Philippine Birth Rate 3 Million Per Year - Is this Sustainable?

[VaughnB]

Yesterday I was listening to a radio program in my car about the horrific poverty in the Philippines. They are one of the largest importers of rice in the world and have outstripped their capacity to feed themselves as their population exceeds 170 million.

They interviewed one woman who has one child, makes only $7 per day rummaging through garbage to sell in order to feed herself. Children are fed sugar and water just to stay off their hunger pangs. Yet abortion remains illegal and birth control is frowned upon.

The woman had already lost four of her children and now struggles to keep her remaining child alive in this worst of crisis.

Granted their is plentiful food supplies in both the U.S. and Canada, yet perhaps it's distribution or politics limiting success in feeding the hungry.

WHEN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS CONFLICT WITH HUNGRY AND STARVATION WHICH PREVAILS?

Just decades ago they were doing alright but the explosion in population growth after the 1960's of rice production with fertilizers and high yield varieties.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DSAf1BITAQ

[blufire]

Thank you VaughnB for this thread . . . . it makes me angry and sad to see how little action this type of thread receives. It is not titillating or exciting and yet THIS is the real tragedy and upcoming catastrophic event we truly will face.

Nothing we are doing in the world (that I can think of) is sustainable. We are teetering on the precipice of famine and starvation, with a myriad of events that will send us hurtling over the edge.

The grain (rice) the Philippines, India and Africa are receiving is at an all time low in reserves . . . we are relying at this point from year to year global production.

The extreme change in weather is causing complete and utter crop devastation all across the world and we haven’t reached the worst of it yet.

The rice that is being sent to these countries is GMO food which in itself is causing disease. But the farmers have no other recourse than to produce food in this mass production way because of the amount that is needed to feed the world.

In the very near future the US, Canada, UK and other countries that are providing food to the needy countries will have no other choice than to stop export to try to feed the people in their own countries.

We will see mass starvation across the globe unless something is drastically changed NOW. But tragically I do not think anything can be done to side step this upcoming horrific event.

Over 700,000 people have died so far this year by starvation. Think of the headlines if this had been a tsunami or earthquake the attention this number would receive. . . . . but No it is only starvation not interesting at all.

700,000 people dead . . . starved to death . . . . slow and painful

[christian]

Adds perspective to TPTW putting poison in vaccines killing people in the Phillipines.
But then again, if it weren't for them, the starvation and overpopulation problem wouldn't be there in the first place.
- That means: The root of this problem must be adressed, and the root is surely not the lack of access to professional abortions.

[blufire]

The poison in vaccines is killing people globally . . . . not just in the Philippines.

What do you feel is the root problem?

Why do we always blame ‘them’? Do we . . . .each of us . . . not have responsibility?



Adds perspective to TPTW putting poison in vaccines killing people in the Phillipines.
But then again, if it weren't for them, the starvation and overpopulation problem wouldn't be there in the first place.
- That means: The root of this problem must be adressed, and the root is surely not the lack of access to professional abortions.

[applejax]

i agree with blufire completely -- we are pretty much causing more problems than helping it and of course the extreme weather is out of control.

although i haven't been in philippines nearly 30 years (was 6 when i was there visiting family), as a child seeing that poverty first hand affected me greatly. to this day if i see someone in the streets, i buy them warm food or buy them something that can help them in the end.:frusty: i still get upset when i hear things like this but their government doesn't do crap because they're busy stealing money from others and literally making the poor even worse. and not only that they practically worship the celebs/idols there (and they totally contradict their religion again), even allowing them to become mayors, governors, or even becoming a president (all because of money). i will say this though because my in-laws live there and my mom's side of the family live there -- they want out, but they can't. they would have to secure a job overseas just to make sure they can get out of there. my in-laws do not like their lives there, while my side of the family struggles to make ends meet.

