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IPFS Frosty Wooldridge

CONNECTING THE DOTS

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AS GARRETT HARDIN SAID, “NOBODY EVER DIES OF OVERPOPULATION!”

 
The University of Colorado features the foremost thinker, writer and speaker on overpopulation in the United States and worldwide: Dr. Albert A. Bartlett, www.albartlett.org .
 
Recently, most Americans watched the Indus River in Pakistan flood to the point of placing one-fifth of that country under water.  Media reported it as one of the greatest disasters on the planet—caused by rain, flood and storms.  Nonetheless, Dr. Bartlett reached a little further into the reasons for Pakistan’s tragedy: 185 million people living on a flood plain with projections to grow their population to 335 million by mid century.
 
Bartlett said, “People are dying from overpopulation, yet in the media and in our discussions, as the famed biologist Garrett Hardin has observed, "No one ever dies from overpopulation."”
 
In his recent communication, Art Hobson asked, "Does anybody know what caused the huge floods on the Indus River?  Sure, it's monsoon season, but this year it's a monster monsoon."
 
Bartlett asked readers to examine other causes of Pakistan’s predicament.  He said, “Let's look at six factors.”
 
1.  The monsoon may have brought more rain than normal.
 
2.  The increased monsoon rains may have been caused by global climate change.
 
3.  Some fraction of the observed global climate change may have been caused by overpopulation.
 
4.  The monsoon rain water probably runs off the lands and into the rivers more rapidly than it did 100 years ago.
 
5.  Overpopulation has caused more people to settle in crowded living conditions in the known flood-prone lands along the banks of the rivers.
 
6.  The continuity equation still holds: so that if the flow-speed in the rivers is not much changed but the cubic meters of water per second of flow increases, then the cross section of the flow has to increase; this puts the rivers out of their banks and into agricultural and settlement areas, causing great damage.
 
“I have no idea about No. 1,” said Bartlett.  “The rainfalls may be higher than normal.  If so, this may be due to global climate change.  If the global climate is changing, some part of the change is most likely due to overpopulation.
 
“As populations have grown, people have cut more trees each year off of the hillsides to use the wood for fuel and for building materials.  With population growth, there is an increased rate of cutting so that at some point, the annual harvest exceeds the annual new growth.  At this point the areas of bare ground are increasing in size leaving a naked land from which the monsoon rains run off more rapidly than it did from forested land.
 
“As the population grows, people crowd along the riverbanks for their housing.  These crowded settlements are vulnerable to flooding, often with great loss of life.
 
“So population growth may increase the monsoon rains; it has increased the rate of runoff of the monsoon rains, and it has put more people at risk in the river flood plains.  So overpopulation plays a major causal role in the current disaster.”
 
Today's New York Times [August 17, 2010] reports that, "It seems impossible that the country [Pakistan] could absorb the cost of the calamity on its own.  Bridges, power plants and communications networks have been lost or severely damaged across the country, A FIFTH OF WHICH IS ESTIMATED TO BE UNDER WATER."
 
"With 20 percent of cotton washed away, Pakistan's famed textile industry, which accounts for 60 percent of the country's exports, is certain to stagger.  As a result, textile plants are likely to make large-scale layoffs.  Plants that do manage to purchase cotton will face electricity shortages, as more than seven major power stations have been demolished."
 
Repeat: “People are dying from overpopulation,” said Bartlett.  “Yet in the media and in our discussions, as the famed biologist Garrett Hardin has observed, "No one ever dies from overpopulation."”
 
“The world is overpopulated,” said Bartlett.  “The United States is overpopulated: yet the population of the world is growing by something like 1 percent per year, as is the population of the United States.
 
In fact, the United States commands the third fastest growth rate in the world behind India and China.
 
“The NY Times noted that "Economists argue that the only viable solution, as is often the case in Pakistan, will be international loans that allow at least five-year concessions for Pakistan to pay off the debt,” said Bartlett. "Think about this "argument."  People are dying from overpopulation and the "only viable solution" is to loan them money to get ready for the next disaster!
 
