Are humans a 'plague on the Earth'?
Beloved nature commentator David Attenborough says he has the key to solving climate change and other threats: Limit population growth.
David Attenborough has been called one of England's national treasures for his work hosting natural history programs on television, but his latest remarks might offend many of his fans.
Humans "are a plague on the Earth," Attenborough, 86, told the Radio Times magazine.
Climate change and food shortages are due to human overpopulation, he said.
His prescription for solving the problem? "Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now,” he said.
Attenborough, who was knighted in the 1980s, has made his views on population growth known before. He became a supporter of the group Population Matters in 2009, according to the U.K.'s Telegraph.
Population Matters supports "working for a global population size providing a good standard of living for all and environmental sustainability," and runs campaigns supporting family planning, free- or low-cost contraception and limiting free in-vitro fertilization to people without children, according to its website.
In his latest comments, Attenborough suggested that TV programs highlighting the plight of Africans suffering from famine are part of the problem.
"We keep putting on programs about famine in Ethiopia; that’s what’s happening. Too many people there. They can’t support themselves -- and it’s not an inhuman thing to say. It’s the case. Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a coordinated view about the planet it’s going to get worse and worse," he said.
His comments are spurring some debate and disagreement, with Bjorn Lomborg, the author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist," telling the Telegraph that Attenborough's Malthusian views are outdated.
"We have dramatically more people but also ways to make agriculture more productive on less land," Lomborg said.
He added that it's a "human-hating" point of view to believe that the only way to save the earth's species is to reduce the human population.
The earth's population was estimated to have hit 7 billion in October, with more than half of those people born within the last 40 years.
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Scientist figured out that at one time one of the islands was occupied by rats.
They ate everything in site. Ate all the vegetation. Then they ate all the seeds.
When there was nothing else, they ate each other. When the first island was completely eaten up, some rats swam to the next island and continued in their same habit of eating away. Finally, all the vegetation, all the seed and all but one last rat existed on the last island. It died of starvation leaving behind a string of nothing but stones sticking out of the ocean.
Remind you of anything?
Get rid of social programs that gives losers on the system more money for re-producing and the reproductve rate of douche bags will drop dramatically if they had to pay for the kids they keep popping out. Free housing, free insurance, free schooling, free lunch programs, free food, phones etc.... I have to work and pay for my kids. Getting harder to take care of my own when everything keeps going up around me to pay for these irresponsible wastes of life.
This is the truth, it isn't just about food, it is about sucking up and dominating the planet using land and air and depleting everything like a virus so that other animals are falling extinct. It is ignorant to try to treat it like a political statement to debate and point fingers at haters or policies. Our issues are obvious and to play debate is ridiculous.
Doesn't matter if anyone agrees with him right now. We all eventually will, when we are killing each other for just clean water..... You can keep burying you head in the sand, and tell yourself it isn't a problem right now, so why should we do anything about it? But it will eventually become a very big problem...... and it will be right at your doorstep.
Bomb" --- he still stands by it. Montana just made a pop. of one million and it's too many for old timers...Calif. will be around 50 million by 2050 and I won't be around to despise the newcomers and the jammed US 91 with 20 lanes by then between Orange county and the Inland Empire. I guess the muckymucks who run Haiti have never heard of the book, or the use of condoms, right?
Which one of you people who agree we have too many people volunteer to be the first to go?
So most replies i have gotten say that attrition will decide and we dont have to kill anyone.
I agree that I should not be forced to pay for anothers lack of restraint in having children they cannot afford. It does not mean I cannot voluntarily do this.
However, if i have a job that can support 15 children, it is not your right or the governments right to tell me I cant have those 15 children. My rights come from my creator. Not you or any government official.
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