They have no clean drinking water and it’s your fault!

[Neapolitanicecream]

Watched Stacy Dooley “Fashion dirty secret” on BBC last night. Lost sleep over it. Michael Gove is clueless on the poisonings of water for millions of people. It’s a disaster and it’s our fault with buying cheap cotton. We need to do something! Kids are being poisoned 🤢 it made me cry

@Deca Unfortunately I don't believe it is as simple as that. The Catholic church could and should have a major role to play in this but they will not sanction contraception. Now, we know many Catholics ignore this but many don't but Catholicism is actually increasing in Africa and quite alarmingly.

@ppeatfruit will the who also forcibly sterilise people and force women to have abortions?

What a great idea, ppeatfruit, I cannot wait for all the photos of devastated women in hospital beds next to their late term, forced abortion foetuses to leak into the internet - like the ones of that poor woman from China.

Arggh! I wrote a long post and it vanished

Overpopulation: it not just down to numbers, it's about how much individuals consume. Used to be (low populated) affluent societies consuming more than (highly populated) poor societies. I think that's changing now, due to global availability of cheap mass produced goods. Add in lack of waste disposal in some countries and it results in mountains of discarded plastic building up in rivers and oceans.

Ultimately we need to consume less (and that can include having fewer children) but also be aware of the impact of producing and disposing of items we buy and change our purchasing choices.

@kaytee and @luvsmall So what are your answers to overpopulation then?

Plump I came on to say the same thing. We simply consume too much stuff.

As PPs say, removing an income stream from impoverished countries would probably destabilise them further and make them vulnerable to interference from extremist groups or hostile nation states.

The economic and social changes would have to extend very far beyond the producing countries and would have ramifications for our own occupations and lifestyles that provide their markets.

The changes would be disruptive and probably unwelcome. The only obvious alternative is the continuing vandalism and destruction of our environment.

We are in urgent need of well-informed public debate of what is needed and what the social, political, economic, and environmental consequences will be if we decide to continue on our current course.

(In my dreams) the WHO will provide good contraception for everyone from teens. (inject the males and females0 Why should it be by force? Most people would agree.

btw kaytee my user name is for MN only not for use on my email. I don't get why people do it!

As a general rule family size reduces with maternal education level so perhaps educating the girls is part of the answer.

blogs.worldbank.org/health/female-education-and-childbearing-closer-look-data

Yes but it doesn't even work here does it Chazs ? We 've been educated for a long time!!

btw kaytee my user name is for MN only not for use on my email. I don't get why people do it!

What are you talking about?

Shatner, there isn’t one that can be implemented as law without gross human rights abuses. By all means, make a movement for antinatalists and plaster posters everywhere, but dragging women off to have abortions or to have their babies given to rich infertile people is evil.

What upsets me most is the people who can afford to pay more for everything buying CHEAP CHEAP as possible, and our whole world is suffering because of it.

The massive boats coming over from China FULL of total crap; they use the most polluting fuel they can get. The plastics thrown overboard of those cruisers AAAAAH

The elites in the countries involved need to step up and have their equivalent of the uk Victorian Factory Acts and enforce some environmental controls. UK / global companies should demand higher standards from suppliers or switch back to suppliers with better controls.

I try to buy clothes manufactured in the uk, there are bits out there. I sometimes even manage to buy yarn from the UK. It's a globalised business and it's not fair putting all the blame on customers who end up with little real choice.

Who would chuck clothes in the bin when we have charity shops and recycling bins for textiles. What a waste.

ppeat the UK native born birth rate is well below replacement level.

Education, especially of women, is important. However absence of war, healthcare, and economic security are even more important. Not much point handing out contraception when systematic rape is still a weapon of war in so much of the World.

The use of @+username sends an email notification. You can opt out I think.

Harpingon "We urgently need to get control of our population. Nothing else we do will make any difference whatsoever."

yes. this. no one ever wants to listen though. Hard enough to get people to accept the plastic crap problems.

OP, go on the larger families board and it will maybe make you cry enough tears to supply clean water to someone for a while.

I'm sure someone will say that rampant commercialism and overpopulation aren't connected, but you will not get people to row back on the volume of crap they want. the only way to get it remotely under control is for something to happen to halve the population.

That programme should be required watching for all consumers of fast fashion of which I'm ashamed to be one. The environmental price the planet is paying for the first world to have cheap clothes, 80% of which end up in landfill is appalling.

It's motivated me to vow to stop my unnecessary and wasteful shopping habit. I'm just not going to do it any more. It was heartening to see the shock of the Insta influencers and their thoughts about how they could positively use that influence. I hope they put their keyboards where their mouths are.

ppeat It is working here. The average birth rate is dropping now its 1.76 children per women
www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths

Recent research suggests that many countries are already below replacement rate.
yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/replacement-fertility-declines-worldwide

kaytee I'm talking about using @ in front of my user name!!! It just needs to be heightened with 2 star symbols either side of it Sorry It's not just you ,I've been on here for many years and it's happening recently (sorry to derail this extremely interesting thread).

I suspect the charity shops are overwhelmed with the fast fashion and barely sell any of it on.

I used to buy tough stuff like OshKosh if I saw it second hand but wouldn't buy low quality stuff.

iVampire Tue 09-Oct-18 07:26:05

Add message | Report | Message poster Neapolitanicecream Tue 09-Oct-18 08:32:19
Bumping

for this alone, YABU

Medicine has stopped the natural population checks being so effective. I think the next big one will be due to war or superbugs. Limiting population growth worldwide is a pipe dream. It'll be, as PP said, a disaster or apocalyptic event that finally knocks us back as a species. Either that or we'll eventually need another planet.

@ppeatfruit it's nothing to do with your email. MN have given the option to tag people in posts. I suppose you could complain on site stuff if you object to it.