From Sunday's "Letters - The Oregonian's Reader's On The Issues" page E3, column 3, by Kate Scattergood of Southeast Portland. I for one couldn't agree with Kate more!

-------------------------Blind To Overpopulation-------------------------

"Kudos to Michael Niflis for having the courage to address a subject that is verboten to the politicians: overpopulation by humans that threatens the planet.

Fanatics of every persuasion scream when birth control is suggested; sensible folk cringe at the thought of legislative controls on population growth.

Years ago, China set limits on its obscene population growth, with the resultant very skewed balance of the sexes, the male child being preferable. But we seem to be blind to the implications and realities of too many people.
Global warming and egregious destruction of habitat are both due to the continued and voracious appetite of mankind to reproduce irresponsibly.

Safe topics abound: recycling, new energy sources, limiting our "carbon footprint"; but until we have the insight and courage to limit population growth, these feel-good attempts at "saving" the planet are just idealistic nonsense."

Quite possibly at some point, war and disease will bring things into balance.

I read Michael Niflis' original article last week, and I totally agree with him. Here's the original:

Regarding the "bounty of babies" (Dec. 15), nothing could be more irresponsible -- even disgusting -- than superimposing a baby boom on top of our global warming crisis. That's more gasoline on the fire.

It's incredible that so few understand and are alarmed by the very high probability that humans will very soon be extinct if we don't greatly reduce the number of people depending on the planet's limited life-support systems.

The United Nations' conclusion that "only urgent global action will do" in dealing with climate change (Nov. 18) is sobering indeed. But since human activity is the primary cause, the solution is a right-in-our-face no-brainer: Reduce human activity! And do it now, with aggressive, mandatory, global birth control! That's clearly a quick, no-nonsense, low-cost solution.

Just as vaccinations are mandatory for the world's most dreaded diseases, we must now have mandatory worldwide birth control until humans, in excessive numbers, are no longer a threat to our planet's health. An analogy: When parasites infest an animal until it dies they simply find another host. Like blind fools, we're doing the same thing to our planet with overpopulation, which, like a biblical plague, is consuming and contaminating all of our life-support systems at an alarming rate.

Implementing and enforcing such a plan will give the U.N. the best opportunity it has ever had to prove it is not only united, but actually good for something substantial by solving what promises to be a challenge so large that it may dwarf man's efforts in space.

Life on Earth could be truly beautiful for all living things if there weren't so many humans competing for all the good things it has to offer. With mandatory birth control, millions would no longer have to die horrible deaths from poverty, starvation and famine-caused diseases.

Frankly, it's impossible for China, India and third-world countries to lift their multitudes out of poverty with commerce, as they are now striving to do, which worsens our climate problem. It must be done with aggressive birth control.

In spite of man's many bad habits, the Earth could tolerate a limited number of us and still be healthy. Reducing our count to that magic number will be a big job, as big as any of NASA's projects. But it will be easier than trying to change the basic nature of human beings, especially our amazing and voracious propensity to consume and contaminate. And it will be the most tangible, direct and cheapest way to solve the global warming problem.

Without question, large families must now be taboo. Of course there will be fierce opposition to mandatory birth control on several fronts of self-interest, the Vatican being one. But are we going to be serious about saving mankind? There's no time left for arguing.

If we fail to save ourselves -- the planet will get along just fine without us -- the last days will be the darkest imaginable, with humans doing horribly unspeakable things to each other in their desperate struggle to survive.

Michael Niflis is a retired high school teacher living in Tillamook.

Talk about your extreme liberal tripe. Global warming and overpopulation.

While certain areas might have excess population, overall the world has a lot more capacity.

I'm glad my kids didn't have him for a teacher with a mindset like that!

Hopefully he just stuck to what he was supposed to teach and didn't spew any of his personal beliefs on the kids.

The world can handle a finite number of humans, and population grows exponentially. These are two facts that are not debatable.

Science has documented population control in the animal world for years. Large mammals suspend ovulation and spontaneously abort if conditions are less than favorable. Even your Burmese python or goldfish will not grow bigger than it's environment allows, and will kill each other to reduce population.

Consious control of population is something we as individuals can act upon, but IMHO it's a very personal decision and requires individual contemplation and action, not a legal mandate. Give people the tools and keep the dialog open.

And as Vitalogy said, the resources are finite, while population is not.

1900 World Population was 1.5 Billion

2000 World population was 6 Billion

2100 World Population at same growth rate 24 Billion

2200.....96 Billion.....all starving and waiting for rations of "Soylent Green".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c25tTzGJmcs

Yet we are appalled at ethnic cleansing, starving children in Biafra, Darfur, Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Japanese atrocities, and the Taliban......

Go figure....

IMHO, the big correction will come with the passing of peak oil, which may have just happened!

From there, it's a down-hill stroll to being unable to sustain much of our basic food and heating infrastructure.

Unless, we use some of that oil to build the next best things!

