The daily news headlines we see of global violence confirms our need for voluntary family planning

By Donald A. Collins | 12 May 2021
Church and State

(Credit: Akram Alrasny / Dreamstime.com)

In watching the daily news we lucky Americans can mostly find ourselves less estranged from human traumas than most of the rest of the humans on our finite planet.

However, we know from the carefully documented history — see The NY Times Magazine’s May 2nd article by David Johnson — that our brilliance in solving smallpox and most other major killer diseases, caused human average lifespans to double from about 45 to much higher in the past hundred years, creating the population explosion from 2 billion in about 1930 to at least 8 billion by 2030.

Reputable scientists ascribe our climate crisis and escalating environmental disasters to that growth, but instead of seeking peaceful, voluntary, less costly ways to encourage fewer births, calls for limitless growth on our finite planet keep coming from the world’s most powerful leaders!

So, as I have noted before, the most well-funded birth control programs now in use feature wars, famine, disease and pestilence when for far less our world leaders could buy all of the new living humankind voluntary, safe, effective ways to avoid unwanted births and gradually reduce our numbers to sustainable levels.

We know why this totally credible path will likely not be chosen, don’t we?

How about rigid religious demands for orthodoxy, relentless human greed, unchecked racism and the hatred that those human failings generate??

Just watching this process unfold sparked that precocious, brave young Greta Thunberg to raise hopes for benign urgent action from the rich and powerful which seems as yet to have gotten little beyond vast media noise!

As Wikipedia tells us

Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg is a Swedish environmental activist who is internationally known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Thunberg initially gained notice for her youth and her straightforward speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she criticises world leaders for their failure to take what she considers sufficient action to address the climate crisis.

Thunberg’s activism started after persuading her parents to adopt several lifestyle choices to reduce their own carbon footprint. In August 2018, at age 15, she started spending her school days outside the Swedish Parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign reading Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for climate). Soon other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities. Together they organised a school climate strike movement under the name Fridays for Future. After Thunberg addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, student strikes took place every week somewhere in the world. In 2019, there were multiple coordinated multi-city protests involving over a million students each. To avoid flying, Thunberg sailed to North America where she attended the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit. Her speech there, in which she exclaimed “how dare you”, was widely taken up by the press and incorporated into music.

Her sudden rise to world fame has made her both a leader and a target for critics, especially due to her age. Her influence on the world stage has been described by The Guardian and other newspapers as the “Greta effect”. She received numerous honours and awards, including an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, inclusion in Time’s 100 most influential people, being the youngest Time Person of the Year, inclusion in the Forbes list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women (2019), and three consecutive nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize (2019–2021).

That Wikipedia quote sounds great but the substantial action needed is far from happening. If peaceful sustainable human survival is to be achieved those in power better cause urgent action soon.

Populating our moon or colonizing Mars while destroying our precious earthly assets seems madness worthy of reevaluation!

Anybody listening?

Here are a few items from the Washington Post May 11th of just the last 24 hours of mass murders, bombings, etc. the list is overwhelming!!!

Jerusalem clashes widen across Israel; Gaza fighting escalates — The Washington Post

Africa coronavirus variants: Monitoring increases while vaccinations lag — The Washington Post

Deadly ‘black fungus’ cases add to India’s covid crisis — The Washington Post

At least 9 dead in rare Russian school shooting — The Washington Post

And the above are just a fraction of the horror stories the daily media output provides us.

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC., has spent over 40 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013.

From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013

By Donald A. Collins
Publisher: Church and State Press (July 30, 2014)
ASIN: B00MA40TVE
Kindle Store

David Attenborough | “The source of all our problems = POPULATION GROWTH”

World Population to hit 11 Billion in 2100 Full Documentary

Jane Goodall – Overpopulation in the Developing World

The Origin of “Limits to Growth” – Interview with Dennis Meadows

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