One day in September of 2003 there was a momentous confrontation just outside the pearly gates of heaven. As newly arrived biologist Garrett Hardin was approaching the door to eternal peace, he was met by the extra terrestrial organizer for the Green Party, former Beatle John Lennon, who got up from his piano to greet him.
“Garrett”, he said in his trade mark Merseyside accent, “Imagine a world where there’s open immigration, where there’s no borders to divide people, man.” Then sitting down at his piano, Lennon broke into song:
“Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday that you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing the world…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.”
Then Lennon followed the song by repeating the maverick views that he expressed in 1973 in an interview with American talk show host Dick Cavett when he called overpopulation “a joke” and opined that “Texas could hold everyone” and “any extra could just go to the moon.” He agreed with Yoko Ono that there simply needed to be a balance in the food supply, and argued that it was immoral for those once born to maintain that no one should follow them.
At that point Hardin asked if he could take a turn at the piano. Lennon relented. “John,” he said in his American mid-Western accent, “ can you imagine a world where population levels are effectively contained by sovereign governments who maintain prosperity by preventing poor nations from exporting their poverty to rich nations?” Then, breaking into song as he hit the keyboard, Hardin sang the following lyrics:
“Imagine that overpopulation can be avoided, if borders are secure, otherwise poor and overpopulated nations will export their excess to richer and less populated nations…
Imagine that people are so unwise as to globalize overpopulation by permitting population excesses to migrate into better endowed countries.
Imagine that without global sovereignty there can be no global solution to population problems.
Imagine that low standards of living drive out the high standards and that immigrant labour pauperizes domestic labour.
Imagine that our country was once in a juvenile phase but now it is in a mature phase with an immigration rate that is only appropriate to the juvenile phase.
Imagine that thou shalt not transgress the carrying capacity.
Imagine that the quality of life and quantity of it are inversely related and the maximum is not the optimum.
Imagine a single feature of your daily life, name one, that you expect to be improved by a farther increase in the population.
When Hardin concluded, he rose and said, “Well John, what did you have to say that?”
Lennon fumbled through his Green Party manual for parrot responses, gave up, then remarked in Liverpudlian frustration, “effing racist mon, effing racist!” He then turned toward Heaven and abandoning his piano stomped off to confer with St. Peter about the possibility of deporting this xenophobe.
Garrett Hardin thought he might wait and loiter around another five decades and face off against Philippe Legrain when he expired. But then he realized, the bastard would probably be going to that other place down below, where all the favourites of public broadcasting hang out.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
AN AUTHENTIC GREEN LIFESTYLE
Brishen Hoff of northern Ontario responded to Professor Boyd Cohen's challenge to submit an application to be selected as Canada's Greenest Citizen. Only his was not the conventional feel-good, do-good Green set of answers. Hoff responded instead by addressing the root causes of our crisis rather than the trendy nostrums of Professor Cohen. That is, change your individual lifestyle and forget about the population explosion.
7. Was your home/apartment/shelter built with any green design features?
It's only 568 square feet and has a passive solar sunporch great for starting seeds.
8. Please indicate how many of the following services are within walking distance (i.e. within 8 blocks of where you live)?
I don't go to school, I never eat at restaurants, I only get groceries once per week and grow my own eggs, vegetables, fruits and soon meat and milk. I don't go to parks because I have my own acreage.
9. What else can you say about where you live that you believe contributes to a sustainable/green lifestyle?
I can grow my own food because we have 160 acres.
My father and I can heat our home with wind fall trees from our own land without cutting down any living trees. We have a well and septic system which means no need for energy intensive urban water treatment and sewage treatment systems. Since we have space and resources to grow food on our own land, unlike city dwellers who have to have food shipped to them, we have a lower footprint.
13. If you have a car what kind of car do you have?
Pontiac Firefly with OVERPOPULATION AWARENESS bumper stickers
14. What type of organization do you work for?
OTHER: Retired, I am too green to pay high income tax that the government will just use to promote economic growth
16. What do you eat?
I was a vegetarian for 6 months and lost 40 pounds. I now eat meat in moderation. If there weren't so many people on the planet, eating meat would not be an environmental problem. I am committed to a zero-child life and that is more green than any hybrid owning, granola muching, vegan hippie who raises a family of his/her own.
Humans evolved to eat meat and even vegans have a huge environmental impact because of the sheer number of them (much of the Amazon has been converted to soybean monocultures to provide vegans with tofu) All human beings must consume resources and produce pollution in order to survive. 12% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the air we exhale. My greenest trait is my dedication to wake others up to the reality of overpopulation and the need to reduce the population to a sustainable level, which you can read about here on my blog: http://ecologicalcrash.blogspot.com
19. How do you make a difference not only by reducing your impact but by helping your community or the world?
I have started a blog that shows how population growth and biodiversity loss are directly correlated: http://ecologicalcrash.blogspot.com
I have been writing for this blog for over 1 year.