“In 1972 some systems analysts at MIT published "Limits to Growth."  This was an instant sensation worldwide, but it was soundly and effectively defeated by the world community of economists who argue against any thought of limits.  It is very pleasant to believe that there are no limits.  Political leaders feel justified in believing that there are no limits if the "No Limits" message is brought to them by people with PhDs.  Go back and read some of the things written by the late Professor Julian Simon who wrote that we have enough knowledge and resources so that we can continue to grow "for seven billion years."  Many people love Simon's message and believe that we are free to go on growing populations and rates of consumption of resources. Two updates to "Limits to Growth" have been published, one in 1992 and in 2002.  For the past 30 years, the patterns seem to be following those outlined in 1972.
 
“So if you want to see the future if we continue to ignore the limits, then look no farther than "Limits to Growth."
 
“I feel that we are failing our responsibilities as educators if we continue to be silent about the arithmetic of growth and about limits and particularly about overpopulation.  These limits are boundary conditions on our human existence and, as we can see from Pakistan today, we ignore these limits at our peril.”
 
Dr. Albert Bartlett may be reached at E-Mail:  Albert.Bartlett@Colorado.EDU and his website: www.albartlett.org
 
##
 
If any of us, no matter what our race, creed or color might be, refuse to engage our U.S. Congress as we have not for 30 years as to the population/immigration equation-our children will find themselves living in a terribly degraded America where the American Dream will be described by the history books as a 'fleeting fantasy' from the era of 1950 to 2010.
These are several of the top organizations where you can take collective action to change the course of American history as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Take collective action at:
This is the best website to start:  www.numbersusa.com ; watch Roy Beck’s “Immigration by the Numbers” at 14 minutes. Bi-partisan and very effective. Become a faxer of pre-written letters to your reps to make positive change.
Must see DVD: "Blind Spot" www.snagfilms.com/films/title/blind_spot/ , This movie illustrates America's future without oil, water and other resources to keep this civilization functioning. It's a brilliant educational movie! www.blindspotdoc.com
Must see: Rapid Population Decline, seven minute video by Dr. Jack Alpert-
Must see and funny: www.growthbusters.org ; www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXSTrW_dARc
Dave Gardner's Polar Bear in Bedroom: growthbusters.org/2010/03/save-the-polar-bear-in-your-bedroom ; Dave Gardner, President, Citizen-Powered Media ; Producing the Documentary, GROWTH BUSTERS; presents Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity, Join the cause at www.growthbusters.org ;760 Wycliffe Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 USA; +1 719-576-5565
Check out this link with Wooldridge on bicycle and Lester Brown and panel discussion:
Tomorrow's Americaproject on www.youtube.com/contemporarylearning.
Producer: GEORGE A. COLBURNwww.tomorrowsamerica.com
DC: 202-258-4887
Link to www.tomorrowsamerica.com for more discussions on America's predicament.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
##
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 He is the author of: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans. Copies available: 1 888 280 7715
 

1 Comments in Response to

Comment by Anonymous
Entered on:

Nobody dies of overpopulatioin. Deaths in Pakistan you cited were caused by flood, not by population explosion. Monsoon rain caused the flood. Monsoon rain did not cause poor people to move to dangerous areas. Here, torrential rain causing flood could kill, but not overpopulation. You don't get it, dude. Wake up. Your dots don't connect!

Once again I like to give our readers the opportunity to read my comments to wake you up from this stupor as follows:

Here we are again! You wrote this rebuttal "Hancock vs Wooldridge Radio Debate: Bakadu, Romantics, Overpopulation, LaLa Land" with a grain of salt.

You inundated space with verbosity or long-windedness readers hardly had air to breath. Because there is an information-overload in your rebuttal, you expurgated all the comments against your faulty Malthusian exponential arithmetic – knowledgeable critics that described your "population expertise" as rubbish [see the mess at the end of your rebuttal -- at this submission it appears the mess have been cleaned up].

