Biodiversity First

We all agree that:

01) Biodiversity is defined as the quantity, quality and variety of native species.

02) Preserving biodiversity is essential to preserving our quality of life and survival.

03) Human population size and growth represent the biggest threat to biodiversity.

04) Earth's human population is over 10 times what is optimal.

05) Human overpopulation is responsible for hundreds of species extinctions.

06) Our unsustainably high population is incompatible with biodiversity preservation.

07) The more natural resources per capita, the higher our quality of life.

Points to ponder:

01) The right for other species to flourish and each human's right to ample food, fuel, water, freedom and opportunity trumps reproduction and migration rights.

02) Reducing population by modifying natal and immigration policies for all countries starting with our own is necessary for the brightest future.

03) The most effective foreign aid is financing for family planning education, contraceptives, and sterilizations.

04) Economic growth results from more people consuming more resources and is a recipe for collapse.

05) The foundation of our position is: Environmental Impact = Population X Per Capita Consumption

06) Any technology designed to conserve energy and resources is futile unless population growth stops.

07) Most technologies encourage population increase and per capita consumption increase.

08) A worldwide ban on building permits is needed because there are already more homes and buildings than our finite energy supplies can heat, cool and repair in the long term.

09) A major energy breakthrough such as thorium reactor technology or a massive oil discovery is not beneficial to humanity because it will only increase human numbers and human activity which will destroy quality of life and other species.

10) Governments worldwide should offer males and females generous compensation for getting sterilized.

11) Children without siblings benefit demonstrably from a monopoly of parental resources and attention.

12) One-child families are as psychologically healthy as multi-child families but much less ecologically harmful.

13) If money was awarded in exchange for not reproducing, reproduction would decline.

14) If fines were issued and privileges were revoked for reproducing, reproduction would decline.

15) Immigration destroys a nation's biodiversity by growing its human population and also worsens global overpopulation by allowing overpopulated countries with high fertility to continually export people.

16) Immigration to affluent countries reduces biodiversity both in the recipient country and globally because multiplying each immigrant's affluence allows them to consume more domestic and foreign resources.

17) Immigrants to affluent countries increase their fertility rate upon arrival.

18) Reducing population by reducing births and immigration is far more humane than the die-off that will happen to us if we don't.

19) Resources wasted on fertilization technologies including those which yielded octuplets in January 2009 should be redirected to assist local adoptions or preferably cash incentives to get sterilized.

20) "Smart growth" is a falsehood because urban people consume as much if not more resources per person than rural people (eg: rural people can grow their own food, gather their own fuel, use a clothesline) and more people eventually guarantees more consumption.

21) Public education/dialog/debate is essential for overpopulation awareness to reach a level that will provoke effective action.

22) Our goal should be educating the public so that they will demand overpopulation acknowledgement and action from their government, politicians, and media.

23) As a higher percentage of the public joins our cause, we can exert more pressure on government, politicians and media.

24) Mainstream media has promoted the false assertion that population growth and economic growth are desirable and inevitable, and that growth can and should go on forever in a finite world.

25) Broadcasters funded by taxation (eg: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, British Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) should be shut down if they continue to exclude and censor the overpopulation reality.

26) The corporate economic growth agenda should be removed from the media (eg: tv, radio, magazine, newspaper) by banning advertising and outlawing corporate donations, ownership and affiliation.

27) Barriers preventing small groups of individuals from creating radio and tv stations should be removed to allow more diversity of ideas.

28) Government funded radio, tv, magazine and newspapers are needed that exclusively present unedited and uncensored public opinion without advertisements and with equal opportunity for all citizens.

29) Electoral reform must include the ability for citizens to vote directly on all important issues.

30) Cultural diversity that comes at the cost of biological diversity is a fool’s bargain.

31) If multiculturalism requires population growth to outpace cultural assimilation, it is not sustainable and will destroy biodiversity.

32) Cultural or religious groups should not be exempted from limits on family size.

33) Our identity is rooted in our natural landscapes and wildlife, not in superficial cultural differences such as religion, language, costume, song or dance.

34) Authentic cultural diversity is lifestyle diversity not superficial racial diversity; and immigration-driven-population-growth is wiping out the possibility of diverse natural lifestyles by destroying the viability of hunting/gathering and homesteading.

35) Free speech should take priority over social, ethnic, cultural or religious harmony.

36) Mass immigration may actually be decreasing cultural diversity by replacing native rural cultures with a single urban consumer culture disconnected from nature. (Amazonians selling TVs in a Toronto mall do not add much cultural diversity to Canada because they can't bring the rainforest with them)

37) A breeding war to increase the numbers of one’s own tribe is morally reprehensible in the context of overpopulation.  Healthy biodiversity trumps religious, language and genetic affinities.

38) Once successful population reduction begins, conspicuous consumption should be outlawed including salaries over twice what is average, multiple or seasonal homes, multiple vehicles, fireworks, extravagant toys, etc.

39) Tourism should be discouraged since it attracts garbage, pollution, hunting and fishing pressure, and worst of all: potential permanent residents.

40) Man-made climate change from greenhouse gas emissions is not the worst environmental problem; habitat/biodiversity loss is.

41) If earth's natural resources were evenly distributed there still wouldn't be enough to go around because the rich are the extreme minority and there's still only 5 acres per person and much of that land is paved, polluted, mountainous, swamp, tundra, desert, etc.

42) Overpopulation leads to a diseconomy of scale meaning that the more people there are, the more resources it takes to keep each person alive.  (Population growth causes each person to become increasingly dependent on increasingly complex and energy-expensive technologies; and war over scarce resources also consumes resources.)

43) People who have many children are effectively stealing from the rest of us by spoiling our environment and making us work harder to survive in an evermore competitive world of scarce resources.

Brishen Hoff

President of Biodiversity First