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  ast month, Chris Piper of Oceanside told
me to "stop whining and tell readers what to do about massive
overcrowding." To be honest, as much as I would like to
tell readers what to do, my role as columnist is to promote critical
thinking. Besides, why tell people what to do when they already
know what needs to be done?
 On October
12,1999, human population officially hits 6 billion. Talk about
overcrowding. What we need to do is stop breeding like bunnies.
As a culture, we also need to stop finding fault with those members
of our society who, for whatever reason, choose not to have children.
Where is it written that everybody must procreate?
Another misconception
is the belief that human life is sacred above all others. Pro-choice
is pro-life, especially when humans are swarming over the planet
like a nest of cockroaches. In my humble opinion, in this day
and age, abortion is no more wrong than having more than two
children. It is only reasonable that if fertility drugs are available
for women, abortions should be as well. Playing God goes both
ways.
Too much of
a good thing is never a good thing, human beings included. This
is not to say that human beings should be eradicated. My point
is that we should come out of the dark ages and stop behaving
like we did when daily survival was always in question. Planning
for the future now means allowing for the fact that human populations
must be reduced in order to ward off environmental collapse.
Overcrowded
is just another way of saying overpopulated. Too many people
is too many people, regardless of how they got here. If our species
is going to survive we must move beyond the patriarchal paradigm
that measures a man by the number of children he sires, and the
worth of a women by the fruits of her fertility. Perhaps natural
selection includes non-breeders into the equation to help keep
populations in check. Not only should gays and lesbians come
out of the closet and take control of their lives, heterosexuals
who chose not to make babies should also come out of the closet
and stop apologizing for not wanting to bring children into the
world. Wishing to live an alternative lifestyle that does not
include children should not be seen as amoral or freeloading.
Other than
reducing population, the other way to help reduce overcrowding
is by limiting immigration, and not just the crossing-national-borders
type. If we are going to protect the quality of life we have
come to enjoy, we must limit the number of people enjoying it.
The perfect analogy is that of an elevator's weight limit. If
it says it can hold only 3,000 pounds, the person who would tip
the scale has no right to ride. This is not discrimination, just
prevention.
The most effective
way to stop the exponential growth rate is to elect city councils
that are not members of, or beholding to, the development and
construction industries. We need elected officials who can say
no those who profit from everyone else's misery. As much as we
pretend otherwise, natural resources do not increase with the
population. Inviting 10 people to dinner when you have only enough
food for 8 means everybody gets less. Inviting twenty means every
one goes away hungry.. 
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