Population
TEDx talk by Alexandra Paul

Overpopulation facts - the problem no one will discuss: Alexandra Paul at TEDxTopanga

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Overpopulation facts - the problem no one will discuss: Alexandra Paul at TEDxTopanga

Published on Jan 3, 2013

https://youtu.be/fNxctzyNxC0

TEDx Talks TEDx Talks Subscribe5,541,592 Add to Share More 115,947 views 1,770 670 Transcript English (Automatic Captions) 0:00I grew up in the nineteen sixties watching those TV commercials with those 0:12starving kids in Africa who stared vacantly at the camera with sad eyes and 0:17distended bellies and in sixth grade my glee club teacher mr. Collins has 0:25changed the words in the song we were singing three billion people in the 0:30world 0:3124 billion people in the world and I was shocked I couldn't believe that the 0:38population that was so big and it was even more shocked because no one else in 0:43the classes that all disturbed by this fact a couple days later I told my 0:48friend Susie harder that because there seems to be too many people in the world 0:51for it to handle that I wasn't going to have any kids and she looked at me and 0:57she replied that she was going to have three and i felt pretty alone in my 1:04beliefs and thirty-seven years later I still feel pretty alone in my beliefs 1:09and I'm still shocked that not more people are disturbed by population 1:14growth and they think it's because as a species we've decided not to talk about 1:20it too kind of tuck it away 1:23so I'm here to untuck it modern man first showed up on earth 200,000 years 1:31ago 1:32and by 1850 we had reproduced so successfully 1:37there were 1 billion people on the planet that means it took two hundred 1:42thousand years for us to put the first billion people on earth the next billion 1:48came in 100 years 200 thousand years to get to the first billion a hundred years 1:56to get to the second billion now we add 1 billion people to the planet every 12 2:03years and in 2011 the world population reached 7 billion people 2:09now this surgeon growth came about because of improvements and agriculture 2:15and medicine because as a species we are a biological success story 2:20survival of the fittest we have survived and were also religious success story 2:26we have gone forth and multiplied 2:29but now we have to stop or it will be our downfall 2:34and just to give you an idea of how fast population grows 2:38bangladesh had a hurricane that killed 130 9,000 people 2:43how long did it take Bangladesh to replace those deaths with 139,000 new 2:49births two and a half weeks now the world population is growing at just one 2:55percent a year which might not sound like very much but one percent of 7 3:00billion is actually a big number 3:03it means that every day we add 220,000 people to the planet every day and this 3:11is unsustainable 3:13which means that at some point the world population is going to stop growing 3:18the question is how well let's stop growing because of famine disease a war 3:26over resources or will let stopped going because people choose to have smaller 3:32families and by smaller families I mean one-child families and this is where 3:39people start getting nervous talking about overpopulation and population 3:43issues because they're scared that i'm going to take away their rights to have 3:47children but I don't want to take people's rights away i want to give 3:51people rights forcing people to have fewer children does not work in fact the 3:59fastest and most efficient way to stabilize the world population is to 4:04send girls to school and to empower women and to give everyone access to an 4:09education on birth control and those are good things and as a culture we need to 4:15emphasize the benefits of having a one-child families so people will choose 4:19to have fewer kids because for thousands of years we've been inculcated with this 4:25ethic that big families are happy families and only children are lonely 4:30children 4:31couples like myself and my husband Ian have chosen not to have kids were 4:36childless instead of child free and myself several times i have been accused 4:43of being selfish because of my decision not to have children and all this made 4:49sense when it was important for us to procreate for our survival but now for 4:56our survival we have to not procreate and we have to change and rewire our 5:02biology and our culture to recognize the benefits of a one-child family because 5:07right now most of what we see is the negatives for example when the country's 5:13population falls there's all this economic doom and gloom in the media 5:16because capitalism is based on internal growth capitalism depends upon more and 5:23more consumers 5:25so yeah I'm population lowers the economy will suffer but it will suffer 5:32less than if there's no more oil and food and water because there are 10 5:38billion people on the planet in 40 years which is what the UN is projecting 5:43now you might be thinking okay this population issue sounds troublesome but 5:52we should be having the babies were smart and where educated and we listened 5:58to ted talks and we can afford kids and pack our offspring they they might save 6:04the world 6:05even my mom says 6:06alexandra you'd be such a good mother and your kids would be wonderful and 6:11they might be wonderful but they would also be wasteful because North Americans 6:17use 32 times the resources is someone from a developing country so it's even 6:22more important that we have smaller families for example some of the United 6:27States on averages a hundred and seventy six gallons of water a day compared to 6:33the average person from Africa who only uses five gallons a day and it's not 6:38just used to be poor countries either 6:41we here in the United States we use twice the energy as someone from France 6:45or England or Japan 6:47so yeah there are a lot of countries that have higher fertility rate than we 6:50do here in the United States but we all have to aspire to one child family 6:54especially those of us living here 6:59maybe you're thinking will don't worry Alexandra technology will save us 7:04and yes it's possible that we might be able to eat a few more years of 7:08resources because of some new inventions or technologies but in the end even if 7:14we can feed and house 7:1614 billion people what were their lives be like I mean the population is going 7:22to have to stop growing at some point so why not stop now instead of wishing that 7:27some invention or technology will save us that doesn't even exist yet we're not 7:32even sure works 7:34so for everyone to have quality of life 7:38the number of humans on earth needs to go down and i believe that it needs to 7:44go down to two billion people which sounds radical because there are 7 7:48billion people on the planet today but it's actually the world population of 7:53just 80 years ago so let's change our idea of what the ideal family looks like 8:01one is a beautiful number and let's not be afraid to talk about overpopulation 8:06because it is not about taking rights away from people 8:09it is about giving opportunities to women children and future generations 8:14and lastly 8:16let's be part of the solution and choose from now on to bring forth no more than 8:23one child ourselves 8:25thank you 8:33ok Published on Jan 3, 2013 Actress Alexandra Paul breaks the silence on one of the most taboo subjects of our time: human overpopulation and how to resolve the crisis that is adding 220,000 more people to the planet every day. In this fact filled talk, Alexandra discusses the overpopulation problems of 7 billion humans multiplying at a rate of 1 billion more people every 12 years and offers a simple solution: Transform negative cultural attitudes about the Only Child, and celebrate the short and long term benefits of small families. Alexandra reminds us that coercion in any form is not the answer to changing cultural and biological norms. Instead, rewiring our biology through strong cultural messaging, education of girls and empowerment of women are the solutions to stopping the current momentum towards 10 billion people on the planet in 40 years. Alexandra emphasizes that because each American born uses so many more resources than someone from a developing country, it is equally important that wealthy countries have small families. She discusses the economic tradeoffs of a smaller population in a world where capitalism reigns: because the capitalist system depends upon more and more consumers, there are strong forces at work to keep the numbers of people on earth growing. But at what expense? And since human numbers cannot keep getting larger forever, at what point will we change our ways? When it is too late? Most controversially, Alexandra believes that, if humans are to survive on this planet, the ideal family has one child and the ideal number of people on earth is 2 billion. 'If that is too radical, then it is time for radicalism. Too much is at stake to be polite.' This talk is full of overpopulation facts. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations) Category Education License Standard YouTube License SHOW LESS COMMENTS • 2,310