Sir David Attenborough: 'We are a plague on the Earth'

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
1/24/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Filmmaker and naturalist has grim prognosis for humanity

Famed British naturalist and television presenter Sir David Attenborough has offered a particularly bleak view of the human race. "We are a plague on the Earth," Attenborough told the Radio Times. "It's coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so."

'Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now,' he said.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Climate change and "sheer space," Attenborough says, are looming problems for humanity.

"Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now," he said.

Another environmentalist offers the same bleak vision. Paul Ehrlich, the president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University and author of the 1968 study, "The Population Bomb" has long used language similar to Attenborough's. In addition, a 2011 analysis of species loss suggested that humans are beginning to cause a mass extinction on the order of the one that killed the dinosaurs.

When Ehrlich was asked about Attenborough's comments on humanity as its own scourge, he "completely agree[d], as does every other scientist who understands the situation.""

Ehrlich offers a highly controversial prescription to save humanity. "Government propaganda, taxes, giving every sexually active human being access to modern contraception and backup abortion, and, especially, giving women absolutely equal rights and opportunities with men might very well get the global population shrinkage required if a collapse is to be avoided," Ehrlich said.

Ehrlich says that providing free, reliable birth control to women could prevent between 41 percent and 71 percent of abortions in the United States. He cited a study detailed in the Oct. 4, 2012, issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Other scientists lent their support to the heart of Attenborough's message.

"It's clear that increasing population growth makes some of our biggest environmental challenges harder to solve, not easier," Jerry Karnas, population campaign director for the Center for Biological Diversity said.

"What's needed is not population control but a real emphasis on reproductive rights, women's empowerment, universal access to birth control and education, so more freedom for folks to make better, more informed family planning choices," Karnas added.

And population numbers would matter less for the planet's health if clean renewable energy were widely adopted as well as planning laws, he said.

� 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Sir Richard Attenborough, glum prediction, population,

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1 - 9 of 9 Comments

DLL
3 months ago
This guy is typical not unique,I hear this point of view every day! YAWN !
eithena
3 months ago
Everyone is entitled 2 their opion but isnt it funny that these old foggy.s r death on LIFE y cant they be postive is that 2 much 2 ask O thats right they.ve no HOPE the dont have GOD they ask me where is my hope and i say my hope is in the LORD WHO MADE HEAVEN+EARTH
Joe
3 months ago
It's ideology masquerading as science, and population control theory is based on invalid scientific conclusions as the Population Research Institute has shown in it's studies. Men like this not only scandalize science and misrepresent its harmony with religion, they also denigrate the dignity of the human person reducing man to a parasite. Is it any wonder that in our modern age we still deal with holocausts, abortion, pornography, religious persecution, and child abuse on large scales because provincial prophets of doom such as Attenborough fuel the relativistic and reductionist agendas of soft despots in politics, education, and business? It's secular messianism masquerading as rational thought and distorting the role man plays as a steward of creation in an intelligible universe. Scientists such as this disgrace the nobility of their profession by mixing scientific inquiry (which the Church invented) with erroneous philosophy. (For Faith and Understanding: CCC 156-159).
Helen Hawkins
3 months ago
Words of comfort for the human race.

The future belongs to those people whose parents had children.

The future does not belong to the likes Ehrlich and Attenborough or their followers
Toni
3 months ago
Attenborough is a deeply troubled individual to think this way.
Of course, I bet he doesn't think of himself or his kin this way.
Just you and yours.
Elayne Cipolla
3 months ago
His hypocrisy knows no bounds. He looks pretty healthy, wealthy and well-fed. I love it when these people come about with their comments on population control and how there won't be enough of anything if the population of the world continues to increase. My first instinct is to reply, "You first, pal." He's lived a pretty long life and a good one at that. To quote Charles Dickens, "Maybe in the eyes of God, you are less fit to live than this poor man's son...." Of course, these hypocrites NEVER include themselves in these grand schemes. The idea being that they are smarter and wiser and more deserving of the resources the earth provides. God created this world for all people to live in because of His immense love. God always provides for those who are willing to live by the laws and love of the Lord.
vance
3 months ago
Another atheist disciple of Richard Malthus. These are sick and twisted individuals who have been elevated to some form of dignity by their radical left-wing college professor brothers and sisters. Sadly, the Baby Boom Liberal lemmings latched on to this garbage and ran with it. Attenborough is well renowned among the elite of the Marxist Democrat Party.
abey
3 months ago
He has cleverly omitted the word "Gay Agendas" to the population control, which is but to say he represents today's knighthood who discount the words in "Christ & Faith" to its meanings in their observations to the conclusions even unto a la Evolution. The greatest danger unto man to his fall is to lack The Spirit of truth in one.
rafaelmarie
3 months ago
MORE LIKE UTOPIANS ARE THE PLAGUE OF THE EARTH BY TRYING TO CREATE A UTOPIA WITHOUT GOD???

WHAT ALWAYS HAPPENS IT THAT THEY DO THE OPPOSITE AND CREATE HELLS ON EARTH. E.G., MILLIONS OF MURDERED BABIES, EUTHANIZATION OF THE HELPLESS, RATIONING OF LIFE SAVING HEALTHCARE, COMMUNISM/SOCIALISM, WARS, ETC., ETC., ETC..

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