The misguided fear of the “population explosion” has been used in the past century to justify massive government intrusion into the lives of millions of people in the world, including terrible abuse and repression in China and other nations. In this land, it has been used as one of the justifications for the slaughter of millions of innocents in American abortuaries. It’s time we learn to understand the lies and the evil behind the work of “population planners.” One useful resource on this topic is the Population Research Institute.
I also have an older essay, “Is Human Population Really the Problem?”
Prophetically anticipating later worries about overpopulation and the alleged scarcity of resources, the Lord declares:
And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine.
But it must needs be done in mine own way; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low.
For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves. (Doctrine and Covenants 104:15-17)
Yeah. They gave us the “population bomb” scare for quite some time there, but with abortion and limiting families in general, birthrates have plummeted so much that most people won’t be fooled by that one anymore. I did see the U.N. running up that tired old flag in China, where they might be more apt to believe it still. Here, they’ve had to move on to the global warming scare….
Good piece.
I completely agree with your essay “Is Human Population Really the Problem?”
If there were less corrupt governments and less of a divide between rich and poor, many of the social maladies of poorer countries would be nominal.
Proponents of population reduction could do more for this world by refocusing their energies of ridding the world of corrupt governments and closing the gap between rich and poor.
There is the issue of resource depletion that has occured in the past centuries. Whilst I fully agree with D&C104, there is more that could be done to protect the environment. Most of this depletion has been done by the so called ‘industrialised countries’ in third world nations. Most of the developed countries would not explode their resources, i.e. oil or wood, but have no qualms on imposing minimum ‘quotas of production’ to other nations. The resources needed to feed an ever increasing population are enormous and while the Earth has plenty, it is the administration of wealth that has failed. The so called ‘industrial nations’ have a lot to be held responsible for the depletion of the world most valuable resources.
I think the main problem that most have with that easily twisted phrase “enough and to spare” that that the full verse includes “if you do it my way” go search environment + spare on lds.org and you will find the church has a lot to say about the environment.