while majority of us filipinos are hospitable to our foreign counterparts, in the end, as countrymen, there are many that aren't hospitable with each other (if you happen to compare it with the japanese and how they treat each other especially after a disaster). also philippines is one of the top corrupted countries in the world, and it's sad to say that i am not surprised by this. the politics there is screwed up and everyone that's running the government (in my opinion) is doing a piss poor job. my brother in law and i joked that we should just take over the seats in the senate and the president position to just make things right. it's ridiculous. :mmph: </end rant> (sorry for the rant)

in any case -- we also have starvation problems in this country (US) as well (but not as severe as the other countries and philippines). with processed foods, i honestly do not think we can sustain ourselves with the way things are. if everyone planted their own fruits and veggies, it can help a little -- rather than going to the grocery store to buy "fresh fruits and veggies". i'm only thinking of it like this because in the end there is a lot food being thrown in the garbage. as a whole nation, we waste a lot of food. but wasn't there something that they're trying to pass a bill where they'll make it illegal for non-farmers to grow their own food?

[778 neighbour of some guy]

we . . . .each of us . . . not have responsibility?


Yes we do.

I felt it in Sri Lanka, Dominican Republic.

Support the local community, put money in their pockets for their livelyhoods and education. Leave your clothing there when you go back home from a vacation, birth control for girls should be free at all times, give her choices, an education. Take a mom to the pharmacy, spent 50 dollars for birthcontrol pills for her daughter, keeps her out of trouble for a year, spent another fifty on the mom, just give her the f@cking fifty so the daughter who just got birthcontrol doesnt have to work for year and have something to eat when she returns from school( another 50 bucks incluiding something to write on a few pens) for a year.

Do it yourself, dont get drunk in your hotel, save a life, dont wait for the local powers that be to change, they wont change as fast as you can bring the wealth yourself or al least buy someone some time to get out of their circumstances.

If you cant go, support a friend who can go, give him some cash to spent locally, you get a souvenir and the people will have some to eat because you just spent your money with them, this helps.

Buy someone a pile of rocks for ten bucks, thats half a house, you will have helped him out.

Go to the market, buy a pile of cheap ass shirts, shorts and flipflops, pass them around, toss em out your tuktuk.

I ate at restaurants where you could stuff yourself till you nearly died, 6 people take care off you for three dollars and that includes the food. Leave TIPS. Buy their stuff, even if nick nacks.

Take one to a doctor, with a family member, hide untill you can pay for them.:( if they see you you get ripped off.

YOU CAN DO THIS.

[sunnyrap]

This topic always makes my blood boil. I've posted I don't know how many times that real intelligence has long been established that it is unequal distribution of wealth that causes birth rate explosions. When there is peace and plenty the birth rate drops to 0 and people maintain a steady, even dropping birth rate. Chiquetet is absolutely correct, the ruling elite have caused this misery and travesty with their unbridled greed that is not even truly self-serving since it WILL come back to bite them, as people are beginning to know and see it.

Check out the Occupy Congress thread I just posted.

[blufire]

Sunnyrap please understand that I am not attacking you personally with what I am about to say but I would like to use part of your post to make a point:

You Said:
“Chiquetet is absolutely correct, the ruling elite have caused this misery and travesty with their unbridled greed that is not even truly self-serving since it WILL come back to bite them, as people are beginning to know and see it.”

I have a hard time seeing the difference in the unbridled greed of the elite and our unbridled greed . . . those that live in wealthy nations I mean. If we (all of us) object to ‘this greed’ then stop participating in it. Our greed is biting us too . . . all of us . . . we are just as guilty!

You spoke of unequal distribution, what of our unequal distribution? I don’t go out and try to make sure everyone has equal amounts of what I have . . . do you? How do WE achieve this? We can’t rely on ‘them’ to do it when WE aren’t and it should start with us those of us who see it and abhor it.

And is equally distributing the food and wealth the solution? It does come back to the question of sustainability. Can we sustainably continue to feed the world population? I don’t think we can. Sustainable . . . is feeding the poor nation’s gmo food the answer? If not, how do we produce enough food naturally or organically to feed 7 billion people?

