Who’s Afraid of Population Control? PlanetShifter.com Interview with Rob Skinner.

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Who’s Afraid of Population Control?
PlanetShifter.com Interview with Rob Skinner is based on a LinkedIn.com discussion concerning global warming.

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Forget about GW that is only the smoke screen. The big problem for humanity and it's continued existence is Population. This is the real elephant in the room and obviously too contentious to confront.

Go to and have a look at the graph. In the last 400 years we have gone from less than a billion people on the planet to 6.2bill and in the next 30 - 40 years we increase to a predicted 9.4bill. Now we can't say that has no anthropogenic influence. Bear in mind that this all occurred with the introduction of Modern Science, Industrialization, Capitalism, Modern medicine, Academic explosion etc, so maybe the intrinsic answers to this problem aren't to be found there.

Interestingly, if we are to water, feed and shelter this 50% growth in population in only the next 40 years then one of the requirements will be to quickly regenerate the soils and landscape from which we derive our capacity to live. This needs to be done in harmony with nature not in spite or attempted dominance of her. If we do only that then the capacity for carbon sequestration across the globe will fix or at least stem GW in an instant. We can do this within 5years.

If we do not act harmoniously, cooperatively & collaboratively as a united humanity then we are headed for all of the disastrous predictions currently being suggested and then some. Make no mistake that Mother Nature has the capacity to be seemingly cruel to her components in order to survive. If we continue to violate her with our ego driven pursuits, she will have no hesitation in finding a way to remove her plunderers. You just need to review history to see the evidence.

When this civilization has drawn its last breath, a little blade of grass will pop up somewhere and say "remember me...I'm back" and the cycle will begin again. Unless we change. What we need to change is human consciousness. To leave behind the "what's best for me", "how do I get more", and the extension of that "I" to "my family", "my County", "my State", "my Country" etc, and change that to "how can we all live together and share the harvest while making sure we are sustainable as a humanity".

So the big questions for all of us are:

1. Am I as an individual prepared to develop my own consciousness to develop the wisdom that is needed to contribute to this new way of being for humanity?

2. In doing that am I prepared to surrender the pursuit of more for "me"? Perhaps in the West we will have to even give some back while seriously and significantly reducing our ongoing consumption.

Ask 10 people, check their reaction and you will get your answer about where humanity is heading. Perhaps there is just not enough pain yet?

Who is afraid to talk about population control?

Well it appears that not many people are actually addressing the Population Explosion (PE) as a high priority at all.

Most of the media, our Politicians, environmental groups and even our general populous seem to be somewhat reticent on this issue. I cannot give documented evidence but in terms of comparison with Global Warming (GW), it seems fairly obvious that PE is not getting anywhere near the same airplay. In Copenhagen for instance where GW was center stage, by comparison PE seems to get a subset agenda and is wrapped up with women’s health and family planning issues in back room discussions.

Please don’t misunderstand, I am not advocating a reduction of these very important priorities as I believe that the world’s commitment to the 1994 UN Cairo initiative is an essential human right for women and should categorically be implemented. See this power point.

This initiative in itself is the singularly the most effective way to seriously curb PE, but to make this the major strategy and sole system or responsibility for dealing with curbing PE is somewhat pedestrian at best. My contention is that PE on its own is at worst equal to GW in importance as an issue and perhaps even greater as a threat to humanity but the complexity and potential volatility make it too difficult to confront because it is about people and peoples basic right to life issues.

Why is population such a contentious but non-issue?

All of the best predictions suggest that we will increase our population by 2040 by another 50%. That is only thirty short years. It equates to 1 more person for every 2 that we have on the planet at this point in time and guess what? They are mostly going to be born in the poorer less developed nations of the world where there are already immense pressures to live a sustainable existence.

The magnitude of this seems to escape everyone I talk to and it seems to me for the average psyche the number and time frame is so overwhelming as to be incomprehensible and thereby appears to trigger denial. It is this denial that that hovers in the background and reaches even greater influence when one considers the political, social, economic, religious and environmental implications.

There is a no win situation for any elected person to put this matter under the spotlight.

The environmental movement are going to have to turn themselves inside out with the range of contradictions they are going to have to deal with to put it on their agenda. The community will have such a diverse and conflicting views and the rage of the debate so intense, just the debate alone could raise serious social unrest. So how do we accommodate these extra 3.4billion citizens about to arrive on Planet earth when we cannot adequately water, feed, clothe and shelter nearly 30% of the world’s current citizens already?

