NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/ca/environm/1135

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From: [e-mail] (CXIR000)
Newsgroups: ca.environment,sci.environment
Subject: Re: Save the Planet and the Economy at the Same time!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 1 Jan 93 05:59:50 GMT
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Donald Bowen) writes:
>In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (JAMES L WILSON RD) writes:
>
>
>>Great ideas, all of them.  But they are still just band aid solutions
>>to the real dilemma:  too many people putting too great a stress on a
>>planet with a finite amount of resources.  When we can come up with a
>>real solution for curbing the current population growth we will ease
>>the increasing strain on our fragile environment as well as alleviate
>>many other ills facing society today (e.g. crime, poverty, education).
>>This seems to be too big an issue for any country, let alone politician,
>>to handle but one which will sooner or later need to be dealt with.
>
>>Jim Wilson
>
> All other problems pale by comparison.  If we can control population
>growth, we can then progress on the enviornment, on poverty, on education,
>on .....
> DonB
>.
>.
- Population control does not solve anything in itself. Our resource
gobblers in the "first world" use up over one hundred times as much of t
he earth's resources and energy as those in the third world. And history
teaches that we in the first world did not limit our population voluntar
ily until we had acheived a raised standard of living which included med
ical care that raised average life expectancies to a high level and insu
red the survival of most children born into adulthood. No ethnic group a
anywhere or at any time in history has ever lowered its "fertility rate"
before infant mortality rates are reduced, additionally, educational lev
els have to be raised. So history teaches that it is precisely the other
way around: FIRST you educate and raise living standards, reduce poverty
THEN population can be controlled. To expect the third world to do it an
y other way is unrealistic and, in fact, it could not be done without a
fascist dictatorship world wide, which I don't think anyone would advoca
te.
Yours, Ian Ritchie,
[e-mail]