It is certainly clear that man has a fantastic ability to destroy the environment.

a) If all men consumed as much and as anarchically as the inhabitants of rich countries, the planet would be burned up.

b) The setting on fire of the oil wells in the Gulf region proved that this destructive ability can go all the way to madness. At the same time, the devastation of the Amazon is no less worrisome.

c) Disastrous effects, even if on a lesser scale, are produced wherever natural resources are exploited using archaic and ineffective methods that are damaging to the environment.

On the other land,

a) The progress of agronomy, for example, happily shows that man also has an astonishing capacity for managing the environment and natural resources well. Even the Food and Agriculture Organization admitted that the problem of feeding mankind is less a technical problem that a political and therefore, moral problem.

b) Moreover, it is education and enrichment of the population that permit regulation of birth and not the reverse.

c) Finally, to respect the ecosystem is first of all to respect the heart of the environment, and that is the human being. How can one respect an elephant or a baby seal if one does not even respect the flesh of one's flesh?

What so often happens is that, drawn by the unbridled lure of gain, some people destroy the natural equilibrium, and then, with a rare cynicism, they declare that there are too many people on the planet earth and that this "overpopulation" pollutes the ecosystem: They damage the Amazon region and then say that there are too many people in Brazil.

  BACK TO "DEMOGRAPHIC ASPECT"   |   TABLE OF CONTENTS   |   NEXT CHAPTER  
THE FIRST ENVIRONMENT: http://www.simbahayan.org/sin940605-environ.html
WE BELONG TO GOD: http://www.simbahayan.org/sin950918-webelongtogod.html
THREE LEVELS OF DEMOGRAPHIC CONTROL: http://www.simbahayan.org/B5-conbirpop.html
VATICAN DECLARATION ON DECREASE OF FERTILITY: http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?recnum=342
POPULATION CONTROL IN THE PHILIPPINES: http://www.simbahayan.org/B5-popconphils.html
POPULATION ORGS IN THE PHILIPPINES: http://www.simbahayan.org/B5-popconphils2.html
MOTIVES FOR POPULATION CONTROL: http://www.simbahayan.org/B5-popmotives.html
US NATIONAL SECURITY STUDY MEMO 200: http://members.theglobe.com/nssm200
POPULATION CONTROL IS GENOCIDE: http://www.globalafrica.com/PopCnGen.htm
PHILIPPINE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE: http://www.simbahayan.org/B5S-pgrphils.html
PHILIPPINE TOTAL FERTILITY RATE: http://www.simbahayan.org/B5S-tfrphils.html
1998 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook
THE OVERPOPULATION MYTH: http://www.ohiolife.org/overpop/overpop.htm
WESTERN CIVILIZATION IS DYING: http://www.ohiolife.org/qa/qa20.htm
BIOPIRACY: http://www.simbahayan.org/B5-biopiracy01.html