Oil is known for it's very high energy density. That's the ticket to it's general utility. That high density pays back our efforts to obtain it many fold, and that's why food can travel 1200 miles before you eat it.

Where we are linking things globally, and taking some cost advantages out of that, it really depends on oil for it to all work out. Should alternative efforts fail, a return to more community / local means of feeding people is gonna have to happen.

Also adjustments, in terms of where we live and how, will have to happen.

Very large clusters of people may have significant problems!

Some modeling has been done, and it may be that significant numbers of us might just die off too, being unable to tap the energy density necessary to sustain ourselves.

"and it may be that significant numbers of us might just die off too, being unable to tap the energy density necessary to sustain ourselves."

Yep, pushing an Escalade is a lot harder than it looks.

Escalade....Pleeeeeease. Try and push this bad boy:
http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/IronhideGM/2065615
$106,000 fully loaded and tricked out.
How's that for a small carbon footprint! Perfect for the outdoorsy soccer mom type!
This ain't just a movie truck, these bad boy's are rolling off of the assemply lines in Detroit and right into your neighbors driveways.

Just when did tanks become available to the consumer?

Gawd awful looking things.

I'd have to get a bigger horse trailer...

Hey, it's a diesel! So you can install the line heaters and fuel valving, and start burning french fry oil in it.

Or, start a McDonald's franchise in the bed and make your own fry grease.

6.6L (about 396 c.i.d.) Duramax Diesel to be exact. Probably gets ten gallons to the mile.

They are actually pretty F'n cool. I'd love to tool down the freeway in one and see all of the rubber neckers looking at it! Bad Traffic, no problamo, just drive over it! Pretty awesome to stand next to. The pictures just don't do it justice.

OH Man, can't you just picture Merkin ditching the Pacer for one of these and tooling down the road with baby M riding shotgun in the car seat? Oh the horror's to see that in the ol' rear view. Get the hell outa da way! Knowing her she'd probably take a leasurely drive through tree hugger environmentalist neighborhoods after getting the loud ass exhaust installed. With a stuffed spotted owl for a hood ornament no less!

No tree-hugger enviromentalist neighborhoods for me (that sounds like an oxymoron!)...but I might take it on a test drive, using the dealership's gas, through some "nice" new "neighborhood" like (De)Forest(ed) Heights, where they've already cut down every tree and replaced every 10 trees cut with one nice twig.

If I "happen" to lose control of the Beast and tear up about 20 of those teeny tiny lawns that are each one driveway apart, well, darn, it was just an accident!!!

As for a hood ornament, after I'm done, the hood ornament will be someone's $400 copper mailbox and the burglar alarm box from the front door and a few sprinkler systems hanging from that bumper.

"My work here is done"

P.S. I'm going to mail that Mr. Niflis a very special "disgusting" package containing Baby M's disposable diapers as soon as I get enough of the really good ones saved up and ripened properly!

(His point is valid, but his delivery and solution are lacking)

Overpopulation?

No worries.

Littlesongs! You & DT can have all of that superfood...

Littlesongs: I'm sure the woman below knows the song "Every Sperm Is Sacred" but her hunger got the best of her.

If you're all for freedom to have as many kids as you wish, then get use to the picture below. Yes I'm talkin' Cannibalism!

http://vileking.com/photos/leg_eater.jpg

Nature will always win out in the end.

"Talk about your extreme liberal tripe. Global warming and overpopulation.

While certain areas might have excess population, overall the world has a lot more capacity."

"The world can handle a finite number of humans, and population grows exponentially. These are two facts that are not debatable."

The failure to reply hasn't gone unnoticed.

With what's happening to the planet lately (whatever you call it) don't count on the food supply to stay at the same level.

I agree Craig -- and I believe that picture put me off fried chicken forever.

I think it is very important to have our food sources primarily dependent on sustainable local crops. This region has a bounty of different wonderful things. The closer our food is grown, the fresher it is when we eat it. Just look at the savory international cuisine we can make from just one native Northwest vegetable!

EN, I just finished a refreshing Superfood. Here are the ingredients:

* Apple Juice
* Peach
* Mango
* Strawberry and Banana Puree
* Spirulina
* Soy Lecithin
* Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
* Wheat Grass
* Barley Grass
* Wheat Sprouts
* Jerusalem Artichoke
* Lemon Bioflavonoid
* Nova Scotia Dulse
* Torkelson Family

You're right, I should have read the label first!

Also eat seasonal foods too.

What is that finate amount? When In the US you can grow 40 bushles of grain on an acre, and other countries 5-10. Plus the US doesnt't have nearly all the acrage that can be used for growing food utilized, throw in Argentina, Australia etc. Food isn't a problem, food distribution is.

"Food isn't a problem"

NOW

Littlesongs:mmm...spuds...but were the Torkelsons grown locally? Your carbon footprint just got larger if they were the higher quality imported variety!