But this brings me back to my original post . . . we are TOO late. My grief is we will see many more millions die of starvation . . . millions in a very short period of time.

When we (the US) shut down our export of food to other countries so we can maybe feed ourselves what should we do then?

Can you not see the logic to at least some of what I’m saying? It is not pretty and it sets up painful guilt (at least for me) but this is truth.

[TargeT]

Children are fed sugar and water just to stay off their hunger pangs.

Ironic, because this would actualy cause more hunger...

we already know about the fix for this:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/ff_vasectomy/all/1

of course the real fix would be for governments to stop subsidizing food growth...

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Yesterday I was listening to a radio program in my car about the horrific poverty in the Philippines. They are one of the largest importers of rice in the world and have outstripped their capacity to feed themselves as their population exceeds 170 million.

They interviewed one woman who has one child, makes only $7 per day rummaging through garbage to sell in order to feed herself. Children are fed sugar and water just to stay off their hunger pangs. Yet abortion remains illegal and birth control is frowned upon.

The woman had already lost four of her children and now struggles to keep her remaining child alive in this worst of crisis.

Granted their is plentiful food supplies in both the U.S. and Canada, yet perhaps it's distribution or politics limiting success in feeding the hungry.

WHEN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS CONFLICT WITH HUNGRY AND STARVATION WHICH PREVAILS?

Just decades ago they were doing alright but the explosion in population growth after the 1960's of rice production with fertilizers and high yield varieties.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DSAf1BITAQ


Very good thread Vaughn.

Bump

[VaughnB]

WOW!
All of you have such good thoughts and concern on this most desperate of tragedies.


Corruption vs. Sustainability
Birth Control vs. Overpopulation vs. Climate Change




So if indeed we are at the precipice with 700+ millions dieing of starvation per year! WHY ARE WE SO NUMB TO ACT?

If Corruption is entrenched in our governing bodies; THEN HOW CAN WE CHANGE IT, OR IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE?

If Polluted food and water supplies persist and rise, escalating disease WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Peak Oil, Resource Controlling Governments = Wars = Terrorist Response WE KNOW OUR HISTORY, CAN WE CHANGE IT?

Media is Controlled, Internet under attack & Freedoms are restricted or eliminated under the guise of security WHAT'S NEXT?




Do we all become survivalists?
Take care of our own and screw the rest of the world, our country, our state or community?
Forget any hope of securing justice, and change in the current system?


I don't have the answers, I'm just asking the questions. I read, watch and listen. I see global and local protests and yet see such little change or hope in securing a better future.

What are any of you doing?

I read where one of you tries to help out family and friends in the Philippines.
Someone else was helping by giving food or medicine.
Some growing there own food.

I'm doing very little beyond survival and I'm in the U.S., I try to help others if I've the capacity whether emotionally, physically or financially. If circumstances change, I will continue those efforts. Yet honestly I'm most likely am going to feather my nest for some kind of secure retirement, wherever that may be and to provide for those loved ones closest to me.

[778 neighbour of some guy]

WOW!
All of you have such good thoughts and concern on this most desperate of tragedies.


Corruption vs. Sustainability
Birth Control vs. Overpopulation vs. Climate Change




So if indeed we are at the precipice with 700+ millions dieing of starvation per year! WHY ARE WE SO NUMB TO ACT?

If Corruption is entrenched in our governing bodies; THEN HOW CAN WE CHANGE IT, OR IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE?

If Polluted food and water supplies persist and rise, escalating disease WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Peak Oil, Resource Controlling Governments = Wars = Terrorist Response WE KNOW OUR HISTORY, CAN WE CHANGE IT?

Media is Controlled, Internet under attack & Freedoms are restricted or eliminated under the guise of security WHAT'S NEXT?




Do we all become survivalists?
Take care of our own and screw the rest of the world, our country, our state or community?
Forget any hope of securing justice, and change in the current system?


I don't have the answers, I'm just asking the questions. I read, watch and listen. I see global and local protests and yet see such little change or hope in securing a better future.

What are any of you doing?

I read where one of you tries to help out family and friends in the Philippines.
Someone else was helping by giving food or medicine.
Some growing there own food.

I'm doing very little beyond survival and I'm in the U.S., I try to help others if I've the capacity whether emotionally, physically or financially. If circumstances change, I will continue those efforts. Yet honestly I'm most likely am going to feather my nest for some kind of secure retirement, wherever that may be and to provide for those loved ones closest to me.



You are doing just fine Vaughn.

Bump again.

[Corncrake]

An enormous part of the problem if not the whole problem is caused by our global banking system. James S. Henry’s 2003 book Blood Banker’s: Tales from the Global Underground Economy exposes the drain on developing counties imposed by offshore banking. First bankers lent far more money to these countries than they could ever repay, then they taught the local elites how to plunder it, conceal it, launder it and conceal it offshore. Then the IMF helps bankers to pressure these countries to service their debts. Henry tracked down an American banker form MHT Bank who had taken part in a private audit of the Philippines Central Bank in 1983. ‘I sat in a hot, little room at the Central Bank, added up what the Central Bank showed it had received from us on its books and compared it with our disbursements,’ the banker said.
‘And nearly $5 million was not there … it turned out that most of these loans had been disbursed to account numbers assigned to Philippine offshore banking units or other private companies. Apparently the Central Bank gave MHT the account numbers, and we never questioned whether they were Central Bank Accounts – we just wired the loans to them. And then they disappeared offshore.’

Apparently the Philippines officials realized what he was up to and tried to poison the banker. Luckily he was in such a hurry to leave that he barely ate any of the poisoned food but nevertheless went into convulsions on the plane and ended up in a Vancouver hospital suffering from an ‘unknown toxin’. Yes, Marcos was deposed long ago but this exploitation is going on all over the world. A similar story was exposed with Elf in 1990’s and Gabon – the ex French colony on Africa’s West coast. The country which should have flourished from it’s oil revenue was kept in poverty while enormous sums of money went to a few rich Africans and members of the French elite. Yes, we can all do our bit but there is so much greed in the world and the stakes are so high that unless the banks are strictly regulated I sadly can’t see how things can really improve.

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Well, improvement is quite easy, dont take your cash to a bank. Invest in people yourself, you know where the money went and you have personaly influenced the results of the situation.

A lot of small people are a huge force, just bypass the system, they need us more then we need them. There are BILLIONS of us, improvement is inevitable when everybody does just a little bit.

This is what i do .

Work with, psychiatric patients , chronic drugaddicts, and the homeless. (this pays my bills)
I volunteer as a cook in a hippie community restaurant/art gallery and we provide good healthy fresh meals for just a few bucks.
I teach elderly chinese immagrants dance salsa, laughing my ass off when i get home.
I cook for the elderly who have little or no money and they have a decent meal also for just a few euri.
I am a Reiki master and beam the cramps out of their stiff legs if requested.
I save a bit of money and spend it locally to help the people whereever i am at.

I am no banker, i do not know how all this global sh@t works out, i know only what i can do and i am commited to this.

EVERYBODY can do something.

[blufire]

What if we simply started doing what we think our government or the elite should be doing for us and the world?

Each individual begins the process and that person reaches out to a few ‘like’ friends to those few friends to a neighborhood from that neighborhood to a community to another community to another country and on and on . . . . . . .

But it has to start with EACH OF us with defined goals . . . rolling our sleeves up and getting dirty. Stop expecting the government or elite to change to fit your expectations . . . . you change to fit those expectations.

Change starvation by first learning to feed yourself and then teaching those around you . . . . a group can feed many . . . many groups can feed many more

Change poverty by changing the meaning of what poverty is. Poverty is NOT how much meaningless stuff you have or money you make . . . poverty is not having a roof over your head and a healthy living environment and the ability to sustain a thriving NOT surviving lifestyle.

