What Happened to the "Population Bomb?"

    

One hears endless and eloquent discussion of environmental problems--global warming, sea level rise, air and water quality catastrophes, desertification, shrinking wild animal habitat, species extinction, and chemical pollution from a dizzying variety of sources. Such reports are logical, well-documented, and, when presented on TV or film, breathtaking as well. 

Mysteriously though, none ever mentions the primary reason for this environmental assault: that being the burgeoning human race. It's always a proximate cause that's described and decried--excess carbon monoxide, sewage, mining, burning coal, farming practices, lack of rain, etc.   But ask yourself why are we doing this mining, cesspooling, crop raising, building heating and cooling, car driving and swimming pool-filling? Yes. Us. Me, you and all the rest of us. The world is overrun by the human species, but nobody seems to be able to even articulate it anymore. Much less do anything.

  I had an uncle, may he rest in peace, who thought that fashion and religion were the primary ways the human race arrogated itself: as in, "Well, if Christ died for your sins, you must be something!" It goes without saying, if God gave you dominion over the animals, you must be king of the hill. Turns out that "dominion" is (as so often happens) a mis-translation of a word that should have been rendered as tend, keep, guard, watch over, or even serve, but too late now.

      In spite of the cruel, negligent and occasionally blatantly immoral behavior that characterizes the  human race, a large portion of it is convinced that we are God's handiwork, his best production, his piece de resistance. As far as I know, God has not been contacted for his opinion on this. Nonetheless, some people feel to entitled to procreate as many mini versions of themselves as possible. Some even marry multiple women and fill up dormitories or tents.

           A gander at the top ten countries with almost 50 births per 1,000 inhabitants, shows that with the exception of Afghanistan (38.6), they are all in Africa: Niger (45.4), Mali 44.9, Uganda (43.7), Zambia (42.1), Burkina Faso (42) Malawi (4l.5), Somalia 40.14), Angola (38.7), Mozambique (38.5). The irony of population is it often highest in countries where poverty is highest leading to surfeit of young people who seem to manage to get on the Internet and TV, see lifestyles to which they cannot aspire in their own countries and are understandably discontent.

            There are a couple of other non-surprises in a table found on line at www.cia/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2054rank.html:  The U.S. and China are back-to-back close to the bottom at 12.5 births per 1,000 as are several other European nations--France (12.3), UK (12.2), Australia (12.1)  Norway (12.4),  Sweden (11.9), Belgium (11.4) and Luxembourg (11.3).  Slightly above the middle of the pack are both India (19.5) and Mexico (18.8) along with most of the countries in South America.

Now this is no Modest Proposal, but if we can figure out how to keep the Iranians from getting a nuclear bomb, we ought to be able to figure out what to do to keep certain groups and countries from exploding the Population Bomb. Mysteriously, when I was in college this was reckoned to be a serious issue, one seldom even hears any reference to it