{"id":2412,"date":"2008-04-22T14:40:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-22T14:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/22\/when-eugenics-and-environmentalism-collide\/"},"modified":"2008-04-22T14:40:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-22T14:40:00","slug":"when-eugenics-and-environmentalism-collide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/when-eugenics-and-environmentalism-collide\/","title":{"rendered":"When Eugenics and Environmentalism Collide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"240px-The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17\"<\/a>If you were asked to name a major conflict in the environmental spectrum, I would hazard a guess that the word \u2018eugenics\u2019 wouldn\u2019t necessarily take a high place in your answers. However for several decades, leading minds that have pioneered the environmental movement have looked to capping world populations in order to save the planet. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The questions are often raised, according to New Scientist environmental consultant Fred Pearce<\/a>, about whether people in poor countries should be allowed freedom to breed as they wish. They ask, \u201cIsn’t overpopulation more dangerous than overconsumption?\u201d <\/p>\n

Rightly so, Fred Pearce says no, and I imagine so do many of you. <\/p>\n

Having recently revisited the American civil rights movement through various mediums over the past week, this strikes a resonant chord as well. Age old views on the rights of Asians or Africans \u2013 ie, anything other than Caucasian \u2013 should have long been put to bed; but it just is not so. <\/p>\n

This is especially confusing considering the almost similarly aged adages explaining that 10% of the planet consumes 90% of the resources. This adage has been shown over and over again to be true when applied to the environmental spectrum. <\/p>\n

When you hear quotes such as “Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all,\u201d from a leading environmental scientist of his day (Garrett Hardin said in his classic and still-revered environment text Tragedy of the Commons in 1968), and see them attempt to tie it to something like the environment; and we wonder why the planet is going to hell in a handbasket. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you were asked to name a major conflict in the environmental spectrum, I would hazard a guess that the word \u2018eugenics\u2019 wouldn\u2019t necessarily take a high place in your answers. However for several decades, leading minds that have pioneered the environmental movement have looked to capping world populations in order to save the planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[7679,12149,12543,40959],"spectra_custom_meta":{"tweet_this_url":["getnew","getnew"],"dsq_thread_id":["514382415","514382415"],"_oembed_8d6581f12801ce5d383ea63739e79945":["