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Baby Seven Billion, Welcome.
A few seconds after midnight a baby emerged from the womb of her mother, drew her first breath, and announced her arrival into the world with a tiny cry. This is Baby Seven Billion. Today, 31 October 2011, is her birthday.
This piece appeared in the Washington Times on 31 October, 2011.
This day — the day that our planet becomes home to seven billion human beings — marks an important milestone. But is it a milestone on humanity's upward path that we should celebrate, or a warning of impending catastrophe over which we should despair?
For the population controllers at the UN Population Fund and Planned Parenthood the answer is clear: They would have preferred that Baby Seven Billion had never been born.
We, on the other hand, celebrate the birth of Baby Seven Billion. This little child has been born into a world that is more prosperous than our forebears could ever have imagined.
As our numbers have grown, incomes have soared. In 1800, when there were only 1 billion of us, per capita income worldwide was a mere $100. By 1927 our numbers had doubled, but incomes had already increased five times to $500. By the time we reached 3 billion in 1960, income had tripled again to $1500. Today, as we pass the 7 billion mark, per capita income has soared to $9,000.
In 2100, when the population will be between 7 and 8 billion (and falling), it is projected to be $30,000 in current dollars.
Driving the so-called “population explosion” has been a real explosion in health and longevity. As late as the 19th century, four out of every 10 children died before reaching age five. Today under-five mortality is under 6 percent and falling. Two hundred years ago, human life expectancy was under 30 years. Today it is 69 years and climbing.
As people live longer, naturally there are more of us around at any given time.
By nearly every measure of well-being, from infant mortality and life expectancy to educational level and caloric intake, life in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has been getting dramatically better. According to the World Bank, the average income in the developing world has quadrupled since 1960.
Enough grain is produced for every person on earth to consume 3,500 calories daily. There is no need for anyone to starve in the midst of this plenty.
Population has more than doubled since 1960, but crop yields per hectare have kept pace. World food and resource production has never been higher.
Economies continue to expand, productivity is up, and pollution is declining. Life spans are lengthening, poverty is down, and political freedom is growing. The human race has never been so well off.
In fact, underpopulation, not overpopulation, is the real threat that much of the world faces today. Some 80 countries representing over half the world's population suffer from below replacement fertility — defined as less than 2.1 children per woman.
The populations of the developed nations today are static or declining. The UN predicts that, by 2050, Russia's population will have declined by 25 million people, Japan's by 21 million, Italy's by 16 million, and Germany's and Spain's by 9 million each. Europe and Japan are projected to lose half their population by 2100.
Countries with below replacement rate fertility will eventually die out. It's just a question of time.
Even in the developing world family size has shrunk, from around 5 children per woman in 1960 to less than 3 today. And the decline continues.
According to the UN's “low variant projection” — historically the most accurate — the population of the world will peak at 8 plus billion in 2040 or so, and then begin to decline.
High fertility rates are becoming rare. The UN numbers for 2010 show only 10 countries with population increase rates at or above 3.0 percent.
By 2050, persons aged 65 and above will be almost twice as numerous as children 15 years and younger. The economic consequences of population aging will be closing schools, declining stock markets, and moribund economies.
Ignoring these facts, the population controllers continue to spread their myth of overpopulation.
The UNFPA and other population control organizations are loath to report the truth about falling fertility rates worldwide, since they raise funds by frightening people with the specter of overpopulation. They tell us that too many babies are being born to poor people in developing countries. This is tantamount to saying that only the wealthy should be allowed to have children, and is a new form of global racism.
We should stop funding population control programs, and instead turn our attention to real problems, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and infectious diseases. As mortality rates fall, so will birth rates.
Let us also join together in celebrating the birth of Baby Seven Billion. He or she is a sign of our future, our hope and our prosperity.
People are our greatest resource. Extraordinarily gifted people have helped to enrich civilization and lengthen life spans. But the fact is, everyone, rich or poor, is a unique creation with something priceless to offer to the rest of us.
Baby Seven Billion, boy or girl, red or yellow, black or white, is not a liability, but an asset. Not a curse, but a blessing. For all of us.
Sincerely,
Steven W. Mosher, President
Population Research Institute
Carlos Polo, Director
PRI-Latin America, Peru
Dr. Alveda C. King, Director
African American Outreach
Christine de Marcellus Vollmer, President
Latin American Alliance for the Family-ALAFA
Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D., Senior Fellow
The Beverly LaHaye Institute
Lord David Alton British House of Lords
Austin Ruse, President
Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute
Penny Young Nance, CEO
Concerned Women for America
Jennifer Kimball, Be.L., Director
Culture of Life Foundation
Babette Francis, Co-ordinator
Endeavor Forum, Australia
Dr. Claude Newbury, Executive Director
Family Life International Africa
Paul Hanrahan, Executive Director
Family Life International Australia
Greg Clovis, Executive Director
Family Life International U.K.
