Environmental journalist Fred Pearce, author of the new book Peoplequake, on why overconsumption is the key issue, the need for relaxed immigration laws, and why men should look after children

Matilda Lee: What spurred you to write a book on population?

Fred Pearce: We had huge population concerns during the 1960s and into the 70s, then people rather lost interest in it. Just in the last two or three years, I've noticed that people have been talking about it again in the context of climate change and new concerns about food security. I wanted to look at what was actually happening to the world's population and the relationship to resource use and environmental damage.

ML: Many respected environmentalists - from Lester Brown to Jonathon Porritt - believe we are headed for disaster by not supporting family planning in countries with high fertility rates and dire poverty. What do you make of this?

FP: Overpopulation is the wrong issue. Forty years ago, women were having 5 or 6 children each. There really was a population bomb going off. Actually, around the world today, women have diffused the population bomb. Women now have an average of 2.6 children globally and the replacement level [demographers' figure for the amount of offspring women must have to maintain the population] is 2.3 - so we are really very close to replacement level fertility rate. There are exceptions, but those rates are still coming down very fast in most of the world. I'm not sure how much more we could actually do, short of really unpleasant Draconian policies, to make that happen any faster.

People like Jonathon Porritt and David Attenborough say it is the number one issue - Lester Brown often says it, but has a more nuanced stance. Every time people say that, they are not talking about the real elephant in the living room, which is over consumption.

If we're talking about overconsumption, we're talking about what we're doing. If we're talking about overpopulation, we're somehow blaming the planetary predicament on poor families in India, or Africa, or parts of the Middle East. That really ain't fair.

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No Borders Groups Call to Action for Copenhagen Climate Change

14 Dec: No Borders, No Climate Refugees Day of action in Copenhagen!

This is a call out to action to international no borders groups during the COP 15 in Copenhagen!

Climate change is now the ULTIMATE Shock and Awe. It encompasses all of life now, and is the new spectacle. The climate change spectacle is the complete reconstruction and revitalization of capitalism and all of its domination, hierarchies, exploitation, racism, sexism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, commodifications, privatizations, oppressions, repressions, murders, lies, and greed. Climate change will be used to terrorize us in every way we have been terrorized before, but encompassing all the single factors into one. In the name of security, Everything that living things depend is on its way to being commodified and privatized, to push us even further and possibly completely into pure Milton Friedman ´Chicago School´ of fundamental capitalist corporatism.

We can't...just think of this as a climate issue, it is much, much more. Water, air, food, and genetic life is being privatized before our eyes. And these human rights are and will be used under the climate change banner to put up borders and go to war. Complex surveillance systems are being put in place to keep the people from below away from its privatized riches. Indigenous, small farmers and people from below are being pushed off their lands by corporations, and massive natural disasters that are making people escape to safer regions. Also, their is the prospect of military intervention in the future to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics. Military experts are saying that climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions. Sections of the political and military establishment are planning for the consequences of climate change and are developing military strategies to deal with it.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

I happened to pick up a free slightly out-dated copy of Scientific American and started reading the article called "Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?" during which, i realized that there was a diagram with the article that basically pinned overpopulation as the cause for food shortages and environmental destruction. However, the article itself focused more on the facts that raising animals for their meat requires a lot of grain, as well as the shift to producing ethanol to fuel american cars. I actually didn't read the whole article (yet). Frankly i don't care too much if food shortages are civilization's downfall- i care more about the people and the earth. What i found interesting was how this diagram ended up showing overpopulation as the main culprit of these problems when that wasn't exactly being said in the article. I suppose overpopulation leads to more people eating meat and more people driving cars, plus more people who need to just eat whatever they can afford. Nonetheless, overpopulation tends to be codeword for "too many brown people," but the article clearly showed that it was mostly the people who are driving around a bunch and demanding their meat that are causing these problems.

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This is a new film I produced for the Sierra Club about the environmental effects of the U.S./Mexico border wall:

The House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, led by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), and Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, led by Del. Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam), held a joint oversight field hearing on "Walls and Waivers: Expedited Construction of the Southern Border Wall and the Collateral Impacts on Communities and the Environment" at UT Brownsville on Monday April 28th.

Community Resposes to the Congressional Hearing

A couple of us from Houston IMC and anti-border wall activists from through out the Rio Grand Valley came to listen to the testimony, cheer for the anti-wall speakers and congress folks and jeer at the fear mongering tactics of Tancredo, Hunter and their flunkies. Of the 8 congressmen and women, 6 were against the wall and power grab by Chertoff. The location of UTB for the hearing was interesting as the wall would put parts of the campus on the south side of the wall, and try to funnel border crossers onto the campus to make their apprehension by the Border Patrol easier.

Photos and more video below

On March 29, 2008 Traditional O’odham leaders and International
Supporters arrived in the small village of Quitovac in the Northern Sonoran State of Mexico to honor the land, the sky, the water, and all life, and to continue organizing to stop the building of a toxic waste dump that’s planned to be placed just a few miles from one of the most sacred ceremony sites of the O’odham.

