- China suffered worldwide condemnation 20 plus years
ago when it instituted one child families. Since that time, it slowed
its 12 million annual net gain race-horse population growth down to
eight million annually. Even so, it expects to grow from 1.3 to
1.55.
-
- More ominously, India at 1.16 billion, adds 12
million net gain annually on their way to overtake China in the
population bracket at 1.55 billion by 2050. One wonders how the top
leaders around the world, both religious and governmental, can remain
silent?
-
- In a recent report, E & E reporter, Debra Kahn
said, "A leading Chinese industrialist called yesterday for worldwide
population constraints and an end to government-sponsored consumerism
as solutions to climate change and other environmental issues.
Speaking at a conference put on by Business for Social Responsibility
(BSR), a group that helps businesses institute environment and social
sustainability programs, Zhang Yue, chairman and CEO of Broad Air
Conditioning, also said governments should stop stimulating the
economy by appealing to consumers' sense of patriotism."
-
- "Encouraging folks to have kids is an encouragement
to have more and more markets to buy more stuff," Zhang said through
an interpreter. "Some people say it's a human rights issue [to control
birth rates]: 'My right to have kids is tied to my quality of life.' I
say it'll take us in a direction that you have no right to take us
in."
-
- Kahn said, "The issue of population control has made
headlines in recent days, with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh
attacking New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin for speculating that
birth control could be used to limit greenhouse gas emissions
(Greenwire, Oct. 21)."
-
- Zhang said, "China's one-child policy should be
emulated around the world, calling population growth "humankind's
first big problem."
-
- "We haven't connected population to environmental
protection yet in China," Zhang said. Doing so would make clear the
connection between population growth and greenhouse gas emissions, as
well as the issue of dealing with an aging populace, he said. "In the
next two-three decades we've got to come down to a one-child policy.
Only through population control can we really address some of these
major issues."
-
- Kahn said, "Zhang, who has been listed by Forbes as
one of the 100 richest businesspeople in China, also said businesses
and government need to slow down development or risk catastrophic
climate change."
-
- "The planet right now is in some ways an equation
that can't continue," he said. "We'll become extinct." Although Broad
sells air conditioners in 40 countries, the company is prioritizing
higher salaries over expansion, he said. "Our company isn't growing as
fast as others, but we haven't had a loan from the bank in 15
years."
-
- Zhang said, "Governments, particularly the Chinese,
should stop exhorting consumers to fix the economic downturn by
shopping more. Countries are misguiding the public and driving
consumption. We've tied consuming to patriotism almost in China, and
it's a very dangerous concept, a dangerous attitude to give the
public.
-
-
- "There's no financial crisis really in China, but we
use it as an excuse to get people to buy stuff. Even people in the
countryside who don't have electricity are being encouraged to buy
refrigerators."
-
- In response to a question about correlating economic
growth with happiness, he said it was not so: "The more you develop
economically, the worse the food is. Seventy percent of the
antibiotics in the United States are used for livestock."
-
- ___________
-
- Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents
- from the Arctic to the South Pole - as well as six times across the
USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from
the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents "The Coming
Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it" to civic
clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring
about sensible world population balance at .frostywooldridge.com He is
the author of: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million
Americans. Copies available: 1 888 280
7715
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