Overpopulation - the root of all evil
The BBC recently published a study claiming that we are 2 billion too many in order to live sustainably in this planet. Over the past century churches have done everything in their power to insure that overpopulation became a fact of life all over the world. Using their vast power to prohibit abortion, sterilization, contraception and sexual education, they have signed a de facto death sentence for life on Earth. It seems general common sense to me that sending food aid to a country without sending contraception is akin to pouring gasoline into a raging fire. Doctors bring basic care to impoverished areas but are not allowed to perform abortions, sterilizations and sometimes not even allowed to distribute contraception as is the case now with the Bush administration’s failed ABC policy.
Abortion should be a basic human right tied to the basic charter of rights of the UN and made available worldwide. But the hysterical and bizarre stance of the Catholic and Protestant churches abusing their malevolent influence on public policy have insured that generations of poor people have no access to this basic human right and perpetrated poverty worldwide. An overpopulated world has lead to a mass destruction of the planet’s natural fresh water sites, spreading drought and erosion leading to all the famine and disease that goes along with it. Development NGOs refuse to introduce any programs that would touch upon making contraception, sterilization or abortions safe and available for fear of losing funding and ultimately lose what is most precious to NGOs , their own jobs.
Welfare programs that pay a bigger dole to bigger families would do well to do the reverse, to encourage people to get out of welfare by curbing the size of their families. An effective public policy would be to allow incarcerated criminals to have their sentences reduced by accepting to be sterilized. This would be a choice and not an imposition and would do a world of good. Also getting rid of tax breaks for families that have children, and possibly introducing a tax break for families that chose not to have children. All food aid should be immediately tied to contraception or sterilization, that’s a no-brainer. It’s a simple equation, the math is quite basic, more people means more pollution, more garbage, more crime and more mouths to feed. Which in turn means more land that needs to be irrigated, more forests destroyed, more pesticides… It’s a vicious cycle. Until people can be given the option to freely chose contraception, abortion or sterilization, this planet is doomed to destruction.
