Crimes Against Earth: Overpopulation
July 23, 2024
by William P. Meyers

Site Search

Popular pages:

Birth Control is a Necessity; Outlawing It a Crime

Overpopulation, the fact of it, remains controversial. Right-wingers tend to treat it as a bunch of bs. On the left many feel any attempts to rectify it, or supporting such policies, will get them labeled racist. Vegetarians believe the problem (ecological collapse) will go away if we just all stop eating meat. It won't. Overpopulation is destroying this planet. This essay assumes we need to rapidly decrease human reproduction to one child per couple, on average. For more on that see my Wonderful World of One Billion series of essays.

Holding people responsible for their actions has always been a problem for human societies. Because ecological destruction is a global fact, we need to take a global approach to reversing. We need to make the planet healthy again. That will require a Government of Earth. Given the current primarily anarchist-nationalist system, a Provisional Government of Earth is being organized to make a path to an effective global government. See my Provisional Government of Earth page for links to a series of essays on that topic.

Even if the transition to an effective Provisional Government of Earth (PGE) is successful, it is likely to take years, as powerful interests must be overthrown. While there are already some international, national, and local environmental regulations in place, it is important to get criminals who commit Crimes Against Earth to change their actions as soon as possible. That means more that just letting people know what laws will be once the PGE gains power. There may be disputes in the future, within the PGE and the eventual government of earth, about what exactly the new laws will be and what the penalties will be for breaking them. As explained in my essay on Ex Post Facto laws, we need to treat proposals of the PGE (or its committees) as law. No one should escape punishment for crimes by claiming they are ex post facto. Study the Tokyo War Crimes Trial for arguments on the issue of what is a human law. [See Judgment at Tokyo by Gary J. Bass]

I declare that, as a supporter of the Provisional Government of Earth, the denial of birth control, including access to abortion, is a high crime, treason against the earth, punishable by fines, imprisonment, or death. This includes anyone in government who votes or rules against birth control access. Further, any policy, religious or governmental, that encourages large families will be treated as a crime against the earth.

On a positive note, I want to applaud those governments and societies that have already made sure that birth control is available and that are working to reduce their populations.