Cav's Place

For the past few years, February used to be the “action month” for the Global Population Speak Out movement. Those who pledged to act were supposed to do something for the cause at some point during the month and then report the action on the site, where it would be posted after being approved. It served to make the movement more visible, by concentrating the actions of the extremely small number of people who think with their brains instead of their gonads when it comes to this issue and are actually willing to do something about it into a relatively small amount of time, so they would be somewhat less likely to be drowned out by the overwhelming opposition.
This year, that all changed, as the organizers decided to spread out the actions over at least half a year. That’s supposed to cover the entire period between two different estimates of the date when the world’s human population will reach seven billion, but all it really does is dillute and dissipate the movement. What’s more, the actions can no longer be reported directly on the site and, while I got something in an e-mail saying that they would now need to be sent to a certain e-mail address, they don’t seem to be displayed anymore either, so activists can no longer see how their effort, be it big or small, is an integral part of a growing movement.
Then again, seeing as the listed number of pledges is lower than last year’s, that part about “a growing movement” doesn’t seem to be true anymore, and that’s hardly surprising, considering both what’s been going on over the past year and the direction the movement is steered into by those who are currently behind it. More than anything else, I’ll say that GPSO had some amount of potential at first just because it welcomed the more radical opinions and therefore also the people truly dedicated to the cause, who weren’t about to back down even when faced with the terrible backlash that is to be expected whenever somebody expresses any rational opinion when it comes to the issue of overpopulation. But since that’s certainly no longer the case, all that potential energy is being dissipated and, at best, the movement loses most of its real strength.

So what’s going on, you ask? Well, since the Population Institute started administering GPSO, all I’m seeing is a push for a politically correct rhetoric that supports projects that probably sound nice and could be appealing to a rather large number of people but are certainly not sufficient and, in completely objective terms, not even necessary to achieve the goal of reducing the world’s human population by drastically lowering the number of births. Not that one could even be certain that they’re aiming for any sort of reduction anymore, as you see them mention an eventual stabilization, but then lose themselves in stressing terms like “voluntary” and “human rights” so much that any further plans become little more than jokes, seeing as the vast majority of people can never be trusted to consider the greater implications of their actions.
The very best that could be said about their behavior is that they’re afraid of the outcome if they’ll mention the measures that would actually need to be taken if we’re to have any chance of reducing the population to sustainable levels in any foreseeable future. The worst would be that they’re doing this on purpose, specifically to waste the efforts of the few who can see what needs to be done and alienate them even more. The most likely explanations, however, are either that they’re wrongly convinced that the measures they support would be sufficient or that they’ve resigned themselves to the idea that nothing more could possibly get done. Which means that, at best, they’re unworthy of spearheading a movement that could possibly have any chance, tiny as it may be, of eventually solving what certainly is the world’s biggest problem.

Now don’t get me wrong; I’m certainly not saying that education and raising the standard of living of the poor are ineffective measures, but merely that they’re far from being sufficiently effective. These are things that should be goals in themselves, simply because people should receive proper information, their reasoning abilities should be developed and those who aren’t guilty of serious crimes should have the right to a decent standard of living. These should be a given and the whole of humanity should work towards these goals, no doubt about it, but to say that they’re the way to solving the overpopulation problem is naive at best.
We’re looking at a population that’s already well over twice the highest sustainable number, which would be around three billion, so any efforts to solve the problem should be focused on the measures that could rapidly reduce the number of births all the way down to the required level and leave the rest to others. Our goal needs to be to reduce the human population by more than four billion by the end of the century, and sooner if at all possible, without increasing the death rate among those who don’t specifically want to die and without otherwise harming any except those who intentionally worsen the problem by specifically choosing to have children without possessing truly extraordinary qualities that would objectively be worthy of being passed on to the next generation. Anything less than that is unacceptable and therefore the only approach we just might still have time for is a “the ends justify the means” one.
With that in mind and seeing that, regardless of the level of education or the standard of living, there is currently no place in the world where the fertility rate is low enough to allow this goal to be reached and, in fact, you can even count the countries where it’s less than twice the required value on your fingers, it’s clear that efforts to promote education and combat poverty are far from the best way for those who focus on solving the overpopulation problem to use their time and resources. We could and most likely should work with those who dedicate their lives to humanitarian causes whenever possible, but our real focus absolutely needs to be on those radical and drastic measures that could actually have a chance of achieving the goals we need to achieve. Yes, the resistance will be tremendous and we may never even get anything going, but trying means that at least we have a chance to do what needs to be done. If we shy away, we have none.