Not once today did anyone--speechifiers or reporters--say the Forbidden Word: overpopulation.
Instead the good Dr. Shah talked about land not currently being farmed as wasted--as if the natural environment, the rain forests, the savannahs, the hillsides--were are worthless unless they were stripped of their natural cover, all the indigenous animals killed off, and the shallow soils instead planted with crops or used for grazing by cattle.
Suppose all Dr. Shah's and the Pessident's recommendations are followed, and followed swiftly? Without population control the greater productivity (and attendant wildlife extermination) will just be absorbed by those 8-child families that are typical for Africa.
Not the the Republicans are anything but hopeless about confronting this issue either.
This is where PBS does show reporter bias. The guy interviewing Dr. Shah only tossed him softballs, and never challenged his dismissal of the natural environment, much less his avoidance of the necessity of birth control.
And you wonder why some regard the human race as a malignant disease the Earth has caught. But even if you agree with Dr. Shah (and I suppose President Obama) that it's just fine to destroy the planet's natural environment rather than ask anyone to have fewer babies--we will catch up with our agricultural productivity.
Africa's soils are thin and rainfall is decreasing. The Sahara Desert is expanding rapidly. Cattle grazing is producing desertification, among other things. Slash and burn agriculture is destroying rain forests and only results in a few crop cycles before the land's fertility is exhausted.
Without population control every single other palliative measure will fail. But no one in a position of authority, regardless of party affiliation, will stand up for the planet or for humanity's future.
We are the creature that fouls its own nest.
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