From: ssave@ole.uucp (Shailendra Save)
Newsgroups: pnw.general
Subject: Re: progeny limits (was "...toxicity of wood smoke")
Date: 7 Apr 92 17:41:46 GMT
Article-I.D.: ole.1992Apr7.174146.4415
Organization: Cascade Design Automation, Bellevue, WA

In article <1992Apr5.014952.16932@zlf.uucp> djvv@zlf.uucp (David van Veen) writes:
>In article <5139@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.boeing.com> bob@ssc-vax.UUCP (Robert A Birgenheier) writes:
>>In article <1992Mar29.153723.20213@serval.net.wsu.edu> jeffp@yoda.eecs.wsu.edu (Jeff Parke - Vet med staff) writes:
>>>
>>>  I'd much rather see some sort of morality develop among humans
>>>everywhere that makes it abhorrent for couples to have more than one child,
>>>than any of the multitude of fixes to the multitude of problems our species
>>>is causing.
>>
>>Sorry, Jeff, but I couldn't disagree with you more.  And I sincerely
>>hope that not many people share your view.  I admit that I have seen
>>some *ahem* (cough) "parents" that I wish never had _any_ children.
>>I will agree that there is overcrowding in many places, but, in my
>>mind, making more than one child taboo or socially unacceptable is
>>NOT a solution or desirable.
>>
>>-- 
>>Bob Birgenheier        (...!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bob)
>
>
>   Well Bob, what the hell would you do then? Let the population
>continue to increase until the planet is so over burden that none
>of us can be fed? As it is now the planet has trouble supporting 
>the life that is on it. Millions are starving as we speak. There
>is not enough resources left to allow the human population to 
>increase at its current rate. Can you not see any of this? 
>What would you do!?
>
>Dave
> 

 So Dave, do you drive a gas guzzler to work everyday? Leave it in the garage
for the rest of the time occupying space and poluting air?  Do you consume 
more than you produce?  Have you ever not eaten a meal so that it could be
donated to some starving child somewhere else?  Are you married?  Do you have
any children? What is the difference between Socialist China (which allows 
only one child per family) to get certain subsidies from the Government for
food, and us, if we implement the one child policy?  How else are you going to
implement the one child policy?  

 What can you do? First, realise that there is enough to go around. Believe
it or not.  What we have, should be used wisely. The 60's and 70's policy of
let-us-consume-all-we-can-on-credit-because-there-will-always-be-ways-to-produce-
more-later-to-make-up, apparently has not worked. Hence the deficit. (not the 
national deficit, but from household to household.)  If we all started to 
consume just about what we can produce, we would be fine.  Contrary to popular 
belief, not many people in Japan, China and India (the two most populous) are 
starving, both those countries made themselves self sufficient in food.  Japan has
a higher population density than the US, but is still self-sufficient in production
of food. But 1 in 4 children in this state is starving, which is a contradiction 
in terms.  What you see in Ethiopia and Sudan in starving millions is due to improper 
farming practices which have reduced much of the land to desert. Defoliation and 
cutting trees and natural habitat, that is what. 

 When we stop and think,"What is in it for me?" when deciding to give food aid
to another starving country, we have reached to lowest form of human degradation
one can possibly achieve. So your question of "millions are starving as we speak"
is not because of food shortage. It is because, we have somewhere along the line
taken up this NIMBY type attitude, as long as I can hoard and keep myself (over)fed,
why should I care about the rest of the world?  Your worry is not that "none of us
can be fed."  Your fear is "*I* will not have enough to eat." 

 I do not contend to say that our population should increase at its present
growth rate. All I am saying is that your "One child policy" is not the way to
limit it. Perhaps nature will kick in and begin eliminating the human species for
balance. Cancer due to polution, artificial coloring and additives in food, AIDS, 
chemical poisoning from sea-food, skin cancer due to the lack of the ozone layer,
asbestos inhalation, DDT, Lead and mercury in ground water, and a kazillion other
effects the supposedly-intelligent human species has been doing to increase the
so-called standard of living. (Not standard of LIFE mind you, but standard of LIVING.) 

-Shailendra
ole!ssave@sumax.seattleu.edu

PS: If we all have to die some day, what's the big deal?

Disclaimer: My computer typed this in when I was not looking.