Tonight, we are told, Australia will reach a new milestone with 23 million people. Most of this is due to immigration, with Australia’s birthrate hovering around 1.9 children per woman, still below the replacement rate of 2.1. While this is an event to celebrate for many, not everyone is pleased.
One alarmist group has already commented on this milestone: “Population growth rate soars to unsustainable 1.7 per cent”. Unsustainable? Sez who? So what pray tell is a sustainable rate? And who decides this? And how exactly is it calculated? This group lists as some of its objectives:
“-To promote policies that will lead to the stabilisation, and then to reduction, of Australia’s population by encouraging low fertility and low migration.
-To advocate low immigration rates while rejecting any selection based on race.
-To help promote policies that will lead to the stabilisation, then reduction of global population.”
Vague goals, but how will this all be achieved? Will these folks be leading by example here? Will they be bumping off family members and loved ones so that we can have a “sustainable population”? I eagerly wait to see them set the standard here, and show us the way.
Of course plenty of other alarmists and humanity haters have made the same – or worse – draconian calls. As but one example I have elsewhere mentioned media mogul Ted Turner. He is most clear on what he thinks on this issue. We are far too overpopulated and radical action must be taken immediately to deal with all this.
He actually believes the global population of seven billion must be reduced by at least 95 per cent! This is what he said back in 1996: “A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal”. And more recently he was still pushing this moonbattery, but at least now he thinks maybe 2 billion is OK.
So there you go, we only have to figure out how we eliminate 5 billion people now. And to see what a real human-hater he is, Turner was recently asked by Piers Morgan what he thought about the fact that more American soldiers commit suicide than are killed in combat. Morgan said it was shocking, but Turner answered: “No, I think it’s good.”
Nice guy. Real nice guy. But contrary to this doom and gloom brigade, plenty of experts have been warning about our population implosion. They are arguing that our real problem is a birth dearth. These demographers state that we are in bad shape, and desperately need to start having babies, or many nations will simply suffer massive shrinkage over time.
This global plunge in population will have all sorts of major ramifications, not least of which is how the shrinking pool of the young is going to pay for the social security benefits of the growing pool of the elderly. For those who are interested in more on this, I here offer a dozen highly recommended books on this topic:
Beisner, E. Calvin, Prospects for Growth: A Biblical View of Population, Resources, and the Future. Crossway Books, 1990.
Cromartie, Michael, ed., The Nine Lives of Population Control. Eerdmans, 1995.
Goldman, David, How Civilizations Die. Regnery, 2011.
Kasun, Jacqueline, The War Against Population: The Economics and Ideology of Population Control. Ignatius Press, 1988.
London, Herbert I., Why Are They Lying To Our Children? Stein and Day, 1984.
Longman, Phillip, The Empty Cradle. Basic Books, 2004.
Mosher, Steven, Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits. Transaction Publishers, 2008.
Simon, Julian L., Population Matters: People, Resources, Environment and Immigration. Transaction Publishers, 1990.
Trombley, Stephen, The Right to Reproduce: A History of Coercive Sterilization. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
Wattenberg, Ben J., The Birth Dearth. Pharos Books, 1987.
Wattenberg, Ben J., Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future. Ivan R. Dee, 2004.
Whelan, Robert, Whose Choice: Population Controllers’ Or Yours? Committee on Population and the Economy, 1992.
What to Expect When No One's Expecting: America's Coming Demographic Disasterby Last, Jonathan V. (Author)
But let me finish with one brand new book, What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: America’s Coming Demographic Disaster by Jonathan Last. While dealing primarily with the American situation, he certainly takes into account the global situation.
His thesis is this: “The ‘population bomb’ never exploded. Instead, statistics from around the world make clear that since the 1970s, we’ve been facing exactly the opposite problem: people are having too few babies. Population growth has been slowing for two generations. The world’s population will peak, and then begin shrinking, within the next fifty years.
“In some countries, it’s already started. Japan, for instance, will be half its current size by the end of the century. In Italy, there are already more deaths than births every year. China’s One-Child Policy has left that country without enough women to marry its men, not enough young people to support the country’s elderly, and an impending population contraction that has the ruling class terrified.”
The facts are quite clear: In 1979 the global fertility rate was 6.0, and now it is down to 2.52 and still falling. All Western nations are already below the 2.1 replacement level. Says Last, “Today only 3 percent of the world’s population lives in a country whose fertility rate is not declining.”
On present trends, and without a big influx of immigration, countries like Italy will shrink by 86 per cent, Spain by 85 per cent, Germany by 83 per cent, and Greece by 74 per cent. In Japan the population peaked several years ago at some 127 million: “If Japan’s fertility stays where it is, the country will contract by more than half – to 56.8 million – by the end of the century.”
Contrary to the alarmists, we are in a bad way – but because of a population implosion, not a population explosion. So if you are in the mood, pop out the champagne tonight as we welcome on board our 23rd millionth Australian. We should be celebrating life, people, and humanity – not hating them.
This is the reason why radicals push for mercy killing, abortion, LGBTP, nazi feminism, etc. It’s hard to believe that there are so many people with so much hatred towards the human race.
Erik Ahlblad
OK ARE YOU READY TO HEAR THIS????? Its true, I am not trying to fool you. If the city of Sydney (greater Sydney) had no buildings or cars or anything else, the entire population of the earth could stand on it and each person would have a space of 4 feet by 4 feet. But don’t believe me just do the math yourself. So the earth is not overpopulated by a long way. According to Wikipedia, Sydney covers 12,000 square Kms, and there are a million SQM in a SQKM.
