|
I had the below letter
published in this week’s edition of the Montpelier Bridge and have
sent it out to the other papers in the state as well.
Please remember if you
do a reply it goes to everyone. To reply just to me you must copy
and paste in my email.
Thanks to media attention most people are probably now
aware that last year the earth’s population crossed the 7 billion
mark. It took only 12 years to increase from 6 billion in 1999 and only 12 years before
that to increase from 5 billion in 1987. Compare that with
the length of time it took for the human population to jump from 1
billion in 1804 to 2 billion in 1927 (123 years) and you’ll see that
we are experiencing a period of rapid population growth like the
world has never seen. The U.S. and Vermont also reached record
population levels.
Some people have also become aware that population
growth is the root cause of most if not all of our environmental
problems from air pollution to the sixth great extinction of
species. What most people are probably not aware of is that rising
population growth also results in increased suffering of animal
species.
Much of this suffering results from the cruelty of
factory farming. There
is a direct correlation between factory farming and population
growth. Factory farming has enabled the population to grow so
dramatically and ever increasing population growth requires even
more factory farms. It is cruel and inhumane to grow thousands of
chickens in long lines of stacked, tiny cubicles where they can
barely move or even in “free range” sheds where they actually never
experience the out-of-doors. It’s worse for calves whose movements
are extremely limited in order to produce veal or who are tied to
little sheds. Vermont is no exception as most of our food now comes
from factory farms. Even most of our dairy farms are now in reality
factory farms where hundreds of cows live their entire lives crowded
under a roof, wandering about in their own excrement, and never
enjoying the pastures where they are meant to be.
Even in the wild, animal life is in trouble. The tiger
is disappearing; there are now fewer tigers in the wild than are in
captivity! In the U.S. we lose acreage the equivalent of 4 ½ Rhode
Islands every year to development caused by population growth which
is resulting in loss of habitat for many
species.
Readers, please ask yourselves, “Can you think of any
problem on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term
solution is in any way aided, assisted or advanced by having larger
populations at the local, state, national or global level? Can you
think of anything that will get better if we crowd more people into
our towns, cities, nations or world?
How many people are enough?”
George Plumb
Washington, Vt.
George is a member of the Vermont Chapter of the
Buddhist Peace Fellowship which believes that all sentient beings
should be free of suffering.
plumb....@gmail.com | 
