Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Rapid Population Decline - Or Bust

Alex Smith | 06.02.2011 19:02 | Analysis | Ecology | Social Struggles | Sheffield

The population of Egypt doubled since 1980. Mexico, India too. Dr. Jack Alpert says it is time for extreme measures, before civilization falls. With three responses by Rex Weyler of Greenpeace fame, Dr. William Rees (co-inventor of "ecological footprint") & ecologist Vandy Savage.

"RAPID POPULATION DECLINE OR BUST"
Radio Ecoshock February 4, 2011.

Welcome to Radio Ecoshock. I'm Alex Smith.

When it comes to "the population bomb", our feature speaker today makes Paul Ehrlich sound like an optimist. Now it's over 30 years into the tragedy of exploding humanity on a small planet.

Jack Alpert says it's time for "Rapid Population Decline or Bust." That bust may haul down civilization, taking us back thousands of years.

In Roman Times, there were about 100 million humans on the planet. It turns out, with reasonable scientific investigation, that is the maximum sustainable population - 100 million - to live anything like our current lifestyle, in the developed world.

This year of 2011, somewhere on the planet, the seven billionth baby will be born, along with almost half a million more babies, that very same day.

[ http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_babies_are_born_every_day_in_the_world]

Of course others will die. All told, the number of humans on Earth increases by about 217,000 a day, and climbing.

This crushes people, economies, governments, other species, and the whole global environment. The crisis has arrived.

It is time to hear from Jack Alpert. Long ago he invested seat belts, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, perhaps millions. He went on to research peculiarities in the human brain and personal functioning. Strange human traits that could end this civilization, to dangle on the edge of extinction.

Those are strong words - and this is a strong radio program. I don't recommend it for the severely depressed, or impressionable young children, say aged 9 or under. Save this one for the grown-ups, and young people whose lives are threatened.

There are three reasons why Jack Alpert will never be popular, and why this radio program is difficult to make, and difficult to listen to:

1. Jack admits he is not a master communicator. He is an engineer often operating in fields before their time, before social acceptance.

2. the material is difficult to communicate. It must cross boundaries where conversation has been hidden or forbidden. At times, he is trying to express his studies into the limitations of the human mind - but those same limitations prevent people from readily understanding it.

3. the subject and options are so horrible, we don't want to hear it, much less think about it
.
The food riots have already begun to bring down governments, threatening us with chaos,. With the spectacle of mass suffering and starvation all over the world, and heart-break will enter even the most prosperous houses, like an accusing ghost over the dinner table.

We must try.

The scene was an unassuming living room, in the home of a Greenpeace founder, in the City of Vancouver, where Greenpeace was born.

Six of the brightest minds around gathered to hear Jack Alpert, and to again work through the endless question: "What Is To Be Done?".

Plus one Alex Smith, with not enough microphones. Permission granted to record what I could. My main microphone went to Jack Alpert.

Then I did three follow-up phone interviews, go get audio suitable for radio. The interviews are with:

Rex Weyler, Greenpeace Co-founder, historian for that organization, regularly published pundit on the environment and Peak Oil.

Dr. William (Bill) Rees, the co-inventor or the ecological footprint, an amazing thinker and scientist at the University of British Columbia.

Vandy Savage, a community organizer, project leader and person extraordinaire.

Find out more about Dr. Jack Alpert (with video) at  http://www.skil.org

READ MORE (with lots more from Jack Alpert, quotes and all)
 http://www.ecoshock.org/transcripts/ES_110204_Transcript.htm

Alex Smith
- e-mail: radio@ecoshock.org
- Homepage: http://www.ecoshock.org

Comments

Display the following 13 comments

  1. Too Many of Whom ? — No One is Illegal
  2. in response — mnb
  3. overpopulation is orthogonal to racism/sexism/etc. — anon
  4. We have finite resources — Lynn Sawyer
  5. Capitalism not Population is the problem — @rchie
  6. ooops — @rchie
  7. Wow these guys are truly sick — @rchie
  8. blah — Billy 10kids
  9. OK “anon” if you want to reduce human life to “simple mathematics” try this — @rchie
  10. Capital Binarys — @rchie
  11. straw man attacks — anon
  12. smokescreen — Billy 11 kids (keepin busy)
  13. class war — Billy 11 kids' mum
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech