Tag Archives: population control

Childfree movement gets its greenwash

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Part of the problem. Photo: Alan Turkus

I am  sure that some in the childfree movement feel so self-conscious about their choice not to raise kids that they need, occasionally, to create a smug, in-your-face manifesto.

The latest missive from the childfree movement, which has been around since the 1960s, comes in awash in green.

Lisa Hymas, in an essay at Grist*, claims that humans who choose not nurture other humans are making an admirable choice for the planet, and their pocketbooks.

Hymas, a disciple of Al Gore and Stephanie Mills of the Post Carbon Institute (think about that one, for a moment), writes that being childfree is a “luxurious indulgence that just so happens to cost a lot less for me and weigh a lot less on the carbon-bloated atmosphere.”

Hymas does not avoids mentioning adoption, abortion or infanticide, issues that would have introduced some ethical complexity to the piece.

The green solution, according to a Grist editor and blogger.

Hymas also uses a hackneyed rhetorical technique — the false premise — to get her point across.

She suggests, without any supporting evidence, that people with kids typically look down on those who have none.

A link to HuffPo’s coverage of Hymas’ manifesto, is below.

via Ultimate Way to Go Green? Don’t Have Kids, Writer Lisa Hymas Says – AOL News.

*Note: I have written for Grist myself, about environmental issues.

Cops scour the land for angels of death

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Photo: CC/tanya petrova

Photo: CC/tanya petrova

The “death with dignity” crowd in the US is in a state over law enforcement’s efforts to quash would-be Jack Kervorkians:

The internet is being kept under close watch by law enforcement to find more victims to back up their dubious prosecutions in Georgia and Arizona. Thus this is a time to be extra cautious and discreet. At trial, the defendants will be rigorously defended.

This harassment is most likely a right-wing backlash to our movement’s law reform successes in Oregon, Washington and Montana. We shall proceed.

via Law enforcement searching America for ‘assisted suicide’ cases | Assisted-Suicide Blog.

Doublethink alert: Government to shrink cities "sustainably"

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Photo: CC/mistress_f

Small cities are to be wasted. Photo: CC/mistress_f

Cities like Flint are simply giving up, and flattening their decaying neighborhoods.

Now the Obama Administration wants to spread the practice.

And the papers are quoting a small group of “shrinking cities” experts, who see their job as breaking the bad news to all of us. Their line: “We can offer you, ‘death with dignity.’”

“The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we’re all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way,” said Mr Kildee. “Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity.”

Karina Pallagst, director of the Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective programme at the University of California, Berkeley, said there was “both a cultural and political taboo” about admitting decline in America.

via US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive – Telegraph.

Transhumanists envision a life at sea

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Photo: Cynthia thanks mother ocean. CC/Bettina Neuefeind

Cynthia thanks mother ocean. Photo: CC/Bettina Neuefeind

Some folks are planning for a life at sea–on man-made islands:

The mission of the [Seasteading Institute] is to enable the building of ocean communities, to experiment with innovative political and social systems…The Seasteading Institute | SHARKRIDE!, May 2009

The Seasteading Institute (TSI) is backed by billionaire PayPal founder and transhumanist Peter Thiel.

Seasteading enthusiasts, apparently in no rush for a return on their investements, have contributed more than $500,000 to the institute to-date.

It is not clear whether the poor and the profane will find their way onto these islands. TSI does argue, however, that the islands might help isolate undesirables.

Winning entry. Image: CC/ejacobhansen

Winning entry. Image: CC/ejacobhansen

I’m not sure what is meant by “innovative political and social systems,” in the Seasteaders’ mission, but Aftermath News notes that the Bilderberg gang has been discussing overcoming resistance to depopulation:

The UK newspaper The Times reported that these “leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population,” and that they “discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.”

via Secret Bilderberg Agenda to Restructure Global Political Economy « Aftermath News.

College admins hope to curtail toking on 4/20… at 4:20…

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420 at UC Santa Cruz, in 2007. Photo: CC/josh

Good times. 420 at UC Santa Cruz, in 2007. Photo: CC/josh

I think the authorities, through their lack of enforcement of whatever marijuana laws are left on the books, are pushing mass behavior toward increased cannabis use.

