Just trying to help..

What is scary is the conclusions drawn about my morality because of my concern of the impact of a growing population on Australia. It is a bit like concluding that support for a growing population implies that one enjoys torturing animals and takes part in koala exterminations. this is the most upsetting aspect of the population debate for me. Not as bad as discussing abortion. At least I hope it isn't, and there might be some safety in numbers.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/australians-dont-want-more-people-poll-20100301-pdfe.html

I am unsure whether you are responding to the right thread Fester?

To your comment, I was not implying I was questioning your morality, I contend you retain no such moral fibre to contest. Your callous and cavalier consideration of others indicated to me in your posts, observes such assessment as evident. [I refer also to your post on the article: “What does it take to make a murder racist.”]

For the issue of this thread we are posting here, is not relevant to tree hugging or saving the whales, it is about your consideration of others who are simply different to you.

In further perspective, related to the thread on population growth to which you refer, posts on the article “Ponzi Scheme,” articulate the key global macro economic factors affecting future issues, that may be informative to you.

My posts on that thread indicate attitudes of ‘fortress Australia’ are not observed constructive, nor helpful, relevant to prospective outcomes “and therefore I sense young skywalker, the dark side of the force is within you.”

For many issues in the world today are undeniably interrelated, and their resolutions require balanced and focused perspective.

CJ Morgan: "More recently, the notion of 'race' as a biologically meaningful category of humans has been completely debunked by the discovery that there is much more genetic variation within the so-called 'races' than there is between them."

So what? There is more genetic variation within the sexes than there is between them, with sex differences between men and women being the result of just one genetic difference — one gene (the Testes Determining Factor) out of an estimated 50,000-100,000! Yet nobody is arguing that sex is not a biological reality.

Similarly, humans share over 98 percent of their genes with chimpanzees, and a very high amount with animals like mice and dogs. Yet there are clearly important biological differences between humans and other mammals.

Breeds of dogs are analogous to human races. Needless to say, breeds of dogs differ not only in appearance but in temperament and intelligence. Yet, the huge differences between the breeds are accounted for by tiny genetic differences barely detectable with modern analysis. As with human races, small genetic differences account for very important physical differences. In fact, a comparison of the most widely divergent human groups, such as Northwest Europeans and Australian Aborigines finds differences as great as those between chimpanzees and gorillas.

CJ Morgan: ""Race" does persist as a social construct adhered to by racists, and sometimes by those objectified by them but mainstream anthropology ditched the concept decades ago."

Uh-oh. If race doesn't exist someone should get on the horn pronto, and tell, for instance, the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, which is in the midst of a campaign that specifically targets different "population groups" (the PC term for races) with their own unique treatment and prevention regimes.

Better yet, someone should really tell the Aborigines that there is no genetic basis for race and that their high incidence of diabetes is just a statistical fluke as is their low average life expectancy.

"Indeed, one sure way of identifying a contemporary racist - including those who aren't conscious of their racism - is that they talk about people in terms of "races"."

In that case, just about every single person on the planet must be a "racist" for nearly everybody self-identifies as a member of a particular racial group. In fact, it is only left-leaning Westerners who parrot obviously absurd notions about race not existing. Non-Western peoples have no problem talking about themselves or others in explicitly racial terms.

As for "mainstream anthropology", frankly who cares what a bunch of scientifically-illiterate Boasian hacks think?

Dear Efranke
My two children have a Torres Strait Islander mother and a Scottish/English/Irish/German father. What "race" do they belong to?