Wrong words from the right
John Bagley’s
”
Words from the Right
”
was well written, humorous and certainly accurate on most
points. But on one vital matter he is dead wrong.
Wrong words from the right
by John Blake
John Bagley’s “Words from the Right” was well written, humorous and certainly accurate on most points. But on one vital matter he is dead wrong.
First, where he tells it as it is:
The bombardment of liberal propaganda from Hollywood, advertisers and the media all persuade our young people that pleasure and material “stuff” will make us happy and that is what life is all about. This certainly does erode our nation’s moral fiber.
Global warming – it did indeed happen in the past, with major disruption of the environment then. And it is beginning to happen today, from natural causes, but likely also from man’s activities.
We extol the benefits of diversity, but ignore its divisive effects.
Our wide open borders allow excessive immigration which makes our population grow and brings on urban sprawl and housing shortages, not to mention traffic congestion, overcrowded schools and hospitals, increased crime and more.
But he is wrong about world population. Some 6.5 billion of us inhabit our planet today, with about 70 million more arriving each year. Many signs say that we have too many people now, and continued growth is certain to precipitate widespread disaster and misery.
Some of the many ominous signs follow:
Only about 10 percent of earth’s land area is suitable for cultivation. This comes to about 0.6 acres per person, on average. Maybe enough to feed more than one person, but considering the unequal distribution of income and opportunity among the population and other demands on this land, it hardly seems ample.
A number of poor nations now cannot grow enough to feed all their people and cannot afford to import food. Niger is one such example.
In The Sudan, Arab herdsmen are slaughtering black Christian farmers. These two peoples had lived together in peace for many years, but recent competition for land has sparked conflict.
The recent massacres of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda began with disputes over land, according to some observers.
India’s population is over one billion. It is still rising rapidly and will soon pass China as the most populous nation. (India has only about one third the land area of the U.S.) And ground water, used to irrigate much of India’s cropland is being pumped out faster than it is replenished. The same thing is happening on the grain-growing plains of northern China, and on a large area in the southwestern U.S.
Little undeveloped farmland remains in the world, while desertification, erosion, roads and development remove significant amounts from production each year.
Eighty percent of the world’s people live in the underdeveloped countries, and these are where population grows fastest. Life is hard in these countries, as overcrowding on small subsistence farms forces many to migrate to teeming, rapidly growing cities where they live in squalor and compete for too few jobs. Unemployment and exploitation make them willing followers of fanatics who offer scapegoats to hate and promise revenge and new pride. Many others seek to better themselves by migrating to a prosperous country. Witness the traffic overwhelming our southern border.
These are just a few of many facts that say our world is now overcrowded with humanity. And, obviously, growth cannot continue indefinitely. Nature is certain to apply its cruel controls unless we humans can use our intelligence and summon the resolve to reduce our numbers by humane means.
The good news is that a number of trials have successfully stabilized populations in limited areas. So we know how to convince families to have fewer children and to do so voluntarily, humanely and at reasonable cost. But such a project will take time to be effective on a worldwide scale, and before it can begin more of us must realize the need.
Right now most are in denial. Sort of like the sailor who fell overboard. His comment when picked up after clinging to some driftwood for a day – “It would have been funny if it hadn’t been so damn serious.”
