How I Chose not to Work in Family Planning

Meet my new favorite charity: Marie Stopes International, providing family planning services all around the world.

According to Intelligent Giving, they spend 99% of their budget on actual charity work..Earthmother bless those kids. Ha, or lack of them!

As you all know, the environment is my top priority. But then I had a troubling thought sequence...starvation, poverty, diseases, most bad things in the world...CAUSED BY OVERPOPULATION! Environmental damage too is exponentially exacerbated by the absurd demands that are placed on the earth's limited carrying capacity. (Guess what? We've already passed it).

So then I think, "Oh my Earthmother! Must go work for nonprofit that teaches safe sex and passes out condoms in countries w/ high fertility rates!"

Will this little environmentalist really have to become a family planner in order to do the most that she can for protecting Mother Earth??

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Ok, the suspense is killing me too. After I looked at the "Careers" section over on the MSI page, I grabbed my teacup, and mulled things over by my window (Gazing on a very different source of MSI-the Museum of Science and Industry).

And then I think: actually, environmental degradation is not caused by extreme population demands. Some of the greatest environmental disasters of our history have had little to do with too many people spilling over into the forest next to them, and mostly to do with a few white men destructing the natural world in the name of false progress and development, all to achieve their sneaky goals of capitalist and imperialist world domination. No, really, that's actually how it happens...

New thought: most forest acres chopped by industrial interests, NOT local villagers needing more space for their cows.

A small group of people does not guarantee an automatic respect and reverence for the land and resources around them. Sadly, not at all. Also, communities should be taught how to grow in a sustainable way. I'm not just saying, kill all people now for the sake of "nature." There are ways to grow, expand, develop, in a make-everybody-happy way. Except the fortune 500 CEO's, of course, but who cares about those guys?

Is overpopulation caused by global market demands? Kind of, but I think the heart of it is a lack of education (which of course serves capitalist forces quite well).

Which brings me back to industrialization, commercialism, and globalization..all of which are necessitated by capitalism..which really is the root of all evil.

And so, I rededicate myself to working on a community, grassroots level fighting these intrusions. Hopefully on agriculture. I think that's going to be my new concentration. Sound idealistic and just plain unsuccessful? Look at how the Bolivian people managed to protect their water rights from Pepsi! No, really, look it up!

*I can fight overpopulation to protect the environment, or fight the destructive industrial forces that are ruining our planet's environment. The latter is just more direct.