It now appears that only your mind should appear in writing in this difficult task of yours to win the public to your side. This is evident when at the end of your refutation or negation of the truth that there is no way you are winning this debate, readers are looking at some kind of a computer collapse, where critiques against your writings were totally wiped out. You only want readers to see your monolithic view, which reminds me of the Mark of the Beast, in a Syfy movie I just viewed. Only those with the marks of the demon must live! Everything must be wiped out, especially any sign of the Holy Cross that terrifies the Devil.

I read nothing new in your rebuttal except an overload of citations which was a reference overkill. You can cite all the references in the world that Malthus was NOT a scientist of failure, but there are a thousand more references that are available which proved that Malthus’ exponential addition of population leading to the collapse of society and eventually to the end of the world, is so limited that it is not only erroneous but also a total misunderstanding of human beings in the animal kingdom. Against your truckload of irrelevant or extraneous "authorities", I can only cite probably three or so of my own that would bring down yours to naught. Why Malthus is wrong? It’s because of his "poor" understanding of the human specie. It’s here:

As your bogeyman, resource depletion due to population increase is discredited here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_theory. Let me quote it for you:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_theoryLet me quote it for you: "Many earlier predictions of resource depletion, such as Thomas Malthus' 1798 predictions about approaching famines in Europe [1227] The Population Bomb (1968). [237/247/25] Limits to Growth (1972). [23/24/24] and the Simon–Ehrlich wager (1980)[26] HAVE PROVEN FALSE, one reason being that advancements in technology and science have continually allowed previously unavailable resources to be utilized more economically."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_theoryLet me quote it for you:."

You talked about your "lectures" across the country as a "teacher", and you printed all your works ready for readers to download. None of these recycled views that have already been read had changed. The same old repeated bad appreciation of the discredited Malthusian indoctrinating theory that tire the readers to boredom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_theoryLet me quote it for you:."

Why what you espoused has been poorly considered, senseless if not crazy: You hooked up to Malthus whose critics described him as a total failure. "The Malthusian Exponential Growth Model Is A Total Failure" [a terrible theory of a madman who suggested "infanticide" if not murder to curb population growth … Malthus also explained why he does not donate – the rich should not donate -- to the millions of poor people around the world – he wanted them to die to stop the arithmetical increase of human beings that live in a finite space and limited food supply]. Believe it nor, it is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus#Early_responses.

So that we can carry out this debate honestly and squarely, I will restore back the contrary views I wrote which you deleted. Let the general public understand this issue clearly, don’t hide the weakness [shortcomings] of your position from the American readers. In a capsule, your position is the world will end due to population explosion. Your view is married to the Malthusian Population Growth Theory till death will you part – no separation, no divorce, no compromise. My view is, I say it’s all bullcrap, a nutbag.

Let the public know what I wrote, that you mouthpiece Malthus – a disgraced Misanthropist. It is here: http://www.Starvation Not Due To Overpopulation -- See Highlighted Paragraph. No recorded deaths by hunger are caused by overpopulation.

You cannot hide this proof from the public against your one-sided view that population only increase, not decline. I proved it here: http://www. Proof of Population Decline You Shouldn't Ignore.

Your juvenile arithmetic makes you an "innumerate" [your word, not mine] because you cannot do advance mathematics on more scientific analysis of growth rates. This is where I made it clear enough to make you understand: http://www. 2+2 Not Necessarily =4 In Your Juvenile Math.

Although there are more of them, I will stop here, for fear of information-overload.

I still want you to be a model of endurance and perseverance over time to those who want to save the world. Opposite to your endearing quality of a man that you are, are those who want to destroy the world we live. In that sense to me you are a very welcomed rarity. The fact that your obsession is to save the world from them, makes me take off my hat and bow to you.

Finally, your passion in writing like mine, makes us inseparable friends since the beginning. Go back a few years and you will recall and know who I am. Complimenting me as a "lady" is gracious on your part, although you will soon discover that I am not… just a friendly correction.

 

 

 

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