Is humanity a pox on the planet?

A topic on the minds of many in Kings County these days is the future of farmland. The other day, I had a chat with retired vet Peter Whittaker about why he moved his alpaca operation to the Valley. The British-born Whittaker described how he had located first in northern Colchester County, but when he took in a soil sample of his land for analysis he got the awful truth. Handing back his vial, the technician joked, "this isn't soil, this is dirt."

So no wonder any proper farmer would rather be in the Annapolis Valley. The Whittakers moved. Whittaker looked at over at me and said, in a practical, no-nonsense way, "you know, the real problem - and it's one no one wants to talk about - is overpopulation."

He’s right, of course. We’re becoming a plague. There are over six billion humans on this planet and overpopulation makes nearly all global problems worse.

India increases its population by 20 million a year. Every American kids counts as 11 as far as burden on the planetary ecosystem. India and China are demanding the fruits of development and the drain on energy and resources will become worse.

In terms of carrying capacity, we know that in 1961 the earth had three billion people and they were consuming 0.5 per cent of the sustainable resources. By 1986 the planet had five billion occupants and they were using all the sustainable resources. Given those facts, breeding should soon be socially unacceptable.

Ironically, one day last week in central Russia was declared a Day of Conception. The governor gave couples time off from work to procreate. The ones who give birth nine months later on Russia’s national day – June 12 – will receive money, cars,

refrigerators and other prizes.

In parts of Russia, where the birth rate is falling, there are statues to lionize pregnant women. The demographic crisis has even prompted the region of Ahtubinsk to offer young couples a new house if they could prove they were fertile and not alcoholics, and had three children in five years.

Cash for kids

There’s an announcement expected in France this week that will give middle-class women cash incentives to have third babies amid growing concern that too few children are being born to professional couples. Although France's fertility rate of 1.9 for each couple is relatively high among European countries, family lobbyists are dismayed by a fall in the number of babies born to better-educated women.

It seems government leaders in Europe are worried that as many as 40 per cent of professional women are turning their backs on maternity. The continent is getting gray and fears a future where the number of people on pensions outnumbers younger workers funding those pensions through taxes.

Parents in France with three children already benefit in a number of ways, including family allowances of over $400 a month, an annual contribution of $400 to out-of-school activity costs and generous reductions on train and bus fares. Couples in Germany and Japan are getting paid to have babies.

If Quebec mothers give birth within five years of graduation, the government will pay half their college loans. Quebec has also promised to enact a four-day work week

for parents with young children. It offers baby bonuses of $500 for the first child, $1,000 for the second and $7,500 for third and subsequent children, and will offer interest-free loans of up to $5,000 to purchase a home.

Children will be ‘baby-losers’

Despite the big bucks, French comedian and author Corinne Maier has written a book called No Kid: 40 Reasons Not to Have Children. “Open your eyes,” she tells French women. “Your children will be baby-losers, destined for unemployment, insecure or low-grade work . . . . They will have a life even less (fun) than yours, and that’s saying something.

“No, your marvellous babies have no future, as every baby born in a developed country is an ecological disaster for the whole planet.”

Mine was the first generation on the planet to have the ability to decide when to procreate. That’s why I wasn't surprised at the news last week that for the first time, single people in Canada outnumber married people, never married or who are divorced, widowed or separated.

Seems we're not doing a very good job at managing the plague here in Kings County or globally, either.