How Many People Can Live On Planet Earth? ( 1/6 HQ ) [ BBC Horizon 2009 ]

[MrObama]

Run time: 09:43 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcfzg6HfvU   Posted on YouTube: December 12, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: December 17, 2009 By DU Member: MrObama Views on DU: 502

 
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IpLxkmzdZA
part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i96dn1-gHpw
part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKzLT5k9LXY
part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXNrkucWkYM
part 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQtucVCUBvI

In a Horizon special, naturalist Sir David Attenborough investigates whether the world is heading for a population crisis.

In his lengthy career, Sir David has watched the human population more than double from 2.5 billion in 1950 to nearly seven billion. He reflects on the profound effects of this rapid growth, both on humans and the environment.

While much of the projected growth in human population is likely to come from the developing world, it is the lifestyle enjoyed by many in the West that has the most impact on the planet. Some experts claim that in the UK consumers use as much as two and a half times their fair share of Earth's resources.

Sir David examines whether it is the duty of individuals to commit not only to smaller families, but to change the way they live for the sake of humanity and planet Earth.

[tabatha]

1. This is very important.

Everyone needs to see this. Every person on the planet.

[Deja Q]

2. And after that, they'll continue to fuck and plop out more babies anyway

[tabatha]

4. I was surpised at all the no's on this board

about limiting procreation to one child.

[mike_c]

3. I'd recommend everyone read Garrett Hardin first, just for perspective....

Hardin raised this issue in 1968. The Tragedy of the Commons is as relevant today as it was then, and no one has yet succeeded in refuting Hardin's essential points, IMO. Here's a link to the original essay:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/162/3859/1243

[tabatha]

5. Thanks. Bookmarked.

[NYC_SKP]

6. Ah, yes. "Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all."

..."Every new enclosure of the commons involves the infringement of somebody's personal liberty. Infringements made in the distant past are accepted because no contemporary complains of a loss. It is the newly proposed infringements that we vigorously oppose; cries of "rights" and "freedom" fill the air. But what does "freedom" mean? When men mutually agreed to pass laws against robbing, mankind became more free, not less so. Individuals locked into the logic of the commons are free only to bring on universal ruin once they see the necessity of mutual coercion, they become free to pursue other goals. I believe it was Hegel who said, "Freedom is the recognition of necessity."

The most important aspect of necessity that we must now recognize, is the necessity of abandoning the commons in breeding. No technical solution can rescue us from the misery of overpopulation. Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all. At the moment, to avoid hard decisions many of us are tempted to propagandize for conscience and responsible parenthood. The temptation must be resisted, because an appeal to independently acting consciences selects for the disappearance of all conscience in the long run, and an increase in anxiety in the short.

The only way we can preserve and nurture other and more precious freedoms is by relinquishing the freedom to breed, and that very soon. "Freedom is the recognition of necessity"--and it is the role of education to reveal to all the necessity of abandoning the freedom to breed. Only so, can we put an end to this aspect of the tragedy of the commons."

[DrGee5]

7. K&R