A real litmus test for anyone who thinks they are green is to find out whether they recognize the following formula:
Environmental Impact = Population X Per Capita Consumption
Most fake greens have dropped the population factor in order to be politically correct. In societies obsession with per capita consumption, they are overlooking the elephant in the room: the sheer number of human beings. What is the point in halfing the average persons consumption and then doubling the number of consumers?
20. Personal Statement: Speak Up!
Here you get a chance to write up to 250 words to describe why you should be considered to be one of the greenest people on the planet. Be creative but please be sincere!
1) I will never bring a child into this already overpopulated planet
2) I will educate others why overpopulation is the root of all environmental problems
3) I will educate others why immigration is the driving force behind overpopulation and must be stopped.
a) immigrants to Canada, once they arrive, not only have higher fertility rates than the Canadian average, but also the global average
b) almost all immigrants to Canada come from a low footprint life and change into a high footprint life
c) immigration allows humans to efficiently spread across the globe converting complex biodiverse ecosystems into monocultures of homosapiens (eg: Toronto), which serves to maximize global overpopulation
4) I will educate Canadians that unending Economic Growth in a finite planet has become the most idiotic religion ever conceived. Canada is growing its GDP by increasing the number of consumers (70% of this growth from immigration) and will consequently double its economy and population in only 70 years to 66 million, leaving each Canadian poorer with fewer space and resources per person and less biodiversity and less quality of life.
5) I will change our culture so that immigration-driven-population-growth is viewed for what it is: an environmental problem. No longer will critics of mass immigration be labeled racists, misanthropes or xenophobes when they are really altruistic people who care about the future of quality of life for all Canadians and recognize ecological limits (the higher the human population in a finite space, the lower the biodiversity).
7. Was your home/apartment/shelter built with any green design features?
It's only 568 square feet and has a passive solar sunporch great for starting seeds.
8. Please indicate how many of the following services are within walking distance (i.e. within 8 blocks of where you live)?
I don't go to school, I never eat at restaurants, I only get groceries once per week and grow my own eggs, vegetables, fruits and soon meat and milk. I don't go to parks because I have my own acreage.
9. What else can you say about where you live that you believe contributes to a sustainable/green lifestyle?
I can grow my own food because we have 160 acres.
My father and I can heat our home with wind fall trees from our own land without cutting down any living trees. We have a well and septic system which means no need for energy intensive urban water treatment and sewage treatment systems. Since we have space and resources to grow food on our own land, unlike city dwellers who have to have food shipped to them, we have a lower footprint.
13. If you have a car what kind of car do you have?
Pontiac Firefly with OVERPOPULATION AWARENESS bumper stickers
14. What type of organization do you work for?
OTHER: Retired, I am too green to pay high income tax that the government will just use to promote economic growth
16. What do you eat?
I was a vegetarian for 6 months and lost 40 pounds. I now eat meat in moderation. If there weren't so many people on the planet, eating meat would not be an environmental problem. I am committed to a zero-child life and that is more green than any hybrid owning, granola muching, vegan hippie who raises a family of his/her own.
Humans evolved to eat meat and even vegans have a huge environmental impact because of the sheer number of them (much of the Amazon has been converted to soybean monocultures to provide vegans with tofu) All human beings must consume resources and produce pollution in order to survive. 12% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the air we exhale. My greenest trait is my dedication to wake others up to the reality of overpopulation and the need to reduce the population to a sustainable level, which you can read about here on my blog: http://ecologicalcrash.blogspot.com
19. How do you make a difference not only by reducing your impact but by helping your community or the world?
I have started a blog that shows how population growth and biodiversity loss are directly correlated: http://ecologicalcrash.blogspot.com
I have been writing for this blog for over 1 year.
A real litmus test for anyone who thinks they are green is to find out whether they recognize the following formula:
Environmental Impact = Population X Per Capita Consumption
Most fake greens have dropped the population factor in order to be politically correct. In societies obsession with per capita consumption, they are overlooking the elephant in the room: the sheer number of human beings. What is the point in halfing the average persons consumption and then doubling the number of consumers?
20. Personal Statement: Speak Up!
Here you get a chance to write up to 250 words to describe why you should be considered to be one of the greenest people on the planet. Be creative but please be sincere!
