Increasing population, no problem

Thursday, 24 February 2011 17:15

Written by Nonoy Oplas

More population means more productive hands and minds, more businesses and more diversity in human growth and enjoyment.

But many sectors do not see it that way. For them, more population means more houses and offices, more malls and shops, more cars and buses, more planes and ships, more power plants, more global warming, more ecological catastrophe.

Thus, their favorite proposal is to limit population, which in turn limit the growth of new houses and offices, new malls and shops, new cars and buses, which in turn limit the need for more power plants especially the “non-clean” energy sources, and they "save the planet." That is why the population scare is directly related to climate alarmism and ecological socialism movement.

There was a report last week, Planet could be 'unrecognizable' by 2050, experts say. It said,

The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, "with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia," said John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council.

To feed all those mouths, "we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000," said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

"By 2050 we will not have a planet left that is recognizable" if current trends continue, Clay said.

The swelling population will exacerbate problems, such as resource depletion, said John Casterline, director of the Initiative in Population Research at Ohio State University….

This is a typical "control population" scare by the socialists and global central planners at the UN, WWF and other international groups. When the world population was only 1 B entering 2 B, they said the same catastrophic warning. When world population was only 2 B entering 3 B, they said the same catastrophic warning. And now that the world population is entering the 7 B mark, the same catastrophic warning.

I think there is zero limit to human imagination and capability for continuous improvement and modernization. Before, 1,000 people would need probably at least 2 hectares of land area for housing. Now 1,000 people can have spacious housing in just 3 high rise condo buildings occupying just 1/4 of an hectare, with swimming pool, jogging path, gym, theater, convenience store, etc.

In agriculture and food production, traditional farming will need several hectares of land for vegetable production. Now even one-fifth (1/5) of an hectare can produce tons of vegetables per year with all-year round production via greenhouse and hydroponics farming. Even with heavy rains or prolonged drought, production continues, and the veggies are usually 100 percent organic as they do not need soil. Bacteria and fungi that attack leaves and fruits are generally soil-dwelling.

The population increase of the poor that those central planners are scared to see should not be seen as more people that need more government subsidies. Such planners and socialists have little concept or belief in more personal and parental responsibility. For them, almost everything is government responsibility: education, healthcare, housing, pension, transportation, environmental protection, and so on.

The poor generally do not seek “government welfare” as they see that there are tons of bureaucracies and political interventions before they can enjoy whatever is given. The poor can start an ordinary food shop, barbeque stand, barber shop, vulcanizing shop, and many other micro entrepreneurial projects. But governments always say that all those initiatives are illegal and prohibited, unless the would-be entrepreneurs would first get various permits, licenses and certifications and pay the corresponding taxes and fees from the village, city/municipality and national government agencies.

And this is the main cause of poverty: prohibiting productive activities unless there is blessing and approval by the central planners themselves.

Socialists are generally unproductive people. Not engaged in any productive enterprises that rely on voluntary exchange between sellers and producers. Thus they are concentrated in government bureaucracies, national and international like the UN, or big international NGOs like WWF, producing tons of papers of new studies that justify more regulations, prohibitions and taxation, to "save the planet."

Who will "save humanity" from such huge army of international do-gooders who rely 100 percent on tax money?