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Too Many People

For once, I'd love to see an unscripted Presidential debate -- where the topics and questions are not vetted beforehand -- with a substantial focus on the fundamental problem of human existence in the 21st Century: too many damn people on Earth.  One of the nice things about the Affordable Care Act is that it established free birth control to those who previously had the barrier of cost; multiple studies have shown the positive effect of free birth control, from a dramatic reduction of teen pregnancy to a decrease in the number of abortions.  Sure, condom use would offer some of those benefits, but placing power in the hands of women is a good thing.

7BillionAndCounting.org is also advocating condom usage to combat overpopulation.  Some of their numbers on population are stunning -- the global population has doubled since the year of my birth (3.5B in 1970 to over 7B today) and 85M people are added to the planet per year, with the global projections at 9B by 2050 -- but they're not beyond our span of control as a global body.  And if we can get a handle on our exploding population, we can address the other things impacted by such an explosion, such as the loss of biodiversity and the depletion of natural resources.

Do I think it will happen?  Honestly, the pessimist in me doesn't see how it will be possible, especially with the billions in India and China that will strive for the improved quality of life projected to them through the refraction of American popular culture.  But it would be fantastic to be proven wrong on this one.  I don't think it will impact me as much as it will the generations after me, those peoples who will have to carve out a new form of existence.  Good luck to you all.

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