Re: APS population/hunger resolution -Reply

Gordon Couger (gcouger@rfdata.net)
Tue, 11 Aug 1998 20:52:46 -0500

;Wendell Berry gave a wonderful (because I agree with it) response to a
;question about this issue at the NOFA Conference the other day. In this
;country we must be extremely careful about raising the spectre of
;overpopulation as a contributing factor to environmental destruction,
;since our per capita impact on global ecosystems is so enormous by
;comparison to most of the rest of the world. Despite all the qualifiers, I
;am always wary of the social assumptions/agenda of folks who look to
;population control (and/or elimination) as a means of "saving the world."

Certainly the more developed a country is the more pollution we put out.
I am satisfied for ever unit of energy we use 2 are wasted. The developed
world has a lot to do in cleaning up our act. But we have the capability to
do it. Compare that to some of the African nations that literally eat every
bite of food that they raise. They can't do anything about their situation
without outside help, a substantial increase in productivity or substantial
decrease in their population.

I don't know how many people the world will support. But I am satisfied
that when we exceed it mother nature will correct it in a rather spectacular
fashion. I am also satisfied that the poorer sector will bear the brunt of
it.

I would rather take care of population management in a more humane way
that famine, plague or war. Even the Draconian measures the Chinese employ
are preferable to natures way of handling the problem.

IMHO
Gordon
Gordon Couger gcouger@rfdata.net
624 Cheyenne
Stillwater, OK 74075
405 624-2855 GMT -6:00

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