Chapter 9- The People Haters in T he Greening. By: Michelle Morse and Vanecia Wilkerson

1. Chapter 9- The People Haters in The Greening.By: Michelle Morse and Vanecia Wilkerson Chapter focuses on the error of the concept of overpopulation- holding together the pantheon of environmentalist causes. Overpopulation: Greenies defined this as population exceeding the amount of arable land necessary to sustain life. Paul Ehrlich states “ Chief among the underlying causes of our planet’s unease is the overgrowth of the human population and its impact on both ecosystems and human communities. Those impacts are the threads linking all the seemingly unrelated problems and others besides” (Ehrlich,The population Explosion, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990. Page 11.) ~“When Paul Ehrlich wrote his famous book ["The Population Explosion"], women were having an average around the world of five or six children; now they’re having an average of 2.6. Fertility rates around the world have halved. So the population bomb as we’ve conceived it before really isn’t there. There’s still population growth going on, but that’s going to stabilize.” –Margaret Eby~ http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2010/04/19/population_crash_ext2010

2. In 2008 the World population was estimated at 6,697,254,041 http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_pop_totl&tdim=true&dl=en&hl=en&q=population+of+the+world The World’s 10 Largest Countries Three of the world’s 10 most populous countries in 2004 are the United States, Russia, and Japan. By 2050, only one, the United States, is expected to remain in that top 10 list. 2004 Population (millions) 1. China- 1,300 2. India- 1,087 3. United States- 294 4. Indonesia- 219 5. Brazil- 179 6. Pakistan- 159 7. Russia- 144 8. Bangladesh- 141 9. Nigeria- 137 10. Japan- 128 Found on the 2004 World Population Data Sheet of the Population Reference Bureau

3. Pseudo Politics: The revolutionary Model • French Revolution (1789–1799) was a period of radical social and political upheaval in French and European history. • Attack on the Bourgeoisie (middle class) by radical Jacobins of the manufacturing towns created unemployment. • Also destroyed Luxury class (upper class) and the unemployed crowded the streets. Economy is interdependent no great class can be eliminated without idling other classes. • Created the revolutionary Calendar- eliminated holidays instituted 10 day week, added 3 ½ working days to every two weeks, 3 working months to every year. Fewer workers were needed.

4. Revolutionary Calendar

5. System of depopulation- created by the committee of public safety • Reduction of population to 1/3 from 25 million to 8 million. • Baccheus Babeuf who was a conspirator against established order wrote in accord with Maximilian Robespiere (summarized): french population is in excess of resources, of soil and of requirements in useful industry. To be able to live at ease hands were too numerous for execution of all works of essential utility. Do to this conclusion a portion of revolutionaries must be sacrificed. • The system of terror answered the problem of unemployment , 300,000 people were drowned, guillotined, and shot all over France. Only 3,000 of them were nobles.

6. Pseudo Science-Malthusian model • English Churchman and economist Thomas Robert Malthus laid pseudo scientific ground work for modern people-phobia. • In 1798 Malthus published first version essay on population-3 theories (all proven false) Population growth had outstripped food production, better living conditions stimulate higher birth rates and that the British population increase was due to a rising birth rate. • Abraham states population has not outstripped food production (then or now),As living conditions improve birth rates usually decline not incline, and that British population increase was not due to a rising birth rate (dropping at that time), but rather to a death rate reduced by a revolution in health care. • Evidence that the Malthusian theory is wrong can also be proven by veteran environmental writer Fred Pearce (refer to his book “The Coming Population Crash: and our Planets Surprising Future”) Pearce argues that the world’s population is peaking. In the next century, we’re heading not for exponential growth, but a slow, steady decline. This, he claims, has the potential to massively change both our society and our planet: Children will become a rare sight, patriarchal thinking will fall by the wayside, and middle-aged culture will replace our predominant youth culture. Furthermore, Pearce explains, the population bust could be the end of our environmental woes. Fewer people making better choices about consumption could lead to a greener, healthier planet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVOU5bfHrM

