He Only Saved a Billion People

[Fountain79]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19886675/site/newsweek/

July 30, 2007 issue - It's a trifecta much bigger and rarer than an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony. Only five people in history have ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal: Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel ... and Norman Borlaug.

Norman who? Few news organizations covered last week's Congressional Gold Medal ceremony for Borlaug, which was presided over by President Bush and the leadership of the House and Senate. An elderly agronomist doesn't make news, even when he is widely credited with saving the lives of 1 billion human beings worldwide, more than one in seven people on the planet.

[Kagemusha]

1. So why isn't this man hated more than Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined?

Overpopulation being the scourge of the planet and all.

That's a somewhat rhetorical question but it's not sarcasm at all. I'd like to know who finds this man's work admirable and why.

[slowry]

2. One question about your post:

WHAT????///

[Fountain79]

3. Why wouldn't you?

You'd prefer people to die from starvation?

[Kagemusha]

9. No, personally I wouldn't, but overpopulation is considered such a scourge,

it makes me wonder why people consider someone who expanded the food base, which has the effect of not just "saving 1 billion people" but ensuring another billion + are born, a hero for ostensibly making the problem worse.

In other words, human suffering aside.. which I generally don't like.. why aren't people on this guy's case for helping to kill the planet? Because you would think that's exactly what people would consider him to have done, and I was wondering if maybe that's why we don't hear this guy praised to the sky.

[dorkulon]

13. Do you have children? nt

[cynatnite]

14. Blaming someone who saved lives...

for overpopulation is pretty fucked up.

Overpopulation is a breeding issue that doesn't need to be dealt with by starving people to death.

[Kagemusha]

15. I give up... I apologize, publicly, LOUDLY, I am sorry.

I don't have anything against this man, I never did and never would, I just couldn't understand how he'd be praised when so many people consider overpopulation to be a crisis on par with global warming. Whatever the reason, I was completely wrong and he is being praised. And overpopulation is being said to have nothing to do with the food supply at all.

I'm not going to argue the point. I'm sorry.

[cynatnite]

17. He's praised because he helps to feed the starving and saves lives...

But you're taking it to mean that he is contributing to overpopulation by feeding the starving.

Overpopulation is a breeding issue and that's how it should be dealt with.

[bryant69]

21. And for that matter why are people on President Bush's case

He's trying to save the planet by wiping out as many as he can. Aren't we liberals in favor of saving the planet?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[speakclearly]

20. I have heard about people hating their.....

neighbor. Even people hating their country. You are the first that I know of the hates "humanity". Welcome to DU!

[dalaigh lllama]

26. "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

"I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there."

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. ... It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly."


Not going to flame here. I know sometimes I get so despairing of what the human race has done to itself and to the earth that I wonder if perhaps earth wouldn't be better off sending humans the way of the dinosaurs, but those are my darkest moments. I don't know the answer to overpopulation, but hope we can come up with a better solution than the old standbys: war, famine, and pestilence.

[cynatnite]

4. I think feeding the hungry is a noble thing...

As far as overpopulation that's a breeding issue. People need to be educated about reproducing responsibly and be given access to birth control. Part of the problem is a govt. like ours that finances programs as long as they are abstinence only, ignores abortion as an option and religion that says 'go forth and multiply' based on an outdated book.

There is no excuse for letting a human being go hungry and dying as a result.

[sinkingfeeling]

18. And literally pays people to have children. How many of you, like me, know a family of

14 or 16 with an income of $19,000? They get deductions from their taxes, child credits, and earned income rebates, plus government assistance to feed and clothe the kids. We use the tax code to encourage this. I'm a strong believer in zero population growth, you reproduce yourself and that's it. If more people did this, then more could fund their own children's needs. (Of course, I'm in favor of helping those with less income and freeing them from overwhelming tax burdens, but we need to discourage more and more children).

