Attenborough Says Starve 'Em Down?

[cronus]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 23602.html

David Attenborough says sending food to famine-ridden countries is 'barmy'

Sir David Attenborough has attacked the idea of sending food aid to countries enduring famine as “barmy” and has urged for more debate about population control, it has been reported.

The natural history broadcaster warned that the world was “heading for disaster” due to the threat of overpopulation, in comments made to the Daily Telegraph.

He said that unless human beings do not act soon the “natural world will do something”.

He added that the natural world has been doing it “for a long time” and more discussion is needed.

Raising the example of Ethiopia, Sir David said that the famine there was down to there being “too many people for too little piece of land”.

Speaking ahead of his new series David Attenborough's Rise of Animals, he suggested that humans are “blinding ourselves” to the problem, claiming, “We say, get the United Nations to send them bags of flour. That's barmy”.

He cited “huge sensitivities” like the right to have children and the Catholic Church's stance on contraception as barriers to talking about population control.

He added that the issue could also be misconstrued as an attack on poor people as the areas of concern are Africa and Asia.

(continued)

[Tyrannical]

http://www.spcamc.org/wildlife-reasons-no-feed.html
EIGHT GOOD REASONS WHY YOU SHOULDN'T FEED WILDLIFE

1. Providing an artificial food source causes adults to produce large families which the natural food supply can’t support. Overpopulation can lead to starvation and epidemics of disease, some of which are dangerous to humans.

Yup, that sounds like Africa.

[cronus]

http://www.spcamc.org/wildlife-reasons-no-feed.html
EIGHT GOOD REASONS WHY YOU SHOULDN'T FEED WILDLIFE

1. Providing an artificial food source causes adults to produce large families which the natural food supply can’t support. Overpopulation can lead to starvation and epidemics of disease, some of which are dangerous to humans.

Yup, that sounds like Africa.

Yeah! but the US would invade Canada if they kept all that food for themselves and export with the gold standard.

[mistermack]

Yeh, Attenborough is just stating the bleeding obvious. But as he says, nobody else seems to be pointing it out.

Food aid IS self defeating. Education aid would have more point. But supplying birth control aid and education would be most relevant. Or provide legal funds to sue the catholic church, to force them to support all the extra children that they've created.

[Thinking Aloud]

As spotted in a graphic on the internet the other day, it took 200,000 years (give or take) for the human population to reach 1 billion, and that happened around 1800CE. It's taken just 200 years to add another 6 billion to that. We definitely need more people.

[cronus]

As spotted in a graphic on the internet the other day, it took 200,000 years (give or take) for the human population to reach 1 billion, and that happened around 1800CE. It's taken just 200 years to add another 6 billion to that. We definitely need more people.

Human population could go far higher with the intelligent utilization of technology or far lower with the incorrect usage of technology. The wrong parameter to measure is population since it is now a derivative of the technical development of human civilization. The measure for future health and sturdiness to watch for is cultural and genetic diversity. Where Attenborough goes wrong is to commit a naturalistic fallacy and not look up and see how much space for putting people is directly above his unimaginative nugget. Memes are running the show - they'll do what they want and the more the merrier, even Sith like ones.

[mistermack]

Human population could go far higher with the intelligent utilization of technology or far lower with the incorrect usage of technology. The wrong parameter to measure is population since it is now a derivative of the technical development of human civilization. The measure for future health and sturdiness to watch for is cultural and genetic diversity. Where Attenborough goes wrong is to commit a naturalistic fallacy and not look up and see how much space for putting people is directly above his unimaginative nugget. Memes are running the show - they'll do what they want and the more the merrier, even Sith like ones.

It's not Attenborough that's going wrong. The problem isn't just where to put the people. It's where to get everything that they want. Like food and water, and fuel and cars, and medicine etc.

[cronus]

Human population could go far higher with the intelligent utilization of technology or far lower with the incorrect usage of technology. The wrong parameter to measure is population since it is now a derivative of the technical development of human civilization. The measure for future health and sturdiness to watch for is cultural and genetic diversity. Where Attenborough goes wrong is to commit a naturalistic fallacy and not look up and see how much space for putting people is directly above his unimaginative nugget. Memes are running the show - they'll do what they want and the more the merrier, even Sith like ones.

It's not Attenborough that's going wrong. The problem isn't just where to put the people. It's where to get everything that they want. Like food and water, and fuel and cars, and medicine etc.

Mars.

[mistermack]

Human population could go far higher with the intelligent utilization of technology or far lower with the incorrect usage of technology. The wrong parameter to measure is population since it is now a derivative of the technical development of human civilization. The measure for future health and sturdiness to watch for is cultural and genetic diversity. Where Attenborough goes wrong is to commit a naturalistic fallacy and not look up and see how much space for putting people is directly above his unimaginative nugget. Memes are running the show - they'll do what they want and the more the merrier, even Sith like ones.

It's not Attenborough that's going wrong. The problem isn't just where to put the people. It's where to get everything that they want. Like food and water, and fuel and cars, and medicine etc.

Mars.

Sorry, yes of course, and Mars Bars.

[PsychoSerenity]

There is certainly a valid argument to be made that human population could significantly increase perfectly comfortably with appropriate use of technology. Unfortunately it can't really be made until we have the political will to make sure resources are used sustainably and distributed effectively throughout the world.

[Audley Strange]

Necessity is the mother of invention. We'll do nothing until it's necessary.

[Pappa]

There is certainly a valid argument to be made that human population could significantly increase perfectly comfortably with appropriate use of technology. Unfortunately it can't really be made until we have the political will to make sure resources are used sustainably and distributed effectively throughout the world.

I read something a while back (I forget where) about a study into farming practices in Africa. The gist was that even very small improvements in technique would likely increase food production by a huge amount.

[Tyrannical]

There is certainly a valid argument to be made that human population could significantly increase perfectly comfortably with appropriate use of technology. Unfortunately it can't really be made until we have the political will to make sure resources are used sustainably and distributed effectively throughout the world.

I read something a while back (I forget where) about a study into farming practices in Africa. The gist was that even very small improvements in technique would likely increase food production by a huge amount.

It's true that very poor farming practices curtail African food production. Very little of the land is even irrigated. But the problem with Africa is like leading a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Rhodesia was once called the bread basket of Africa with it's modern Westernized farms, but once Black rule took over the farms were raided and destroyed. Irrigation pipes were dug up for scrap metal, milk and egg production stopped because they ate the cows and chickens. White farmers were chased out and their farms given to Blacks who simply were unable or willing to farm.

Africa has only one potential hope, and that is repatriating Western educated Blacks back to Africa. Especially the most skilled or educated amongst them. Africa needs to be fixed from within, with people familiar with Western advances to live in and integrate into their society. This is not possible unless they are also Black because visiting White or Asian aid workers have already failed at this.
Now it's easy to think that Tyrannical just wants to kick 40M Blacks out of the US, but you can't argue with how much of a positive effect that would have for Black Africa. It could be the jump start they need to reach the 21st century.

[rasetsu]

[rasetsu]

Oh, sorry. Wrong smiley. This is what I meant to post.