Change unemployment by making employment obsolete . . . you don’t need a job if your community is providing everything you need to live an abundant lifestyle.

Understand that world over population and starvation cannot be solved by feeding 7 billion people rice. Would you want that lifestyle?

We are just as greedy and responsible because WE COVET what we think the elite have. If you had everything you think the elite have then you ARE the elite!!! Is this what you want??? Is this abundant and sustainable living??

CHANGE the WORLD by CHANGING OURSELVES

[christian]

The poison in vaccines is killing people globally . . . . not just in the Philippines.

What do you feel is the root problem?

Why do we always blame ‘them’? Do we . . . .each of us . . . not have responsibility?

The Phillipines and the lesser 'developed' countries of the world are targeted more vigorously, killings through vaccinations are done there on a comperatively larger scale, that's what I was alluding to.

The root of the problem is, I totally agree with you, the lack of self-responsibility, self-determination, getting off one's knees and having the gut to make a stand, when others try to push you around and being apt enough to take care of oneself properly. I don't 'blame' anyone, the root of the problem is clearly in the mirror, in oneself.


This topic always makes my blood boil. I've posted I don't know how many times that real intelligence has long been established that it is unequal distribution of wealth that causes birth rate explosions. When there is peace and plenty the birth rate drops to 0 and people maintain a steady, even dropping birth rate. Chiquetet is absolutely correct, the ruling elite have caused this misery and travesty with their unbridled greed that is not even truly self-serving since it WILL come back to bite them, as people are beginning to know and see it.

I totally agree with you except for the fact, that I did not explicitely blame TPTW, they just contributed to the situation, as did we. You need two for a tango and we allowed them to treat us like they did, we might have had our reasons but no excuse will justify this in the long run.


How do we produce enough food naturally or organically to feed 7 billion people?

But this brings me back to my original post . . . we are TOO late. My grief is we will see many more millions die of starvation . . . millions in a very short period of time.

This is absolutely not necessary in my opinion, more than enough can be grown. If you look at the numbers of people dying of starvation and the huge amount of food being either thrown away for various reasons of are over-consumed by sick overweight societies, it seems very doable even with our current methods of food production to feed the whole planet.

[778 neighbour of some guy]

What if we simply started doing what we think our government or the elite should be doing for us and the world?

Each individual begins the process and that person reaches out to a few ‘like’ friends to those few friends to a neighborhood from that neighborhood to a community to another community to another country and on and on . . . . . . .

But it has to start with EACH OF us with defined goals . . . rolling our sleeves up and getting dirty. Stop expecting the government or elite to change to fit your expectations . . . . you change to fit those expectations.

Change starvation by first learning to feed yourself and then teaching those around you . . . . a group can feed many . . . many groups can feed many more

Change poverty by changing the meaning of what poverty is. Poverty is NOT how much meaningless stuff you have or money you make . . . poverty is not having a roof over your head and a healthy living environment and the ability to sustain a thriving NOT surviving lifestyle.

Change unemployment by making employment obsolete . . . you don’t need a job if your community is providing everything you need to live an abundant lifestyle.

Understand that world over population and starvation cannot be solved by feeding 7 billion people rice. Would you want that lifestyle?

We are just as greedy and responsible because WE COVET what we think the elite have. If you had everything you think the elite have then you ARE the elite!!! Is this what you want??? Is this abundant and sustainable living??

CHANGE the WORLD by CHANGING OURSELVES

Thats right, just get down and dirty, chip in.

[BestLion]

The world is way over populated and limits of growth will eventually happen..if not this year then in 21012.."When the world will have 11 billion people..eventually the straw will break..Just way too many people, and in sometime in the future mother nature will correct this problem.
Given the current shape of the human population graph, those indicators also spell out a much larger and, from our point of view, more ominous message: the human plague cycle is right on track for a demographically normal climax and collapse. Not only have our genes managed to conceal from us that we are entirely typical mammals and therefore vulnerable to all of evolution's customary checks and balances, but also they have contrived to lock us so securely into the plague cycle that they seem almost to have been crafted for that purpose. Gaia is running like a Swiss watch.