Is this the tipping point that the theorists talk about? Perhaps not but we might be well advised to consider some of the following:

• When you make the world’s disenfranchised group larger and even more disenfranchised do you create the possibility of a global civil unrest?
  
• Do you have an increased potential security risk over insufficient water, food, energy, health care & shelter?
  
• What are the effects on available land and the possible removal of borders under the weight of mass refugee movement?
  
• What is the potential to alter and adjust social, religious and cultural norms through mass unselected integration over a very short period of time?
  
• Is it a consideration that the west and its affluence may well is the society that will have to surrender the most?
  
• If one recognizes the environmental damage already done to our Planet by human occupation then what is the predicted damage likely to occur by an increase of half as many again……in 30 short years?

What religious organizations are supporting population control? Which are opposed?

None as far as I can research.

Catholicism is still anti-contraception and most religions take a pro-life stance so there is a range of conflicting highly emotive issues depending on what you call “control”. There appears to be a general view that as God organizes the universe that God will also solve the problem.

There seems to be no good reason for any religious organization to propose a strategy to deal with this issue. They will wait until other social concerned individuals or groups do and they can then advocate against what they don’t approve of. A much safer position!

How do you see sustainability in the population debate?

Having spent my latter years involved in agricultural pursuits it seems evident that in nature we have a limit to the amount of stock we can carry on any given portion of land. We have to give consideration to the amount and quality of available water, food, shelter to determine the carrying capacity and remain sustainable on that land. We know we can provide inputs that increase the carrying capacity, however history and hard lessons have now shown us that we have to do so in a holistic and naturally harmonious way to ensure the ongoing sustainability to maintain the same carrying capacity.

In line with this experience, humanity has to determine what its carrying capacity for the planet is. Then, what we as humans can contribute and assist nature to provide for in a holistic was while always looking to how we can co-exist with nature to ensure our long term sustainability. This will immediately knock out most chemical, herbicides, pesticides, GM and other processes in conflict with how nature really works. Chemical additives to the food chain will be gone, to be replaced by locally grown highly nutritious produce providing to local communities and many, many, more people working manually in agriculture.

“Quickly regenerate the soils and landscape?” How?

It takes about five years to get from chemical dependency back to pure natural produce, about the same time to regenerate and rehydrate the land. It can be done using the waste from the cities and converting that into highly active and beneficial humus through biodynamic, or equivalent composting.

As farmers get more proficient, science can be used to analyze the data for feedback and adjustment but the process always needs to be controlled by the farmer and his connection with nature. This will assist in carry capacity of humanity as well as providing naturally nutritious foods giving us greater health and well being. Our society is currently diseased from being fed highly processed, acidic, non nutritious food all supported by current science. The ultimate result will be more fertile soil capable of increased production and all the while locking up carbon into the soil.

Other than the ocean which is the greatest carbon sink, the land covered with grasses is the next big available carbon sink and with the current available arable land on the planet we can absorb the worlds CO2 from those grasses alone.

How do (you) propose to unite humanity?

Humanity will unite itself. The question is will it unite as one and combine or unite as separate cells and then fight for the individual cells survival.

However, we should not underestimate the human spirit as there have been many times when faced with possible extinction we have suspended previous ego driven differences and oppositions and worked together for common good and common survival.
As for me I am going to continue to grow my produce, stay away from major population centers and perhaps in the end my produce and the ability to produce it might just be more valuable than another person’s armament. Perhaps my local solicitor may have to make an appointment to see me to order some produce.

He he….. And pay ME a week of his wages for MY half days work He he he.

What we need to change is human consciousness. Do tell, how?

To go from an egoist mind driven humanity to a spiritually balanced humanity. We will need to move from “me first” to “how can I serve humanity” so that we are all sustainable. I have not found the consciousness change better explained than as outlined in Eckhardt Tolle’s “The Power of NOW” and in his sequel “A New Earth”. Read AND internalize. Add to this practiced daily meditation, seek a re-connect to nature and live in peace, love and harmony.

You seem to be calling for the end or at least a change in Capitalism? What is next?

I am not opposed to Capitalism or any other economic system. However it must be realized that Capitalism has fostered success as monetary, power and material and in so doing promoted egoist ways of living.

On the other hand Communism also failed for the exact same reason.

So, perhaps this is more about our level of collective consciousness than it is about the economic model. When we arrive at the ideal collective consciousness we will as humanity design the appropriate systems to fit our requirements and needs.

Connections -

Rob Skinner, Owner
Absolute Water Technologies Australasia Ltd
Sydney, Australia
Rob at freskin dot com dot au