I would like to respond to the recent article about population control titled, “Lecture details global population problems” (Vanguard, Feb. 26). Most Americans are unaware that the Nixon Administration first initiated the population control agenda as a “national security” measure. Incredibly, the population control hype still continues to this day. People are bombarded with phrases such as “the Earth is overpopulated” and “overpopulation is the problem,” but how many people have actually stopped to consider the implications of population control?
Instead of focusing on the number of people, why not focus on our gluttonous over-consumption and support of corruptive governments? Just consider that a mere 6 percent of the Earth’s population (the United States) consumes a whopping 30 percent of the Earth’s valuable resources. The Chinese government uses coercive population control measures and commits major human rights abuses, yet our government still supports the Chinese government. The developed nations are actually in the worst condition, and 15 of them, including Russia, Italy and Germany each year fill more coffins than cradles. Russian president Vladimir Putin recognizes this disastrous population trend, and the Russian government is desperately trying to increase their population.
People and groups who are against population control believe families in developing worlds crave a different kind of planning: clean water instead of condoms, and basic medical procedures instead of sterilization. This is actually the kind of foreign assistance America used to provide before the craze of “Family Planning” came to dominate foreign aid.
To purport that population control is the solution because overpopulation is the problem is to ignore the real reasons for resource depletion and human suffering. It also ignores the damaging effects of long-term population control and decline. According to a recent New York Times article, Joseph Chamie, head of the UN Population Division, “has been sounding an alarm for almost four years that the problem in the world is not overpopulation, but a demographic bust due to population control.”
Alyssa J. Elting, junior, psychology