It was a beautiful spring weekend – the air smelled of earth and the fragrance of the spring growth. The surroundings told of things that will come to pass and in doing so, reinforced the urgency of stopping not only this one toxic desecration, but also of the urgency of making sure that everyone the world over realizes the importance of this period in time – this

Story from the Associated Press. It provides some decent background on the re-construction of the fence

San Diego border fence proceeds slowly -

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

SAN DIEGO - Bulldozers are rolling again on the U.S.-Mexico border, moving hundreds of tons of dirt to make way for a 16-foot steel fence in an area that once was the most popular crossing for illegal immigrants.

But before the construction resumed recently, the 14-mile project in San Diego was stalled for years by legal challenges from environmentalists, budget problems and difficulties buying land. Those delays are now raising doubts about a government plan to extend fencing to 370 miles of the Mexican border.

A major thing that has frustrated me about the alternative health community is the "not in my backyard" mentality regarding toxins. Yes people should be very concerned about toxins- they can cause various health problems including cancer. They can be found in all sorts of cleaning products, bodycare products, in and on food. The alternative health community- at least that which i have been exposed to- promotes avoiding the use of these toxic products, in addition to avoiding plastics, microwaves, etc. They promote "all natural" products, organic agriculture, etc. They're into "detoxing" by using herbal products that cleanse their bodies of toxins.

They are concerned about pollution. But there are people who are constantly exposed to toxins in high levels. Like people who have to live near toxic dump sites, people who have to work with pesticides, artificial chemicals, and outright toxic waste everyday. People who have to live with lead paint- still, and other similar toxic environments. But people with class and white privilege can avoid these things. Meanwhile people on reservations, farm workers, people who work in factories and maquiladoras, and more tend to be mostly people of color and do not have a high enough class status for people who can do something about it to care. When i was interested in researching herbal and other alternative health methods of helping such people become healthier i became aware that there is hardly any such research out there. In addition, i was warned that doing typical detoxes could bring on a very traumatic response from the body- since many toxins get stored in fat cells, bones, etc.- releasing them back into the bloodstream can be very hard on the body, causing symptoms that may be very difficult to deal with. For the most part, the exposure to these toxins in various communities is environmental racism- something that's been going on for decades.

People do fight back though. And there have been successes. Help make this fight a success...

Local support for the Cucapá Communities

Since approximately 9000 years ago the Cucapá have lived in the land
adjacent to the Rio Colorado, dedicated fundamentally to fishing. Eighteen
years ago the Mexican federal government began passing laws that made it
nearly impossible for the indigenous Cucapá to live in these lands. In
effect in 1993 the zone was declared an ecological reserve, protected by
the general law of ecological equilibrium.

The rivers near the Cucapá are drying out because of the dams that have
been built on the US side of the Colorado River. Therefore, the current
fishing grounds have become a last resort for their survival. In addition,
in these waters, fishing of any type of marine species has been
prohibited. With the implementation of this decree, the life of the Cucapá
has been gravely affected; putting at risk the existence of the Cucapá as
indigenous people in Baja California.

Today there are only 304 Cucapá left. They face immanent extermination
and now they rely on the support of La Otra Campaña with the purpose of
continuing the only productive activity for self sustainability.
Therefore from February 28, to May 3, 2007, in the immediate surroundings
of the communities of El Mayor and El Zanjón located in the area of “la
Bocana or Delta del Rio Colorado”, the adherents of La Otra Campaña will
install a camp of support for the Cucapá community...

Please read this and forward on to others:

URGENT Support is requested from Dine Elders and Youth!

Sithe Global & DPA are proposing to build the Desert Rock power plant, a 1,500 MW Coal Fired plant in the Four Corners area on the Navajo Reservation. This is an area already polluted by 2 other major coal power plants. Local Navajo residence and community members oppose this project for many harmful reasons!! This Desert Rock power plant is still in the environmental review process and has NOT yet been permitted.

However, Desert Rock company trucks have began moving onto the backyard of Alice Gilmore, an elderly navajo woman, and her family on wednesday to begin drilling efforts. Desert Rock officials and police have not shown any documents or permits to the local residents stating their purpose or permission to be there. Dine supporters and community members have joined Alice and her family to blockade the road. They are elderly women and youth, and they have been camped out on the road over night since Tuesday! Desert Rock trucks have repeatedly rushed them and have almost run-over people a number of times as they attempt to get by. Desert Rock power company is violating the lease rights of the local Navajo residences and is harassing elderly Navajo women and youth! This is an urgent time and support is needed!!!

Please read on to find out how you can help! and Please pass this onto others!

Audio: www.earthcycles.net
Video: Making a Stand at Desert Rock (youtube)
Blog: desert-rock-blog.com