In Australia, while promoting my NGO, I came across the resident conservationist who chose to harass me about my beliefs. This 30-something-year-old man who I had never met before challenged me on religion in schools, the public schooling system in general, fishing practices, carbon offsets, organic farming, wildlife protection and finally, population control. A lot of these concerns are interchangeable; you can't have an opinion on one without having an opionion on another. Where we got into it was on the subject of population control, something I haven't thought about since I took population economics senior year...which I have tried to forget about as it wasn't a particular favorite of mine. I aurgued that it was inhumane to tell a group of people how to live their lives. It's not our place to tell a woman how many children she should have. It is even more difficult to give a man in Vanuatu or PNG a condom and expect him to use it as a method of birth control instead of bait for his next fishing trip. This man then argued that the bulk of the environmental problems in the island states of the South Pacific, or any developing country for that matter, is population growth. The more people in a community, the more they need to eat, the more they fish, therefore creating more stress on the very reefs we are trying to protect. This really got me thinking...all causes are related in some way and it would be hypocritical of me to be an environmentalist without taking into consideration all outside factors that contribute to the degradation of the environment. Just like it seemed suspect that said conservationist and environmental activist was not a vegetarian...
Anyway, leave it to The New York Times science section to highlight the Center for Biological Diversity's new initiative to put a
lighter spin on it.
Thousands of volunteers have been handing out even more thousands of free condoms to "educate the public about the impact of human overpopulation on endangered species." While I'm not sure of the effect this scheme will actually have on educating the public on saving endangered species, I do really think pairing population control and biodiversity is a clever idea and a fresh way to show society that everything is more than what it seems.
Thousands of volunteers have been handing out even more thousands of free condoms to "educate the public about the impact of human overpopulation on endangered species." While I'm not sure of the effect this scheme will actually have on educating the public on saving endangered species, I do really think pairing population control and biodiversity is a clever idea and a fresh way to show society that everything is more than what it seems.
I like your point about interconnectedness--this is huge part of the sustainable initiative. While I don't see it as 'inhumane' by definition to limit the number of offspring, I do see it as a violation of individual liberties. By the same token is it not 'inhumane' for a mother to bear as many children as she chooses into substandard living conditions, without access to clean water and medical treatment? I think educational programs and public health advances in developing regions are key to slowing population growth. Its only when people en masse understand their impact will things change--teach a man to fish...
ReplyDeleteWhile I appreciate the NYT's point to raise awareness of this issue, its market(the US) does not have a biological population growth problem. The per capita birth rate is 2 offspring per, equal to the replacement rate. Our rampant consumerism and energy consumption is having a much larger effect than not wearing condoms on the polar bears' wellbeing.
As a Veghead, unless you are eating locally grown sustainable agricultural products only, the environmental impact of large scale agro is substantial--chemical run off in groundwater, soil erosion, introduced species driving out native ones, etc... But then again, this is coming from a guy who loves a good steak, so who am I point fingers.. We all have our achille's heel--a good environmentalist recognizes their faults and tries to mitigate those problems and compensates for them in other areas.
I like your blog. keep the posts coming. The more open dialogues and awareness to environmental and sustainable issues our peers have, the more likely they are to examine their own alter their own behaviors. Change through osmosis. Hope your well--Tom