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The big problem is too many people By John McClendon The Population Institute first conceived World Population Awareness Week in 1985. Its theme this year is "Saving Women's Lives", a theme we can all relate to. But the larger aim of this event is to educate Americans and people of other nations of the seriousness of the problem of overpopulation. In 1999, 25 governors and 242 mayors issued official proclamations in the U.S., and 296 organizations from 53 countries co-sponsored this event. We should strive for quality, not quantity. But why should we, in the Rogue Valley, care? Isn't the problem mainly in Africa, India and China? Well, no. It is true that those places have serious problems. But so does the U.S., and so does Ashland. In India, one of the consequences of Too Many People (the name of our organization) is that the excess moved up onto the mountain sides, cutting the trees for firewood and causing great erosion. Doesn't that sound a bit like Ashland? If not now, how about in 50 years? You may say, "What can I do?". There are several things. Stop at two. Reduce your impact on the environment. But the most urgent thing you can do is to elect officials who do not hide their heads in the sand. Officials who will support family planning, and who will encourage small families. Nationally and internationally. Another thing you can do is support issues of overpopulation in any group you belong to. The Rotary International recently agreed to collaborate with the United Nations Population Fund. On the other hand, the Sierra Club recently refused to consider immigration into the U.S. as a problem. Many examples of overpopulation exist. A boy wondered why Orange County, Calif., was named that, since he never saw an orange tree. The air over the north Pacific Ocean is polluted by coal burning in China. Ashland has had to enlarge and upgrade its sewage plant. Passenger Pigeons, once numbering in the billions, are extinct. In spite of the Green Revolution in agriculture, there are some 790 million people chronically undernourished in the world. Traffic gets worse, not better. In spite of various pollution control measures, the smog in California is almost as bad as it was a half-century ago. The faster we pump oil out of the ground, the quicker we will run out altogether. California steals water from its north, to water southern California. The Lumberjacks moved from Wisconsin and Minnesota to Oregon, because they had run out of trees. It takes a hundred years to grow a hundred-year-old tree! It is appropriate that this World Population Awareness Week comes at the same time that many are demonstrating their concern for world hunger, in the annual CropWalk. We must have compassion for those in need, but we must also work to alleviate the problem that put them in need. Many years ago, I heard a population specialist remark: "More food does not relieve hunger, it only makes more people". The only way to cure hunger is to have only the number of people which can be supported by agriculture. There are many who put great store on "growth" as a necessary part of our economic life. More people equals more customers, of course. Assuming an endlessly inventive technology, we could make room for an enormous population, accommodated in 1000+ story buildings, covering all the land and even the oceans. Great Fun! John McClendon is a member of Too Many People, a committee of the Rogue Valley Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship Visit our back issue library Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Western Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Corvallis Gazette-Times | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | | Ashland Daily Tidings | Gresham Outlook | Springfield News | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2000 Lee Northwest Publishing