Editor’s note: This commentary is by Joe Randazzo, of South Burlington, who is a writer and a former case resolution specialist for ICE.
[I] think that everyone would agree that the people of the Third World are entitled to the same standard of living as the people of America and the affluent European countries.
If every poor person in Asia, South and Central America, and Africa had a vehicle, an air conditioner, oil or gas heat, a wide-screen TV, a computer, a dishwasher, kitchen appliances, a lawn mower, and a clothes washer and dryer, things Americans pretty much take for granted … the Earth would cease to exist.
We will have polluted ourselves into oblivion.
Who is speaking for the Earth? It is past time for enlightened leadership to make wholesale changes in the way humans live. In none of the presidential debates are the candidates seriously questioning our march to extinction. We truly are a lemming-like species with little or no self-awareness.
The real enemies of the United States, and of the entire world, are consumerism and over-population.
“Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped,” said American humorist Sam Levenson. Very funny indeed, except for the fact that Levenson’s humor is far from funny.
Here’s what the population of the top 10 cities will be like in 2030:
Tokyo: 37.2 million
Delhi: 36.1 million
Shanghai: 30.8 million
Mumbai: 27.8 million
Beijing: 27.7 million
Dhaka: 27.4 million
Karachi: 24.8 million
Cairo: 24.5 million
Lagos: 24.2 million
Mexico City: 23.9 million
Total: 284.4 million
That’s roughly the same as the current population of the entire United States. The population of New York City is projected to be 8.5 million in 2030, yet it isn’t near the top 10 largest.
Most of these cities are not in the affluent West but are in Asia or the developing world. In 50 years, we will have eaten our way through all our resources, with global warming skyrocketing past the point of no return. Food and water will be scarce commodities. War will become rampant, and the end will not be pretty.
I don’t know if a lemming has any self consciousness. When they realize that they have overpopulated their society, are they aware that they are about to jump off a cliff? You would think that, with human intelligence, there would be an awareness in our species of the dire consequences that await us all in the near future.
But no. What have you read lately about overpopulation? Have any of the world’s leaders referred to it as the real, major cause of global warming? Has controlling population growth even been mentioned as a priority by the U.N. secretary general? Has anyone addressed the useless spiral of overconsumption? What has President Trump done to help?
