Michael Cook likes bad puns, bushwalking and black coffee. He did a BA at Harvard University in the US where it was good for networking, but moved to Sydney where it wasn’t. He also did a PhD on an obscure corner of Australian literature. He has worked as a book editor and magazine editor and has published articles in magazines and newspapers in the US, the UK and Australia. Currently he is the editor of BioEdge, a newsletter about bioethics, and MercatorNet.
In our last post, we pointed out that over-population is the worst problem
facing the world today. Well, at least a couple of ecologists in the Adirondacks
think it is. However, if we are scanning the horizon for things to worry about,
we mustn’t overlook collisions with asteroids. This week the Planetary
Defense Conference is holding a conference in Grenada, Spain. Although I
come to this as a layman, I must say that the prospect of the instantaneous
annihilation of the human race is a good deal scarier than the possibility of a
declining lifestyle in an increasing population.
The new US ambassador for global women's issues has assured the UN of the
Obama administration's "deep commitment" to a its blueprint for slowing the
population explosion and empowering women. However, Melanne Verveer highlighted
the importance of educating girls rather than "reproductive rights". The
theory is that educated women choose to have fewer children.
One of the self-appointed goals of Demography Is Destiny is highlighting
loopy anti-human predictions for posterity. Most of them come from the UK, God
bless the Brits, but lately I’ve found a few in the US as well. This one comes
an Earth Day message from the faculty at the SUNY College of
Environmental Science and Forestry, in Syracuse, New York. Overpopulation is
the world’s top environmental issue, they say, followed closely by climate
change and sustainable energy.
Who is going to care for Canadian senior citizens in 20 years’ time? The
changing ratio of elderly to children projected by Statistics Canada is sobering
reading. Derek Miedema, of the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, warns in
a
recent newsletter that the government has to begin preparing for a
demographic winter now.
In the immortal words of George H.W. Bush, the American economy is "in deep
doo-doo". But why? There’s no simple answer, of course, but remarkably few
people have taken a long-term view and examined the demographic background to
the recession. That’s why "Demographics &
Depression", by First Thing’s associate editor David P. Goldman is essential
reading.
I have been reading Peter Singer’s latest book, The life you can save:
Acting now to end world poverty. Yes, that Peter Singer, the animal
rights philosopher whose ethical system encompasses infanticide and
euthanasia. Much to my surprise, I agree with him!
Before we turn to more optimistic topics, let's take a look at the website of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT), whose creed is "Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health." Are they serious? Not serious, exactly, but "vehement": "Returning Earth to its natural splendor and ending needless suffering of humanity are happy thoughts -- no sense moping around in gloom and doom."
Sir David Attenborough, the well-known natural history documentary
film-maker, has become a patron of the Optimum Population Trust. He
find the growth in human population "frightening".