1) I will never bring a child into this already overpopulated planet
2) I will educate others why overpopulation is the root of all environmental problems
3) I will educate others why immigration is the driving force behind overpopulation and must be stopped.
a) immigrants to Canada, once they arrive, not only have higher fertility rates than the Canadian average, but also the global average
b) almost all immigrants to Canada come from a low footprint life and change into a high footprint life
c) immigration allows humans to efficiently spread across the globe converting complex biodiverse ecosystems into monocultures of homosapiens (eg: Toronto), which serves to maximize global overpopulation
4) I will educate Canadians that unending Economic Growth in a finite planet has become the most idiotic religion ever conceived. Canada is growing its GDP by increasing the number of consumers (70% of this growth from immigration) and will consequently double its economy and population in only 70 years to 66 million, leaving each Canadian poorer with fewer space and resources per person and less biodiversity and less quality of life.
5) I will change our culture so that immigration-driven-population-growth is viewed for what it is: an environmental problem. No longer will critics of mass immigration be labeled racists, misanthropes or xenophobes when they are really altruistic people who care about the future of quality of life for all Canadians and recognize ecological limits (the higher the human population in a finite space, the lower the biodiversity).
THE GREENEST CITIZEN IN CANADA
A Professor Body Cohen of Simon Fraser University is holding a contest to see who is the "Greenest Citizen" in Canada and the world. The good Professor of course emphasizes only the goal of reducing our individual footprint and makes no mention of taking collective action to reduce the total NUMBER of footprints. Dr. David Suzuki is the icon of Canadian environmentalism and if not a population-denier, certainly a population-avoider. I nominated him for "Greenest Citizen in Canada" . This was mas my submission.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE GREENEST CITIZEN IN CANADA:
I am the Great Dr. David Suzuki and I AM the Greenest Citizen in Canada. Nominations closed. My words alone suffice to tell the story. A dozen books written from paper produced from old growth trees. Lectures given and films shot in places across the globe reached by jet aircraft whose carbon trails are still suspended in the stratosphere. The maintenance of two family homes five hours of car travel and 100 minutes of ferry time apart with all the attendant fuel consumption that commuting between them involved.
My pontifications are similar to your own. Conserve, Reduce, and Re-cycle. And oh yes, Re-produce by God, REPRODUCE!
The five children I sired from two different marriages are contributing over 100 metric tonnes annually of green house gasses to the atmosphere, and in their lifetimes will likely consume collectively over 18.5 million pounds of minerals, metals and fuels. (www.mii.org) .
I am sure that all of them will emulate the lifestyle of Ghandi by walking, riding bikes, wearing loin clothes and banging tambourines on street corners, and as long as they in turn honour me with 25 grandchildren, I'll be content. After all, the core of Green ideology is that it doesn't matter if there are another 25 Suzukis or 25 million Suzukis in Canada, so long each of them moves over and makes his or her footprint just that much smaller, the nation has infinite carrying capacity for everyone.
Numbers don't matter at all. Go forth and multiply. And invite the rest of the world here too. But live green. That's it, isn't it?
Yes, I am the Great Dr. David Suzuki, and I am the Greenest Citizen of them ALL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE GREENEST CITIZEN IN CANADA:
I am the Great Dr. David Suzuki and I AM the Greenest Citizen in Canada. Nominations closed. My words alone suffice to tell the story. A dozen books written from paper produced from old growth trees. Lectures given and films shot in places across the globe reached by jet aircraft whose carbon trails are still suspended in the stratosphere. The maintenance of two family homes five hours of car travel and 100 minutes of ferry time apart with all the attendant fuel consumption that commuting between them involved.
My pontifications are similar to your own. Conserve, Reduce, and Re-cycle. And oh yes, Re-produce by God, REPRODUCE!
The five children I sired from two different marriages are contributing over 100 metric tonnes annually of green house gasses to the atmosphere, and in their lifetimes will likely consume collectively over 18.5 million pounds of minerals, metals and fuels. (www.mii.org) .
I am sure that all of them will emulate the lifestyle of Ghandi by walking, riding bikes, wearing loin clothes and banging tambourines on street corners, and as long as they in turn honour me with 25 grandchildren, I'll be content. After all, the core of Green ideology is that it doesn't matter if there are another 25 Suzukis or 25 million Suzukis in Canada, so long each of them moves over and makes his or her footprint just that much smaller, the nation has infinite carrying capacity for everyone.
Numbers don't matter at all. Go forth and multiply. And invite the rest of the world here too. But live green. That's it, isn't it?
Yes, I am the Great Dr. David Suzuki, and I am the Greenest Citizen of them ALL
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