Christopher Carmouche, Executive Director
GrassTopsUSA
Allan C. Carlson, President
Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society
Fr. Shenan Boquet, President
Human Life International
Laszlo Marki, Mathematician
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
D. Brian Scarnecchia, Founding President
International Solidarity & Human Rights Institute
Ted Baehr, Publisher
MOVIEGUIDE(R)
Gayle Atteberry, Executive Director
Oregon Right to Life
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director
Priests for Life
Marjorie Dannenfelser, President
Susan B. Anthony List
C. Preston Noell III, President
Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
Carol Soelberg, President
United Families International
Lawrence D. Jacobs, Managing Director
World Congress of Families
Don Feder, Communications Director
World Congress of Families
Alexey Komov
WCF Representative, Russia
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The Day of 7 Billion and a "lack" of babies
This article is as full of stuffing as a Christmas goose.
I won't belabor the debate, but I will allude to the tragedy of couples all over the world who would like the option to limit their family to a reasonable size but cannot because of a lack of easily available and affordable family planning--and that largely due to extremist, far-right lobbies here in the U.S. who impose their religious views on the world, thanks to politicians who are people of opportunity more than integrity and who care not one wit about MAJORITY RULE. Our children face the tragedy of living in a world of 15 billion by 2100, when even today we cannot adequately feed, clothe and education 7 billion.
In some places, like Manila, birth control is even illegal despite poverty, suffering and people desperate enough that when an unwanted pregnancy--which should have never happened had they been given the freedom to decide their own reproductive future--occurs, they leave the country (when they can afford to) in search of abortions. Others fall back on self-induced abortion and other horrors. And then there's nations like Haiti, an overpopulation disaster area even before the quake, and now mired in even worse poverty and hopelessness as their birthrate continues high, poverty and suffering prevail and now, infrastructure has crumbled and government fails. I'll skip the suffering of central Africa; you can all watch that on television.
But to conclude, I'll turn to a favorite quote by Ronald Reagan, although I'll concede, he was a politician who, as Mark Twain warned, is the type of person who will change his opinion more quickly then his underwear, "Our country and state have a special obligation to work toward the stabilization of our own population so as to credibly lead other parts of the world towards population stabilization." I'll add parenthetically that our nation, the world's 3rd most populated BEHIND ONLY CHINA AND INDIA, grows at a whopping 1 percent a year (meaning population doublings every 60 years) due not to our below-replacement birth rate (although there were more births in 2007 than the 1957 peak of the Baby Boom), but due to immigration at five times historical norms and at 30 times Depression Era levels, when Roosevelt and others demanded already low immigration be slashed to below 30,000 a year. (Today, legal alone is at 700,000 a year!) But, high immigration too is a product of global overpopulation, as people desperately try to leave poverty behind for America and Europe, part of mass immigrations long predicted as a product of overpopulation and other factors; we just refuse to view it for what it is.
And, for those interested, I'd suggest you Google George W. Bush's early comments on population.
In response to the Malthusian
LMFAO! Typical. 15 billion by 2100? What evidence? The truth is, there is no evidence to support your claim, so your logic falls flat on its face. You employ the same rhetoric: "We can barely feed and clothe 7 billion people" as if to imply that more humans is a bad thing. Yet again you use the exact same logic as Malthusians.
There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the population will reach 15 billion by 2100. The UN stats show the exact opposite - why don't you look there? You're pulling facts out where the sun doesn't shine.
"Immigration is a product of overpopulation" - again, what evidence is there for overpopulation? There is no overpopulation happening. The evidence is right here in front of you but you are unwavering in your faith.
You have argumentum ad ignoratum and argumentem ad populum. You use the arguments used by the same mass of people who say the exact same thing without the proper evidence.
"There were more births in 2007" - BS. The peak was in the 1990's before it declined. Also, during the Baby Boom, there was a growth of 400 million children, hardly as many born during this millenium.
There's no evidence for your claims whatsoever. In fact, it angers me to see such ignorance.
media madness population control
Agriculture in its pure form(farming to feed yourself and sell surplus) is the solution to end hunger. With all the technology , solar, irrigation water purification, there is no reason why people cant feed themselves. Governments are taking farm land away from poor . Societies that are the most wasteful and materialistic are the ones supporting the argument that there are not enough resources. The modern thought is that land is real estate and food , water and power are commodities on the stock market. The same people who say there are too many people, are strangely, the same people funding Aids outreach, polio, measles tetanus, and malaria vaccines (could it be there are actually helping nature along ). If poor countries are sick, and starving, why not let them die naturally? Instead they are spending billions on vaccines and war, as they have stolen these countries natural resources,(oil, cocoa, gold, diamonds, rubber etc. ) and control the devaluing of their currency. Logic tells me that my enemy will not feed me, unless poison is hidden inside. Agriculture can save poor as well as collecting rain water, and NOT SELLING STAPLE FOODS ON INTERNATIONAL MARKET. As farm land is being bought up by super powers, and farmers being displaced, we see why farmers are growing corn to feed beef cows, growing cocaine, marijuana, heroin and bio-fuel. The argument of global warming caused by humans( Existence) is laughable, when satellites tearing ozone layer are launched for profit, and oil spills pollute water, gas flaring by oil companies is common practice, and nuclear power that has no known way of safe disposal or way of rendering it harmless or biodegradable, are acceptable because of money. Is war not costly and wasteful? If these people who want to depopulate the world succeed ,only primitive people on undesirable land will survive. oh and The rich. In the words of Thomas Sankara, "Who feeds you, owns you."