Word: cairo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...embrace the principle of contraceptive discretion without entering into the Cairo debate -- Thomas Malthus vs. the More the Merrier School. Many conservatives, and such resolutely unalarmed observers of the world environment as the economist Julian Simon, see more people as the planet's greatest asset, economic and otherwise, and argue that in a free-market economy, sperm, ovaries and Adam Smith conspire to produce the best of all possible worlds. Let a billion flowers bloom. I consider this also to be a form of argumentative neurosis...
...United Nations Conference on Population in Cairo leaves us with a lot to think about -- most of it charged with acute self-loathing. Why did I have those kids? responsible citizens might ask themselves, or, Why don't I ease the problem by just dropping dead right now? From a hard-nosed ecological viewpoint, humans -- along with their Styrofoam and cellophane leavings -- have become a form of pollution. One population expert, anthropologist Warren Hern of the University of Colorado, has even taken to calling our species an "ecotumor" or "planetary malignancy" that is recklessly devouring its host, the poor Earth...
...obvious bright side of overpopulation, then, is that no one -- not even a Pontiff -- can tell women that they must hew to their traditional role or risk letting the human race die out. This was the bottom-line argument against women's liberation in the 19th century. But in Cairo the priests and mullahs could hardly invoke biological necessity to silence the forces of feminism. It's not just that women's empowerment is "the new population control weapon," as the New York Times proclaims. Empowerment is also women's overdue reward for filling the planet with humans...
...happiest consequence of overpopulation, which no one at Cairo dared say and probably few have even ventured to think, is that sex can finally, after all these centuries, be separated from the all-too-serious business of reproduction. Technology has made it possible to uncouple sex and babymaking; ecology has made it necessary. Now all that remains is for us to make the cultural leap to an ecologically responsible sexual ethic. This means, at a minimum, guaranteeing contraception, with abortion as a backup, to all who might need it. But it also means telling our teenagers the hard ecological truth...
...Cairo Conference Concurs...