*If people are well off they will not breed*

Not quite correct, Cohenite. People will have sex, no matter what
their income and if people have sex without any form of family
planning, they will land up producing far more children than they
ever wanted.

Note the dramatic drop in birth rates, when women have been given
a choice, as in Thailand, or Iran or the West. Note the hundreds
of thousands of women who die in the third world from backyard
abortions, because they are desperate and don't have choices about
the matter. Note the "unmet need" identified in large parts of
the third world, women who don't use family planning, as they are not
given the option and can't afford to pay money themselves.

You are never going to stop people having sex as the Catholic Church
attempts to do. Result is millions of unwanted children that their
parents cannot feed or educate. The West's solution is to feed them
all with boatloads of food, creating even more hungry children.

So the solution is pretty straight forward really. Give all women,
rich or poor, a choice about how many children that they want to
have.

So many in the West simply don't understand this basic problem. I saw
a documentary some time ago, a British journalist went into the
backblocks of Nigeria to do a story. She was completely blown away
by a whole lot of women who approached her, trying to give her
their babies. They simply could not cope with them all and had never
been given a choice in the matter, unlike say Mrs Cohenite

Did you read what I wrote Yabby?

I said when people are well off they do not breed as much and then you say I'm wrong and provide examples of people being in poverty who breed a lot!?

I also mentioned religious influence; this influence is pernicious in that it can both stop prosperity being equally distributed, as in Islamic nations, which results in high birth rates; and it can also add to poverty by suppressing women's rights as in Islamic countries which also contributes to high birth rates.

So, let me spell it out; the greens will take away both prosperity and suppress individual rights; how will that not increase the birth rate?

Cohenite,

I am as big admirer of Norman Borlaug as you are, but he recognised that his efforts were only buying time. This is from his 1970 Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

"It is true that the tide of the battle against hunger has changed for the better during the past three years. But tides have a way of flowing and then ebbing again. We may be at high tide now, but ebb tide could soon set in if we become complacent and relax our efforts. For we are dealing with two opposing forces, the scientific power of food production and the biologic power of human reproduction. Man has made amazing progress recently in his potential mastery of these two contending powers. Science, invention, and technology have given him materials and methods for increasing his food supplies substantially and sometimes spectacularly, as I hope to prove tomorrow in my first address as a newly decorated and dedicated Nobel Laureate. Man also has acquired the means to reduce the rate of human reproduction effectively and humanely. He is using his powers for increasing the rate and amount of food production. But he is not yet using adequately his potential for decreasing the rate of human reproduction. The result is that the rate of population increase exceeds the rate of increase in food production in some areas.

There can be no permanent progress in the battle against hunger until the agencies that fight for increased food production and those that fight for population control unite in a common effort. Fighting alone, they may win temporary skirmishes, but united they can win a decisive and lasting victory to provide food and other amenities of a progressive civilization for the benefit of all mankind.

Then, indeed, Alfred Nobel's efforts to promote Brotherhood between nations and their peoples will become a reality."

cohenite,
I looked up Norman Borlaug. He was certainly a great man. A great scientist who did much to develope improved plant varieties. Here is his obituary. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/energy-environment/14borlaug.html?pagewanted=all

I found it very interesting in what he had to say about population and below are a few of the things he had to say,quote

<The Green Revolution eventually came under attack from environmental and social critics who said it had created more difficulties than it had solved. Dr. Borlaug responded that the real problem was not his agricultural techniques, but the runaway population growth that had made them necessary.

“If the world population continues to increase at the same rate, we will destroy the species,” he declared.>

Also from his obit. After World War II, the introduction of basic sanitation in many developing countries caused death rates to plunge, but birth rates were slow to follow. As a result, the global population had exploded, putting immense strain on food supplies.

This confirms what Yabby and I are saying and I do not think we can rely on plant breeding technology to keep abreast of world food demand.

I cannot see any scope to greatly increase Australias food production and remember if it is not profitable farmers will not grow it. So the big question is 'who pays'

He was frustrated throughout his life that governments did not do more to tackle what he called “the population monster” by lowering birth rates.

A great man indeed and we should note his comments.

Oh that terrible 'religous'influence that has set up schools and hospitals all over the world. When are the human haters going to stop their propaganda. Never I suppose until all accept their idiotic dogmas.

I read exactly what you wrote, Cohenite and you miss the point
entirely. The problem is not the greens, the problem is lack of
family planning for those who cannot afford it. Given that we spend
4 billion $ rising on foreign aid, we could easily commit a percentage
of that to help poor women have a choice about family size. They
could do that next week, rather than wait decades until they can,
meantime having even more unwanted children to keep them poor.

Iran and other Islamic countries show that they are indeed prepared
to address the problem, unlike our Vatican, which continues with
its head in the sand approach.

Hospitals eh runner? A gather that a night at St John of God
will cost you around 850 $, if you can afford it. Hardly charitable
and all tax free, AFAIK.