Our misguided population growth paradigm: accelerating consequences
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PrintBy Frosty Wooldridge
Denver, Colorado--Last night, in the Mercury Café on California Street, a meeting took place that will change the future of America. Dana Miller, head of www.transitioncolorado.ning.com, introduced documentary film director, Dave Gardner, to an eager audience. He strode to the stage with the confidence of a man filled with the knowledge of his years and the understanding of his mission.
On Gardner’s website, www.growthbusters.com, you may enjoy a film clip with Billy Crystal titled, “City Slickers”, about four guys who lived in the city fifty weeks a year while suffering a lot of “knots in their ropes,” but visited the dude ranch to untie those knots in their minds. The late Jack Palance played a grizzled cowboy who knew the secret to life.
As he rode along with a very confused Billy Crystal, Palance, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, said, “You know what the secret of life is?” Crystal said, “What?” Palance raised his finger saying, “This!” Crystal said, “Your finger?” Palance said, “One thing, just one thing…you stick to that and everything else don’t mean shit.” Crystal said, “That’s great, but what’s the one thing?” Palance said, “That’s what you gotta’ figure out.”
In the 21st century, America and the human race need to figure out ‘one thing’ in order to survive as a species. What’s that one thing? Right now, Americans stampede on a collision course with their own numbers as they expect to add 100 million people in 26 years by 2035. Americans face the ‘perfect storm’ of overpopulation, energy decline, resource overshoot and economic collapse.
Ironically, few realize it, most dismiss it and our leaders ignore it at all costs.
However, Gardner understands it with a brilliant movie, “Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity.” For a trailer, visit www.growthbusters.com. Gardner said:
• We are hooked on a system that depends on growth
• It no longer provides the prosperity or happiness we seek
• It is unsustainable
• Help the world kick the habit
URBAN GROWTH | POPULATION GROWTH | CONSUMPTION GROWTH | ECONOMIC GROWTH—NOT SUSTAINABLE
Gardner said, “Locally, nationally, and globally, modern society worships Growth Everlasting above all else. Economists preach the gospel of growth. We’ve built a system that has us addicted to growth. Real estate developers, chambers of commerce and economic developers are pushers lobbying and propagandizing to keep us hooked. As a professional filmmaker I decided to produce this film as an intervention. Your friends and family, business associates, elected representatives – and even your priest – all need to see Hooked on Growth, so we can recognize the addiction and begin the recovery. This film examines the superstitions and outdated beliefs we must leave behind in order to become a sustainable society.”
Kenneth Boulding said, “Only economists and fools think you can keep expanding population.”
Gardner presented the Mercury Café audience with a brief trailer about the movie. You will find yourself ‘thinking’ in a new way after seeing it. You may enjoy compelling new understandings of what we and our offspring face if we fail to change course. It’s a little disconcerting, but, much better to understand your addiction so you can kick it—rather than follow it to a suicidal ending, i.e., the late Michael Jackson so much in the news lately.
World Population Day: Let Overpopulation Topic Out of the Closet
The most fascinating calamities in America today stem from overpopulation, but the main stream media avoid any connection whatsoever to hyper-population growth. Charlie Rose, Bill Moyers, Larry King, Jim Lehrer, Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, Peter Boyles, Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, Harry Smith, Robert Siegal, Liane Hanson and all others avoid it like the Bubonic Plague.
Gardner said, “July 11was World Population Day, as declared by the United Nations in 1989 to raise awareness of global population issues. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of awareness out there. Of the 6.77 billion people on the planet, too few have either the courage or the awareness to weigh in or do something about the subject. Overpopulation is the proverbial elephant in the room, and it is a big one.
“There is widespread agreement among scientists that we are in overshoot. According to Global Footprint Network, 1.3 planet Earths would be required to sustainably meet the needs of our current population at present levels of consumption and waste. If we continue current upward trends in consumption and population, by 2035 we’ll need 2 Earths. This means we are not acting sustainably. We are using up stuff that we, and/or future generations, are going to need.
“The rate at which we use up stuff is commonly represented in the famous IPAT equation developed by Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren. Simplified, it states that human impact = per capita consumption X population. It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to figure out from this equation that perpetual increase in either consumption or population would require a like decrease in the other in order to avoid increasing human impact on our ecosystems and resource base.”
One of the best parts of Gardner’s website stems from his accurate educational films that bring paradigm shifts. They prove exceptional!
One young lady with a T-shirt that reads, “Growth Busters”, said, “If there is one solution facing our planet today, we must quit chasing more and begin embracing less. And while consumption and emissions are critical parts of any solution, they cannot be effective unless we have less population as well…we’re way above what the planet can sustain…there are so many of us that there is not enough for all…the planet can only sustain 1.5 billion humans…every problem is caused by increasing population…since we need immediate action one of the best things we can do is lower our birthrate…the sooner we move in that direction the better…insist on a sustainable population policy.”
Instead of a miserable future for lots of children, let’s consider a fantastic future for fewer children.
I hope President Obama sees Gardner’s film along with all members of the U.S. Congress. We need them to make the intellectual shift in order to manifest changes that will allow this civilization to prosper in the 21st century.
Gardner’s work will prove prophetic, cogent and compelling. Support his work by visiting his website and sharing it with others. If you can donate, please do so generously. www.growthbusters.com
As Jack Palance said, “That one thing is what you gotta’ figure out.” For the United States and humanity worldwide, we must figure out human overpopulation or Mother Nature will figure it out for us—and that won’t be pretty.
The national website may be visited at www.transitionus.com for anyone wanting to join members in other states.
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Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com
America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans by Frosty Wooldridge, for a copy call 1 888 280 7715. This book exposes the ramifications of adding 100 million people to the United States in 26 years. “Incisive, cogent, brilliant” Richard Heinberg Peak Everything
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