries in many cases do not have rights as a woman, they are often sexually abused and are forced into carrying unwanted children. Conflicting religious beliefs often interfere with population growth education, some religious women refuse birth control. The world knows where the problems lie, and most times the solutions, for overpopulation, hunger and poverty. The question of 'why is little done?' still haunts us all.
As far as the overweight children we have in our country I agree with the mentioned above along with other reasons. Children today are babysat by TVs, play electronics and rarely go outside. I personally believe poorer Americans are overweight because unhealthy foods are always cheaper than healthier choices. Families who use food stamps have to stretch their money all month long, thank goodness for Ramen! and the Dollar Menu. Plus, many after school sport programs have been cut or open to those who can pay to play leaving the less fortunate worse-off.
Amanda LEtoile
I agree with Mazur when she mentions that a population control program is not the answer to this growing problem. Education of women is the most viable and maybe even, quick answer to over-population. If more women become educated, the higher probability of them moving up in the professional world, leaving them little time for raising a family. Clearly, using and distributing resources will be easier with 8 billion as opposed to 11 billion. But is not the only problem.
Yes, reliance on fossil fuels is a big cause to global warming as well. I do not think that attacking the environmental problem from one direction is enough to stop this catalyst. Awareness, or education is needed not only for woman's empowerment, but for everyone. Education on the environment and what can be done to prevent more problems is what needs to be taught as well. Perhaps something along the lines of what our Environmental Ethics class is like now, except starting this earlier.
I strongly agree with Mazur (and Silliman, as mentioned in class) that the best way to slow population growth is ensuring that all people have the means and power to make their own decisions about having children. All individuals need an adequate education on the subject. the "population justice" movement is quite interesting, it advocates the increase in funding for family planning, sexual education, and global poverty; It does not, however, lobby for increased population control funding.
Mazur is right here, fighting for population policies needs to be done in a socially acceptable and humane way. If the right to give birth to children is taken away from women, the world is reaching a hard spot. This is something that should simply not be an answer to environmental issues especially. At the least, education is the answer. If people were more aware of their choices that affect the environment and their choices regarding population increase, things would be better. The world is at an uneven state and bringing everybody down is not going to help, we need to empower all peoples to become knowledgable about their environment and their lives.
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