From the viewpoints of behavior modification and population control, pot’s got a lot going for it: The drug can produce passivity and suggestibility, and reduce aggression, and cause hormonal changes that impact reproductive health.

As for UCSC’s letter to mom and dad, I say, “Good luck with all that…”

According to a recently-sent e-mail from Felicia McGinty, vice-chancellor of student affairs, delivered to inboxes of UC Santa Cruz freshman parents, “I encourage you to talk with your student about his or her plans for 4/20. Ask direct questions about the choices they make and express your expectations regarding marijuana, alcohol or other drug use. Although students may not initiate discussion on this topic, your opinions and expectations can influence their behavior.”

via UC Santa Cruz contacts parents in attempt to curb infamous pot smoking festival – San Jose Mercury News.

GA Tech to overcrowded, overheated, cities: "Go to Hell"

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//CC Faraz

Hot in the city. Photo://CC Faraz

Urban planners at Georgia Tech are calling for  “cities to grow in more compact ways” so that people will travel less often and over shorter distances. They found that cities are warming faster than other parts of the globe.

So, why are they suggesting we pack ‘em in even tighter?

The eleven metropolitan regions that were studied include Madison, Wisconsin, Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis, Indiana, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Ohio, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan and Dayton, OH. In addition to Stone, Dr. Tracey Holloway, Scot Spak, and Adam Mednick also authored the study.

These findings suggest that the actual magnitude of warming in urban areas is likely to be much greater than that forecast by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), greatly elevating the need for climate-responsive design strategies to counteract the enhanced impacts of warming in large cities.

via Urban Climate Change.

ABC asks: In a Pandemic, Who Gets to Live?

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Answer: Anyone who works for the government!

CC/Judy Baxter

*Some* drivers, pilots and relief workers will be allowed to live. Photo: CC/Judy Baxter

The threat, too, of more deaths after the pandemic, leaps off this page (link, excerpt, below):

The new study emphasizes that if essential workers fail to come through, the entire structure of any society will begin to unravel. And thus, the aftermath of the epidemic could claim more lives than the virus.

via ABC News: In a Pandemic, Who Gets to Live?

"Wheelchair guy" to humanity: "You can't win"

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The Corpus Clock, designed by Professor Stephen Hawking and Dr. John C. Taylor, is meant to remind us that time eats everything, it always wins. The U. of Cambridge video, below, details the occult-styled clock, which features a gargoyle eating up the seconds on a monstrous, metal flywheel.

Note: The T.V. character Homer Simpson once greeted Hawking, in a guest appearance by the world’s most famous physicist, as “that wheelchair guy.”

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1579217&w=425&h=350&fv=]

"Kirk" calls for depopulation

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If Man won’t do it, Nature will, William Shatner says.

(In the Star Trek episode “Mirror, Mirror,” Kirk meets a wicked Spock in a parallel universe. He dissuades his first officer from eradicating an uncooperative humanoid race. Image: StarTrek.com)

from Mark:

Star Trek star William Shatner said last week that the earth is striking back against humans with natural disasters.

“They [people] are pressed together, defecating into the ocean,” said Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek. “The earth can’t take it.”

At one point in a long conversation with talk show host Glenn Beck, Shatner decried humankind’s penchant for reproduction. (See clip, and an excerpt from the transcript, below). It is a position he shares with his fellow transhumanist, Max More.

In a strange blurring of real and virtual reality, both Shatner and his Star Trek character are heroes to the transhumanists, who view the human body as limited, imperfect, and in need of artificial augmentation.

The transhumanists also want to bring about “a social order where responsible decisions can be implemented.”

Shatner, a vigorous 74-year-old (he also appears to have been “under the knife”), was on Beck’s show to flog his new autobiography, Up Till Now.

Note: I was a contributing editor to one issue of Glenn Beck’s magazine, Fusion. — mb

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2xn35NpdA]

Glenn Beck – Interviews – Shatner v. Glenn
Well, nature, nature eventually will take care of that problem like they did, like nature does with animals. We’re overgrazing. So when deer multiply, when the natural order of things is disturbed and predators are taken away, for example, the deer, they overpopulate, they eat too much of the food and they starve. And we’re going to — if we don’t curb — how do we stop the overpopulation? I guess it’s by education and saying you’ve got to have less children, you can’t have all the children you want anymore. There’s a difference in the world now. Or nature will take care of it.