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PRI Celebrates the World's 6,666,666,666th Person Born on May 10th

Population Research Institute responds to anti-human fear mongering of Sierra Club and other depopulationists

by Colin Mason

May 20, 2008 (Pop.org/LifeSiteNews.com) - According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the world's 6,666,666,666th person was born on May 10th. The occasion gave rise to the usual calls for more population control to stave off a demographic disaster.

According to Overpopulation.net, the only thing this number shows us is that we have "passed our sustainability," and that the population crash the world is now experiencing is, in fact, the fault of recklessly breeding humans. These humans are responsible for the downfall of the species because they "have yet to recognize the alarming facts that for the last 16 years we have passed the sustainable food limits that Earth can produce relative to population."

The Sierra Club wants to redouble its promotion of population control. "If we are to achieve a more sustainable future," says its Global Population and Environment overview, "addressing the root causes of environmental degradation-- including overconsumption of natural resources, poverty, and population growth - is paramount." PRI begs to differ.

In fact, the fear of annihilation at the hands of unstoppable population growth is an outdated scientific parlor tale, based in racism, eugencism, mathematical incompetence and demographic ignorance.  Men like Thomas Malthus and Paul Ehrlich have long since been refuted.  The birth of the world's 6,666,666,666th person should be treasured as a time when the world's population is still climbing.
 
"Over six billion of anything is a mind-boggling number, and not just for the numerically challenged," says PRI president Steven Mosher, in his newly published book, Population Control—Real Costs, Illusory Benefits.  "Few people have the independence of mind to grasp what this number truly represents: A great victory over early death won by advances in health, nutrition and longevity."

This victory is ignored by those who bemoan the birth of babies.  But why should it not be cause for celebration that human beings, as Mosher says, have stopped "dying like flies."  Contrary to the claims of the population control movement, the numbers show that "the world's population will never double again.  In fact . . . it is already close to its apogee."
    
Despite the 6,666,666,666 people it houses, the planet Earth is still largely unpopulated.
 
Although the United Nations would be the first to advocate radical population control measures, their own numbers show the world's population growth skidding to a halt.  Like an arrow shot into the air, the world's population will soon peak, and then plummet downward at an ever-increasing rate.  Many countries have already fallen below replacement-rate fertility, with more to follow.

In short, PRI holds that we should celebrate the birth of human babies while there are still human babies being born. PRI celebrates the birth of this milestone baby, and encourages people and governments to look at human beings as resources to be cherished, not liabilities to be destroyed.

Steve Mosher's new book, Population Control—Real Costs, Illusory Benefits, is available on Amazon.com or on PRI's web site: http://www.pop.org.

Colin Mason is Director of Media Production at Population Research Institute.

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