[VaughnB]

Wonderfully spoken all of you AGAIN.

The overriding RESPONSE seems to be WORK BEGINS AT HOME. - EACH OF US DOING OUR PART.

Hey Plumber: Good on ya, WOW, I bet they love you, Would love to see some pictures of you dancing with the chinese ladies. lol
A friend of mine does invest in the micro loan program in India. I think that would be a great program even here in the U.S. and elsewhere. I agree helping others, invest and buy locally. Amory Lovins was a big advocate of that in the 70's. Remember the Whole Earth Catalog? Whatever happened to the movement? I do wonder sometimes. I know I got a bit apathetic, probably I wasn't alone. I've been in close communications with an intentional community in Utah called One Community Ranch. (http://www.onecommunityranch.com/One-Community-Philosophy.html)
It's my desire to work with them as much as possible to establish models for others to establish viable and sustainable communities. But I think what you're doing is absolutely wonderful. What part of the country are you from?

Chiq: I've known of the vaccine problem for awhile now, I don't know all the implications medically. I know my Mum just was so against the whole vaccine thing way back in the late 50' and 60's, we were never sick and never got vaccinated.

Blu: I agree, rice does not make a viable lifestyle.

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Thanks Vaughn,

Netherlands, Zwolle ( medium sized town 150.000peeps or so), its in the east part of the country.

[sunnyrap]

I don't feel attacked. Just that I'm not getting my perspective across effectively enough.

More than twenty years ago I worked for a solid year on 'Ending Hunger in the World' with a group of highly informed, passionate educated, high profile individuals. We staged a large, media grabbing event. Our workers swelled to over 1000 in that year and we learned much. We had all the food, tools, means to feed everyone then, still do right now.

We lack political will out of sheer ignorance and probably sheer overwhelm, as life--especially in the first world countries--has gotten awfully complex. Even among, and maybe especially among the elites. Elites have totally bought into the notion that having all the money possible is the key to survival (and of course, once you buy into this, you can never have enough, so how to wrestle it away from your fellows with finesse starts being the game before you know it. And we ALL buy into this to some extent.

Current history is proving this to be fallacious or maybe just incomplete thinking. Looks to me like making sure the people around you have enough too ensures your total survival, as you won't have to worry about them coming to take what YOU have. But, it is still understandable how they can become totally uncaring about those who apparently lack the will and education to take care of their financial health and tell them, 'no, we just can't let you do that to us'. So who can really blame them for the feeling, 'if you won't stand up for yourselves, why should we not call you 'sheeple' and wipe you off the planet and let us movers and shakers have it?' Sure, I can see that point of view. I also see the concept of 'the hatred and greed out there is within us--and that's where to fix it'. Personally, I applaud anyone fixing it outside OR inside--just intend to FIX it! But there are many many factors that caused this current breakdown, and all of us played a part. Must agree that blaming is futile. Vigorous communication and action to clear it up is key. Even if it's just choosing one person to feed, help understand something or train, today.

I worked for the Peace Corps back in the 70's. They did more (and they're still doing it, btw) to end hunger and teach people how to take care of themselves than anything I know of. I personally am urging my son to give them a try. I'd like to see young people drafted into that kind of personal service rather than the military. Would change perspectives all around.

[Magnus]

Humanitys breeding capabilities by far outrun it's intelligence and awareness. Many evil deeds are forced upon us by the power elite who are often rightfully to be blaimed, but this kind of procreation madness the world and its parts in various degree are facing these days is certainly not to blaim the elite for. At least not but a fragment of it. When it comes to procreation, people in general has in no doubt abandoned all responsibility of their actions for the benefit of ego, ignorance and plain stupidity. We should all expect to reap what we sow, there is no other sound escape than the practice of responsible sustainability. Some people get it, some refuse and some can't.