Rodney Gynther
While I have read that Islamic populations are also headed towards a significant downturn, what you write about here Bill seems to highlight another means of serving up the west on a plate to Islam (to be added to the well known scramble to grovel and appease already exhibited by far too many in powerful places in the west) – they move to the west, have more kids than westerners and gradually increase in dominance. Meanwhile, we have fewer children so as to sustain our selfish lifestyles, kill many of the children we do have, and never move to any Islamic nation to balance the immigration movements out because nations dominated by Islam are generally an intolerant nightmare, hence their immigration away from these.
Simon Fox
It’s strange how these people calling for a reduced population are neither consistent nor sincere. If they were, they would start by eliminating themselves, which would immensely boost their credibility and be a step in the direction they think we should be taking.
Personally I am blessed to be a mum of 8 children – and I do wonder sometimes why many Christians don’t seem to realize that children ARE a blessing from the Lord.
I don’t think God would have given the command to fill the earth, (and as Rodney has pointed out, we’re a long way from doing that) if it was going to be impossible to do so, even taking into account the effects of the Fall. Obviously not every part of the earth is habitable, but people & nations could spend a lot more of their energy making their own countries productive instead of trying to take over their neighbours.
Gaye Mason
SBS TV had a news item on this topic where Dick Smith was promoting a smaller population. SBS invited people to comment on line. So I commented. But my comment was not published. Why am I not surprised?
Here’s what I wrote, obviously not PC enough:
“Only 23 Million? We need 230 million!
We now grow more food than we need, using only a fraction of the water available.
We have plenty of space, arable land, water & natural resources.
We need more dams & infrastructure to unlock our land and water.
Just a fraction of the water flowing to waste in QLD & WA could refill the Great Artesian Basin and Lake Ayre and so change our inland climate to green.
But we need many more people to make that happen in a sustainable eco-friendly way!”
No way will the lamestream media allow a debate. Seems to me they are afraid that the truth will out.
Thanks Bill. I just might look into that book to get some balance to the overwhelming fear of over population I’ve been witnessed in my recent trip to India and China.
With more humans around made in the image of God around I believe there will be more creative minds reflecting His. More creativity = more innovation = more solutions to combat any over population threat that may or may not be out there.
Beth Reid
Another perspective: If every human on earth was ‘melted down’ and occupied about a cubic metre – which seems reasonable – the earth’s ‘human biomass’ would fit into 2 cubic miles with some to spare. Go to any reasonable flat area, you can see a mile in one direction and two miles in the other, then 5,000 feet up (average cruising height for a light aircraft). Overpopulated my %*#@.
David Williams
This is the reason why radicals push for mercy killing, abortion, LGBTP, nazi feminism, etc. It’s hard to believe that there are so many people with so much hatred towards the human race.
Erik Ahlblad
OK ARE YOU READY TO HEAR THIS????? Its true, I am not trying to fool you. If the city of Sydney (greater Sydney) had no buildings or cars or anything else, the entire population of the earth could stand on it and each person would have a space of 4 feet by 4 feet. But don’t believe me just do the math yourself. So the earth is not overpopulated by a long way. According to Wikipedia, Sydney covers 12,000 square Kms, and there are a million SQM in a SQKM.
Rodney Gynther
While I have read that Islamic populations are also headed towards a significant downturn, what you write about here Bill seems to highlight another means of serving up the west on a plate to Islam (to be added to the well known scramble to grovel and appease already exhibited by far too many in powerful places in the west) – they move to the west, have more kids than westerners and gradually increase in dominance. Meanwhile, we have fewer children so as to sustain our selfish lifestyles, kill many of the children we do have, and never move to any Islamic nation to balance the immigration movements out because nations dominated by Islam are generally an intolerant nightmare, hence their immigration away from these.
Simon Fox
It’s strange how these people calling for a reduced population are neither consistent nor sincere. If they were, they would start by eliminating themselves, which would immensely boost their credibility and be a step in the direction they think we should be taking.
Personally I am blessed to be a mum of 8 children – and I do wonder sometimes why many Christians don’t seem to realize that children ARE a blessing from the Lord.
I don’t think God would have given the command to fill the earth, (and as Rodney has pointed out, we’re a long way from doing that) if it was going to be impossible to do so, even taking into account the effects of the Fall. Obviously not every part of the earth is habitable, but people & nations could spend a lot more of their energy making their own countries productive instead of trying to take over their neighbours.
Gaye Mason
SBS TV had a news item on this topic where Dick Smith was promoting a smaller population. SBS invited people to comment on line. So I commented. But my comment was not published. Why am I not surprised?
Here’s what I wrote, obviously not PC enough:
“Only 23 Million? We need 230 million!
We now grow more food than we need, using only a fraction of the water available.
We have plenty of space, arable land, water & natural resources.
We need more dams & infrastructure to unlock our land and water.
Just a fraction of the water flowing to waste in QLD & WA could refill the Great Artesian Basin and Lake Ayre and so change our inland climate to green.
But we need many more people to make that happen in a sustainable eco-friendly way!”
No way will the lamestream media allow a debate. Seems to me they are afraid that the truth will out.
Peter Newland
Here’s the SBS link:
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/yoursay/1759060/Do-you-support-a-bigger-Australiallion
Peter Newland
Thanks Bill. I just might look into that book to get some balance to the overwhelming fear of over population I’ve been witnessed in my recent trip to India and China.
With more humans around made in the image of God around I believe there will be more creative minds reflecting His. More creativity = more innovation = more solutions to combat any over population threat that may or may not be out there.
Beth Reid
Another perspective: If every human on earth was ‘melted down’ and occupied about a cubic metre – which seems reasonable – the earth’s ‘human biomass’ would fit into 2 cubic miles with some to spare. Go to any reasonable flat area, you can see a mile in one direction and two miles in the other, then 5,000 feet up (average cruising height for a light aircraft). Overpopulated my %*#@.
David Williams