7. Eugenics and Racism • Malthusian theory gave rise to Eugenics movement: study of human hereditary improvement by genetic control. • Along with “the white man’s burden eugenics enshrined itself into the Anglo-American Establishment and was incorporated into numerous American state laws- providing for sterilization of undesirables and mental defectives. • Eugenics reached open climax with Nazi’s, after Nazi defeat, went underground disguising itself with the guise of anti-racism (freedom and racial equality). • White man’s Burden with its racial arrogance can be seen in Lionel Curtis’ work The Problem of the Common Wealth. He wrote “ In the function of government is reserved to the European minority, the unanswerable reason that for the present this portion of its citizens is alone capable of the task-civilized states are obliged assume control of backward communities to protect them from exploitation by private adventurers from Europe…the task of preparing for freedom the races which cannot as yet govern themselves is the supreme duty of those who can”

8. Eugenics and Racism Cont. • Radical Feminist and developmentalists Margaret Sanger founder of planned parenthood brought people phobia from Britain to America. • Margaret was convinced that “the inferior races were in fact human weeds and a menace to civilization…She yearned for the end of the Christian reign of Benevolence that the eugenic socialists promised, when the chocking human undergrowth of morons and imbeciles would be segregated and sterilized. Her goal was to create a race of thoroughbreds by encouraging more children from the fit and less from the unfit.” (George Grant , Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood. Brentwood Tennessee:Wolgemuth and Hyatt, 1998, pg. 91.) • Sound a lot like Hitler? • Margaret outlined her ideas in her plan for ‘peace’ calling for coercive sterilization, mandating segregation, and rehabilitative concentration camps for all dysgenic stocks. (Grand Illusions p. 92) • Abraham states developmentalists today still reveal the same racist trend, they have replaced the old military colonialism with a new type based on science. It is easier to exercise influence then to exert control.

9. Politics Not Poverty • More often politics not population causes famine • Ex. Soviet Union was once the bread basket of Europe and grain exporter, they must now import grain from the U.S, where government pays farmers to idle their fields because caves, silos, warehouses and storehouses are overflowing. • Increased population is an indicator of prosperity not poverty. • Exs. Netherlands the most densely populated country on earth is the net exporter of food stuffs. (population per square mile- 1,033, total population 16.3 million-2004 World Population Data Sheet) • India and China two of the most hungriest countries in in the world are among the least densely populated countries on the bases of people per square mile of arable land. Farmers use half of the land and a tiny portion of water available for irrigation. (china- 352 people per square mile (2004), India-856 people per square mile (2004).

10. Politics Not Poverty Cont. • There was 9 % more total arable land in 1960 than in 1950 in 87 countries (data taken from 73% of the worlds total land area. • United nation’s data shows a 6% rise in worlds arable, permanent cropland from 1963-1977. • In 1989 the world population was 5,234,000,000. If all those people were to be put in the state of Arkansas each person would have an area of 16 ft 8 inches squared (most people don’t even have a bedroom that big). • Eco- Prophet Barry Commoner states the argument that earth is a closed system with finite resources is not true. With enough energy available they can be re-cycled and re-used indifferently. The energy needed is available. • Regarding to fertilizer the basic ingredients potash and sulfate is adequate for several centuries, the third major ingredient nitrogen is freely available in the atmosphere. Energy is abundant enough to extract it from the atmosphere because the worlds coal supply is adequate for some 2,000 years.

11. The Myth of Mass Starvation http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/origins_imgzoom.cfm?id=798&backpage=maps.cfm?articleid=38 • Abraham states that only about 2% of the world’s population suffers from serious • hunger. • For the past 30 years lesser developed countries life expectancies have risen up by more than a third while lesser developed countries death rates for one to four year olds have dropped to nearly half. • Kasun states world food production has increased considerably faster than population in recent decades. Some of the most dramatic examples of this occurred in the poorest countries. • Ex. Rice and wheat production in India in 1983 was 3.5 times higher then in 1950 and more than twice the percentage increase in the population of India in the same time period. • Population growth does not inevitably mean poverty. Every new mouth comes with a pair of hands. More consumers but more producers as well. • How much population can the earth carry? http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/origins_imgzoom.cfm?id=780&backpage=maps.cfm?articleid=38 • Abraham states the American type diet could provide for 35.1 billion people (7 times the present population) On the Japanese diet the earth could feed 22 times the present population.