[sunnyrap]

I don't think conscious intelligence has anything to do with 'breeding rate'. It is more like a DNA level reaction to anti-survival conditions. More children are created because more are lost in bad times, and adults know they can only count on their children to help them in bad times and support them in easier times if they happen to survive to weaker old age. This has been noted as a statistically consistent response in all human societies.

I met a young man a few years ago who came out to help me when my car broke down in front of his house. He was only around 30 but told me he had 6 kids. His home was very modest so I expressed surprise at how/why so many children. He told me that having sex was all he and his wife had to do. Once they started making money, they could afford cable TV...and quit having babies. Ok, here's a guy who's plainly not the sharpest knife in the drawer...but primal directives and resulting statistics don't lie.

[Ellisa]

The quickest way to encourage lower birth rate is to educate the women in the family. This is proving to be the case in those countries where women are able to earn money setting up micro-businesses such as food stalls using crops they grow, or dressmaking using their own sewing machines. They are able to receive small loans and some education which they pay back, and another woman is then helped. These women also learn how to limit their families. Large families are the norm also in countries where the old, disabled and the sick have to rely on their large families to support them, but if people (especially women) have productive skills they are more able to look after themselves.

Countries where contraception is allowed are able to control their populations more effectively. As an example, Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in Italy, so somewhere women are making decisions regarding their reproductive future and many choose small families as a result.

Actually I believe that the use of vaccines has increased the numbers of people in the world. In earlier times having a large family meant that at least some may make it to old age and look after you. Sons were preferred of course, because girls were sent to live at their husband's home where her duties would include caring for his mother and father. A person with only daughters would be left without any one to care for them. It is only recently that all the children survived into adulthood, many of them because they did not die from polio, smallpox, measles, diptheria, whooping cough, flu, and so on.

We now have a dreadful situation in many countries of the world, where women still have large families, are poorly educated and have few rights of the sort that go with full citizenship. The weather- and climate- is changing and soon many millions of these people will no longer be able to rely on the melting snows for their water. The numbers that will die of starvation is huge, and it seems inevitable without an effort from the rest of us.

I have no idea what the solution is, but perhaps recognising that there is a problem may be a good place to start. Why are we so reluctant to help?

[VaughnB]

Yes Sunny, I heard some time ago about how in the 3rd world, having children was their Social Security system.

Truly, as time marches on, this is unsustainable even factoring infant mortality, wars, famine, disease the population still increases dramatically like a virus of sorts.

Given that premise...I think you wrote in an earlier post, that we're presently in the crisis, the tipping point. Given that little to no help is forthcoming, what are the subsequent outcomes of overpopulation? How does nature take its course?

Disease, starvation, pestilence to the extreme, groups fighting for the remains? If that's the horrific result, that after some dramatic correction in numbers ....say a calamity correction of a 50% die off, what's to keep it from happening again and again over the eons?

Establishing governing bodies and sustainable communities that have the checks and balances, discourage greed, corruption and power centralization....sounds alot like what the U.S. founding fathers intended; yet look where we are [U.S. A.] I mean.

We see protests, hear prophets, scientists, and thinkers like Jacque Frescoe or Peter Joseph in the Zeitgiest Movement offering solutions, but in some aspects haven't we had the answers, the solutions and still corruption, power and greed manifests itself.

I begin to think humankind is approaching a threshold, a test of viability and existence for all its technological advances we have not evolved in our hearts to live harmoniously. That our evolution cannot get past the ego, fear and shame based archetypes.

Many, like Greg Braden, have suggested some great change is pending, some combination of an increase in the Earth's Schuman Resonance Field and the lowering of the magnetic field that will alter our human DNA and vibration. And this somehow will make us more evolved?

I know you've witnessed great human compassion, as have I. Yet we certainly have created some horrific nightmares as well.

I wonder how this movie is going to end.