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writing for godot

It's the Overpopulation, Stupid

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Written by Rosemary Agonito   
Sunday, 03 May 2015 09:15
It’s the Overpopulation, Stupid!

By Rosemary Agonito

Arguably the most calamitous threat we face as humans is climate change, since it threatens to annihilate us. Everywhere we confront discussions about issues that must be tackled to address global warming – greenhouse gas emissions, burning fossil fuels, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane released into the atmosphere, heat-trapping ozone, deforestation, desertification, rising sea levels, acidification of the oceans, destruction of animal species, beef and pork production . . .

All are important, but none speak to the real issue that renders all the others pale by comparison,
none speak to the bottom line we have developed an aversion to discussing. It’s the overpopulation, stupid. Too many people are popping out too many babies. Too many people are doing too many things that destroy the environment we cannot live without. It’s not burning fossil fuels as such that’s the problem; the biosphere has great regenerative capacity. It’s too many people burning too much fossil fuel. It’s not methane released by growing cattle as such; it’s too much methane released by too much cattle production to feed too many people.

There was a time, decades ago, when we talked a lot about overpopulation, although even then we were appalled by China’s very sensible one-child per family policy. Now we seldom discuss overpopulation. It’s easier to talk about energy efficient light bulbs, electric cars, recycling, eating less meat, and the like.

Why are we reluctant to tackle overpopulation? The reasons are critical since they obstruct not only discussion of the problem, but our ability to do anything about it. Most likely we don’t want to infringe on individual rights, on the family, and perhaps most of all, on sacrosanct motherhood – never mind that eventually climate change will destroy individuals, families and mothers.

For both women and men, having families is what we are expected to do. Historically, reproduction has entailed the belief that we must have children to sustain human life. That may have been true once, when child morality was high, when a nomadic or agricultural existence depended on more people, when reproduction prevented the annihilation of the human race. Now reproduction threatens the very existence of the human species.

The calamity of overpopulation is aided and abetted by the glorification of motherhood that permeates all aspects of culture, media and religion. That glorification is fed by many myths which exacerbate attempts to suggest that women (and men) step off the breeding bandwagon.

One of the most pervasive myths claims that babies bring couples together. On the contrary, extensive research shows that the most stressful, disruptive period in any relationship is when baby enters the picture. Another myth asserts that women with children are happier than women without children. Yet study after study reveals that childfree women and couples are happier than those with children.

Another, the empty nest syndrome, holds that the hardest time for mothers is when their grown children leave home. As the myth goes, these women suffer feelings of loss, loneliness, uselessness and depression. The opposite is true. When empty nest mothers were asked if they wish they still had children at home, half responded, “Definitely no!” Only 5% said “unequivocally” they wish their kids stayed. And what about the children-are-fun thing? Sometimes, yes. But mostly, children are hard, menial, exhausting work, work that falls mostly on women whether they work outside the home or not. In one typical survey, 70% of mothers described motherhood as “incredibly stressful.”

Then there’s the shaming myth – the belief that a woman is not a “real woman” unless she has babies, regardless of what else she does. From earliest childhood and her first doll, girls are relentlessly conditioned to be mothers, to produce babies. A stigma still attaches to childfree women, as childfree women will testify. Any suggestion that women consider not having babies is perceived as an attack on motherhood. So, as a culture, we soldier on with the endless flow of babies, applauding every birth.

The world’s population today is more than 7 billion people. We add another one billion people roughly every 12 years – astounding, but true.

Those numbers are unsustainable. Put simply, human consumption is no longer balanced by earth’s capacity to produce our needs and take in our wastes. Sustainability requires a balance between human demands on the environment (food, shelter, etc.) and the area needed to meet those demands and absorb human wastes. Not since the 1980s has humanity’s use of natural resources matched actual global capacity. This means we are breeding ourselves into extinction, along with animal and plant species, many of which we have already destroyed.

Right now, close to one billion people around the world suffer from chronic hunger - equal to more than the combined populations of the U.S., Canada, and the European Union. One in four children in the world is stunted because of hunger.

With so many children around the world alone and uncared for, with the environment reeling from devastation caused by the demands of overpopulation, why are we hell bent on producing more and more babies? And why aren’t we talking about it, much less doing anything?

It’s the overpopulation, stupid.

Rosemary Agonito, Ph.D. is an award winning author whose latest book is The Last Taboo: Saying No to Motherhood. www.RosemaryAgonito.com
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