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| The Global Redistributionist at Obama's Left Hand |
| 2009-08-06 |
| Does President Barack Obama believe economic and population growth ought to be stopped because they imperil the planet and that wealth should be redistributed both within the United States and among nations? Or does he think such a view is ludicrous? He does not think it is ludicrous; a man who has promoted zero growth and global wealth redistribution for years is now one of Obama's top advisers. In December, Obama announced he was naming John P. Holdren, director of the Woods Hole Research Center, to run the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Obama expressed admiration for Holdren's work and said, "I look forward to his wise counsel in the years ahead." So, what wise counsel had Holdren given in the past? His curriculum vitae lists as one of his "Recent publications" an essay entitled "The Meaning of Sustainability: Biogeophysical Aspects." Co-authored by Paul Ehrlich and Gretchen Daily of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford, this essay served as the first chapter in a 1995 book--"Defining and Measuring Sustainability: The Biogeophysical Foundations"--published by the World Bank. The book is posted as a PDF on the World Bank's Web site. "We think development ought to be understood to mean progress toward alleviating the main ills that undermine human well-being," Holdren, Ehrlich and Daily wrote in this essay. Table 1-1 of the essay lists both "excessive population growth" and "maldistribution of consumption and investment" as "driving forces" behind these "ills." "Excessive population growth," the authors assert, is "a condition now prevailing almost everywhere." Table 1-2 of the essay lists "Requirements for Sustainable Improvements in Well-being." These include "reduced disparities within and between countries." "The large gaps between rich and poor that characterize income distribution within and between countries today are incompatible with social stability and with cooperative approaches to achieving environmental sustainability," the authors explain. Table 1-1 lists among the "underlying human frailties" causing the ills of mankind as "greed, selfishness, intolerance and shortsightedness." These vices, they say, "collectively have been elevated by conservative political doctrine and practice (above all in the United States in 1980-92) to the status of a credo." The authors present a formula for understanding ecological "damage," which they say "means reduced length or quality of life for the present generation or future generations." This doomsday formula is: "Damage = population x economic activity per person (affluence) x resource use per economic activity (resources) x stress on the environment per resource use (technology) x damage per stress (susceptibility)." Their application of this formula rejects the notion that man, through his wit, can not only increase individual productivity and technological efficiency but also find new resources to fuel them. For example, how much potential water lingers in the universe? Well, how much hydrogen and oxygen did God create? Holdren and co-authors claim to "know for certain" such thinking is folly. "We know for certain, for example, that: No form of material growth (including population growth) other than asymptotic growth, is sustainable," they say. "Many of the practices inadequately supporting today's population of 5.5 billion people are unsustainable; and at the sustainability limit, there will be a trade-off between population and energy-matter throughput per person, hence, ultimately, between economic activity per person and well-being per person |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 Ain't it weird how none of the true believers in this bullshit ever render themselves carbon neutral? |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-08-06 20:02 |
| #5 tu - that made me actually LOL |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-08-06 18:56 |
| #4 Left hand = dung hand, for Arabs; does it apply to anyone named Hussein? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-08-06 18:44 |
| #3 Mein fuhrer! I can walk!! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-08-06 13:40 |
| #2 Holdren is evil. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-08-06 11:28 |
| #1 "Excessive population growth," the authors assert, is "a condition now prevailing almost everywhere." Europe and Japan and Russia all rejoice! |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-08-06 00:39 |