A natural argument for the birth control pill

by Malcolm Potts

An excerpt from the L.A. Times:

When Pope Francis put in a word for “responsible parenthood” on his way back from the Philippines the other day, he added an off-the-cuff remark that grabbed headlines: Catholics, he said, do not need to breed “like rabbits.”

The problem, however, is precisely the opposite: If only Catholics could breed like rabbits. Given rabbit biology, and the church’s restrictions on contraception, that would make “responsible parenthood” easier for the faithful to accomplish.

Read more here.

http://www.motherthefilm.com/

Mother, the film, breaks a 40-year taboo by bringing to light an issue that silently fuels our most pressing environmental, humanitarian and social crises – population growth. In 2011 the world population reached 7 billion, a startling seven-fold increase since the first billion occurred 200 years ago.

Population was once at the top of the international agenda, dominating the first Earth Day and the subject of best-selling books like “The Population Bomb”. Since the 1960s the world population has nearly doubled, adding more than 3 billion people.  At the same time, talking about population has become politically incorrect because of the sensitivity of the issues surrounding the topic–religion, economics, family planning and gender inequality. Yet it is an issue we cannot afford to ignore.

Today, nearly 1 billion people still suffer from chronic hunger even though the Green Revolution that has fed billions will soon come to an end due to the diminishing availability of its main ingredients–oil and water.  Compounded with our ravenous appetite for natural resources, population growth is putting an unprecedented burden on the life system we all depend on, as we refuse to face the fact that more people equals more problems.

The film illustrates both the over-consumption and the inequity side of the population issue by following Beth, a mother and a child-rights activist as she comes to discover, along with the audience, the thorny complexities of the population issue.  Beth – who comes from a large American family of 12 and has adopted an African-born daughter–travels to Ethiopia where she meets Zinet, the oldest daughter of a desperately poor family of 12.  Zinet has found the courage to break free from thousand-year-old-cultural barriers, and their encounter will change Beth forever.

Grounded in the theories of social scientist Riane Eisler, the film strives not to blame but to educate, to highlight a different path for humanity.  Overpopulation is merely a symptom of an even larger problem – a “domination system” that for most of human history has glorified the domination of man over nature, man over child and man over woman. To break this pattern, the film demonstrates that we must change our conquering mindset into a nurturing one. And the first step is to raise the status of women worldwide.

“Mother: Caring for 7 Billion” features world-renown experts and scientists  including biologist Paul Ehrlich, author of “The Population Bomb;” economist Mathis Wackernagel, the creator of the ground-breaking Footprint Network; Malcolm Potts, a pioneer in human reproductive health; and Riane Eisler, whose book “The Chalice and the Blade” has been published in 23 countries.

NY Times DOT EARTH blogger Andrew Revkin with Pete Seeger

New York times blogger Andrew Revkin linked to the Bixby Center population growth page in his, DOT EARTH blog.  The article discussed his song LIBERATED CARBON and included links to describe the background behind some lines.

To see the post click here http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/songs-on-this-fossil-age/

The North Adams Transcript’s review of “Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World”
By Bixby Chair Malcolm Potts and Thomas Hayden

Review By ARTHUR H. WESTING

Excerpt: “Potts, imbued with Darwinian evolution, proceeds to make a compelling case for the genetic basis of group violence. This essentially male trait (an insight largely gained from Campbell) of what he terms “coalitional violence” is prominent in our chimpanzee predecessors and has continued to be the unfailing norm throughout human pre-history and subsequent recorded history, to this day. That long-term record is amply demonstrated in the book; and he makes the case that this unfailingly pervasive behavioral propensity derives from continuing natural selection based on competition among males.”

To read the full article go to the The North Adams Transcript’s website