[Betty]

5. I agree that overpopulation is a problem, but

I don't think the way to deal with it is to let 1 billion people starve to death. Bush is to be more hated on that count, one of the first things he did as "president" was to pull funding for birth control from countries where they might use the money for abortions..I can't remember all the deatils, but I am pretty sure that was the gist of it.

At any rate, we need to stop people from having unwanted children in the first place.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. We also need to make sure their children will live and grow up as well.

Then they might not have so many kids to make sure that a few of them grow up to support the parents when they are old. The prenatal/neonatal/childhood care needs to come along with the birth control information.

Germaine Greer wrote a book about this. "Sex and Destiny:The Politics of Human Fertility".

[neuvocat]

6. Have you ever faced starvation?

It is such a horrible thing and to go through it changes you thoroughly to the point where no matter what your prejudices, likes, dislikes, whatever happen to be, you can never let another person suffer the way you did.

[varkam]

7. I say we eat the poor.

Kills two birds with one stone!

:sarcasm:

[liberalmuse]

10. Well, I guess if you were one of the billion people...

who didn't have to die a slow, horrible, agonizing death, you might think he was kinda cool. That being said, if someone were to kill a billion people, would that make them admirable?

[dorkulon]

8. "We can blame the mindless media for failing to keep us better informed about

how $95 billion a year is hijacked by a few powerful corporate interests. But we can also blame ourselves."

I think Ill go with blaming the media. It's not like Einstein was famous because everyone read his scientific papers.

[Dogmudgeon]

12. Has he won the Nobel Prize yet?

He's in his 90s and still active in the service of Humankind. One of my heroes, for certain.

--p!

[AngryAmish]

19. A Noble Peace Prize in the 70s I think

on edit: He won in 1970.

[Fovea]

16. The Green Revolution

Is a mixed bag for me. The overutilization of fertilizer and ammonia may yet prove to have a double whammy.
On one hand, the one billion saved by artificially extending the carrying capacity of the planet will become the parents of four billion, and so on. And, by using fertilizers to the point where run off is not absorbable before it discharges into the sea, we are killing a large part of the gulf of mexico and other zones under similar stress.

The butane weevil cultivator made agriculture far less labor intensive and created an african american urban migration in the 50;s that lead to white flght and the exurban commuter lifestyle.

When the petroleum/ natural gas crash occurs, the die off is higher.

OTOH, soil and climate adapted organisms were a big step in the right direction. I foresee the long term food need of the 21st C. to be to utilize foodstuffs grown or raised in a 20 mile zone around one for at least 75% of one's consumed food. Poor soil will not be farmed, but grazed. Meat will be less finished. Micro Farms will be common even in sight of urban cores. Most goods will be only be onroad from the farm to the rail spur, and from the market, bakery, or whatever to the user. The Exurbanities and those quasi rural bedroom communities are in for hard times, gas price wise.

And we are growing corn with ammonia to use as a gasoline substitute. That says something right there.

[progressoid]

23. Yep, I was about to post that this is a double edged sword.

While these advances have greatly helped keep reasonable priced food on the table, it has also spawned a corporate farming behemoth that has put land stewardship on the back burner.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. Yup, definitely a mixed blessing

an entering wedge for agribusiness and GM crops.

The problem has rarely been low-yield, but distribution of resources. The rich never starve unless there's a war on.

[KitSileya]

22. Anyone who watche the West Wing knows who Norman Borlaug is.

In the episode 'In This White House', the 4th episode of the second season, viewers were told who he was, and what his great achievment meant, especially for the population of India.

Liberal tv is intelligent tv.

[YOY]

24. Yeah but there are lefties who hate the guy

The whole "frankenfoods" thing.

I think he's a treasure.

[LeftishBrit]

25. A great man!

He does need to be better known.

Re the overpopulation issue: in fact, people tend to limit their families much more once they know that most or all of their children will survive. Population growth is actually lower in the better-off countries, where people are secure that they and their children will not starve, or die from preventable diseases, than in developing countries where it's much less certain that a child will live to grow up.