Monday, July 28, 2014

I am Tired of the Ignorant who Deny that Overpopulation is a Problem

I read a news article on concerns of the growing human population and the problems of the human impact on the planet, mostly as related to the fact that we are at risk of overpopulating ourselves to extinction.

One person commented "Humans are too small of a species to cause any real impact to the planet", or something to that effect. I wonder how anyone can be so ignorant.

Anyone my age (I am nearly 50) has seen the world's population more than double and should be aware of the problems that have developed as a result (including urban sprawl).

Anyone who thinks humans do not impact things has never heard of the dodo bird, passenger pigeon, quagga, Tasmanian tiger, and so forth.

We know that cats are overpopulated.. humans are too.


Anyone who thinks humans cannot cause change has never been in a plane flying over a clear cut area, never seen an open pit mine, and has probably not heard of what we did to the Aral Sea.

It just boggles my mind how anyone can think humans are not damaging the earth.  These people are either ignorant or in denial, I assume they put their heads in the sand so they can justify living their life of excess, greed, and waste.

I think people just find it easier to deny these things than to admit that humans are not living in harmony with nature, we are not being sustainable. People do not want to change their ways so they simply deny that we are hurting the planet.

This article was originally published by me on Bubblews.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Preachers Need to Wage War on Gluttony

Today is Sunday, preachers are inevitably preaching about one thing or another, usually about unimportant stuff such as the ills of what might be going on in some people's bedrooms, but have you noticed they rarely preach against the sin of gluttony?  They are cowards who do not want to piss off some members of their congregation.

I do not care if I piss people off, I want to save the world; gluttony is a sin against nature.  People who are gluttons are consuming more food than they need, more than their share, and taking from the planet more than they should. 

Gluttony usually refers to the over consumption of food and drink.  It has also been defined as eating delicacies rather than plain and simple foods. Pope Gregory I even said that the addition of sauces or spices to improve the taste of food amounted to gluttony.

Back then I bet nobody thought how far gluttony would go, I bet they had no idea the gluttonous foods we would have to day, nor the idea of an "all you can eat" restaurant where people do literally eat all they can.  I bet nobody imagined a time when we would have food eating contests!

One of the most common forms of gluttony is people eating portion sizes that are larger than their needs.  The appropriate portion size of meat is 4 oz, about the size of a deck of cards, but very few people stick to that. Meat is very bad for the environment for many reasons, one of which is the deforestation that occurs to clear land for cattle and to grow more crops specifically to feed cattle.  The manure waste is also bad for the environment too, as well as the methane released in farts and burps.

Coffee is also consumed in gluttonous amounts, so much so that some people are now addicted to caffeine.  Coffee is bad for the environment for many reasons, mostly the deforestation of the rain forest to grow coffee, but also because of the waste generated by restaurants who serve coffee, particularly take out coffee.

Things such as candy, pop, and potato chips, are non essentials to life, and are often consumed in gluttonous amounts, contributing not only to obesity, but to environmental problems in general, mostly related to the processing of these items and the garbage created.

We are not "overfishing" we are "over eating fish" and we need to stop before we eliminate so many fish that their species cannot recover.



If a waitress in a bar has the right to say to a drunk person "You have had enough" why cant a fast food worker say "Sorry, you do not need the super sized portion" or the restaurant worker say "Nope, you do not need dessert"?

Is the gluttonous person only hurting themselves?  No, their over consumption of food is hurting the planet, it hurts us all.  It hurts the future for our children, and theirs. 

Glutton is a hard sin to overcome, and I wish more preachers had the balls to preach about it and people were more concerned about this and stopped freaking out so much about what others do in the privacy of their bedrooms.


Friday, May 16, 2014

Greed Has No Place in an Overpopulated World

I wrote a post earlier about why some preachers do not preach against greed and wealth even though these things are against most religions.  In this article I am going to explain some of the reasons why greed is bad particularly as the world becomes more and more populated.

I will first note that most people who are greedy never see themselves that way, they say they earned it, or are entitled to it, they never realize the full picture.  They live in big houses, throw lavish parties, and often live a life of excess, simply because they think they have earned it.

In a perfect world everyone would live and be happy with less and by doing so we would preserve our environment and live more sustainable lives.

One of the reasons that greed is so bad is because when people are greedy they consume more resources.  Not all resources are renewable and as they are used up it creates problems for the future.  The earth has a carrying capacity which is based on its resources, currently some people are using far more than there share of resources, while others make do with less.  Those that take more are the ones who are destroying the planet the most.

Greedy people do not only take more resources from the earth but they also keep others in poverty.  One person cannot have more unless others have less.  When one person demands a higher wage they cause a ripple effect, increasing prices or creating hardship for others.  Let us say that person is a CEO of a big company, typically they demand a big wage and one of the ways to make sure they get more money is to pay others less, or to reduce the amount of hours others work, and then to make them work harder. The CEO feels they are more valuable.  Sure you might say "those lower paid workers can always quit" but then somebody else will just be hired in their place.  The whole point being the lower paid workers are the heroes, the greedy higher paid bosses are the greedy villains.

To most these are modest homes, but to some they would look like mansions.
Imagine a pie, if one person takes a big piece, it leaves less for others, and eventually the pie is gone.  Greed is not fair, it is ignorance and selfishness.  People think they are "entitled" to more pie because they earned it, and they qualify themselves by saying "Life is not fair" but really it is them being not fair, and just trying to find excuses for their greed.

So many people will deny that they are greedy, they will live in million dollar homes and insist that they worked hard for their money and as such they are not greedy, but what they will always fail to realize is that they have taken more than there share of the earth's resources.  Greed is not always about money. 

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Is There a Conspiracy to Depopulate the Earth?

As humans, we control the population of many species on the planet, except our own. However there are people that suggest there are conspiracy theories in regards to depopulating the planet to a certain extent, in other words, killing off some people.

If you grew up in the 1970's you may remember a show called "Logan's Run" in this show human population was being controlled with a lottery type of system that involved killing off people who reached a certain age. Other shows and movies have suggested a similar fate in the future if we do not control the growth of our population now. What is fascinating is that when Logan's Run first came out human population was roughly 4 billion, and is now over 7 billion, and growing. We have done very little to prevent a future of problems.


Stop breeding like rabbits!  ©

Some depopulation ideas are, as mentioned, simply killing off people who are older, other ideas are more random, such as introducing a virus to kill off some people, and it has been suggested that the HIV/AIDS virus was designed just for that purpose.

Of course, I am not suggesting we do kill off masses of people, I am only pointing out that there are some people who are suggesting this, or are suggesting that governments of the world are considering doing this (many conspiracy theories about New World Order include reducing the population to 5 billion). Even the United Nations has said that human over population is a real concern. Many population experts suggest 5 billion is sustainable (we know 7 billion is not because we are consuming renewable resources faster than they can be renewed, this is only balanced by the fact that people in undeveloped nations are living well below what those in developed nations are consuming). The infamous Georgia Guide Stones and some others, suggest that 500,000,000 is sustainable, and not any more.

I personally have been concerned with human over population, probably since watching Logan's Run, and only had one child (when I was 30), partially because I do not want to reach a point where these scenarios become real. I do not want to be killed later in life just to make room for more people.

Anyone who thinks these conspiracy theories might be real should make sure they are not part of a contributing force; either not have kids, have kids later in life, and/or limit themselves to one child only. Yes, one child is growth, until you (or your partner) dies, you have added one person to the planet, there are now 3 rather than 2.