If growing 40 bushels of wheat includes modern farming techniques and irrigation of fields not otherwise suited to wheat, with fertilizers and pesticides from Monsanto, it's not such a great thing either, not to mention the bioengineering coming from companies like that. Keep the fish genes out of my tomatoes, please! Round Up resistant corn, anyone?

I often wonder how this problem will be solved. Clearly, every advancement in medicine, every improvement in the transportation of goods, every humanitarian effort to help populations that are suffering, all helps promote more people existing on the planet. The problem is that these efforts and advancements are GOOD THINGS, because they improve our lives. But with this benefit comes responsibility. The Grim Reaper has far fewer tools in his arsenal now thanks to advancements in technology. So, people need to plan families better, and use contraception. I suppose the solution lies in education. I'd hate to see the solution be starvation and mass deaths from disease.

Mass starvation and deaths is unfortunately what it's going to come to. I think we are already seeing a preview of what's to come with situations in Africa. Plus, transportation of goods will continue to get more expensive as the price of oil goes up, making it more cost effective to produce foods and goods locally. That's why I think it's in our best interests here in the US to preserve our farmland, rather than pave it over.

Mankind will likely be it's own demise. Someone will develope something like the t-cell virus then it will all be over with. Some adaptive mutated virus will get loose and decimate the world's population. I'd hate to see the list of stuff stored at the CDC from our own government's scientist's.

I also think any form of birth control should be available to anyone who wants it for free. And it may not be PC to say this, but birth control should be pushed especially hard on the Latino community.

That would be a tough row to hoe in any culture that is predominantly Catholic. No allowable methods of birth control, save abstinence and the rythym method, plus the edict to go forth and multiply, then add in the guilt for disobedience.

Yep, birth control should be readily available, or at least affordable.

There was a Trojan commercial last night that caught my attention. The scene was a bar full of Wild Boar's and on good looking girl. The one that was talking with her gets up and goes into the mens room where he purchases a Trojan from the machine and turns into a young man. The message was to evolve your thinking and use protection.

Condom commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkhkpyQTs_c

Ah yes, the cereal isle. One of two places in the grocery store were kids throw tantrum's. The other is the checkout lanes. Now for the slightly larger kids its the beer and frozen food isles.

Skybill: Beautiful! That's it in a Nut Shell! It should be mandatory viewing in all schools.

Skybill: Priceless!

Did anyone else have to do the egg thing in high school? In one home ec class, people got married and had to carry around a raw egg everywhere they went. You could trade it back and forth, but no babysitter was allowed. They were decorated like babies, and had to be produced if that teacher saw you anywhere on campus: halls, class, lunch, football practice! Working out who was going to watch the baby because the other parent was busy was pure comedy! Doom was upon the person who let harm befall that egg before the class ended. Hilarious exercise, and a great way to teach the responsibility of parenting.

When you hard boil the kids they hold up pretty well to most anything! I do recall one kid setting the egg down in the compound at lunch and a seagull swoped down and got it, oh the horror's!

I guess the stork was busy elsewhere.

...When you hard boil the kids....

Talk about being in hot water!

When I was in High School, So long ago, guys took Auto Mechanics and Shop, Girls took Home Ec, Typing and Shorthand.

That was one happy seagull!

The tragic endings of some of those eggs in purses, pockets, and cars were pretty funny!

W had to have 3 semesters of Voc Ed to graduate...this was one of the only classes that was 1 semester. The guys who took it usually had to make up a credit, shop classes were full, or were smart enough to know all the girls were in Home Ec!

Sorry about the double post!

We had to have 3 semesters of Voc Ed to graduate...this was one of the only classes that was 1 semester. The guys who took it usually had to make up a credit, shop classes were full, or were smart enough to know all the girls were in Home Ec!

I took Library aide, only guy in it, got to hold the ladder for the girls , so they could put the books back on the top shelf. After I took it, several guys signed up for it.
I also took shorthand and typing, knowing they would be good to have for when i went to college.

I actually got kicked out of typing class! My parents made me take it.

I didn't take it until my senior year. My attitude was; "I'm not going to be a secretary so why take typing".

Little did I know that 30+ years later I'd spend half my life in front of a keyboard!!!

Nwokie: good thinkin'!

Skybill: Me, too...who knew?

Back in those days, it took an Act of Cogress to get into a class like Wood Shop or Small Gas Engines if you were a girl. One girl's parents went to the school board to get her into a welding class, where she did very well and credits that class as the beginning of her career as an artist.

"Author: Entre_nous
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - 9:59 am

The tragic endings of some of those eggs in purses, pockets, and cars were pretty funny!"

If we found them laying around they wound up wrapped in paper towels then stuffed into tailpipes in the parking lot. Made pretty cool splats when the cars fired off. Of course there were others that were held for ransom. Sadly most were never recovered and those that did were all cracked up and all the king hoses and all the kings men could not put junior back together again!