Golden Rice

Overpopulation

Published by Papa Giorgio

UPDATE

I mainly uploaded this blurb because of the updated birth rat in America. It was 2.1 a while back — now it is 1.7. Which…. I guess will replace in time a majority of the secular people with a more religious family oriented sub-set. However, the economy and our retiring population need money put into the system to get the monies promised them. But there is a lot of other stuff in here that is worth while (like some transgender realities as well). See more of the original Ben Shapiro excerpt on his YouTube channel.

(The Below Was Originally Posted: June 29, 2017)

Both HUFFPO and THE DAILY MAIL discuss the above rendering, here is the opener:

If you took all the world’s population and dumped them into the Grand Canyon they wouldn’t fill a fraction of it.

In fact the 7.2 billion people would only form a comparatively tiny pile – as shown in this fascinating mock-up image.

The graphic was put together by respected YouTube presenter Michael Stevens on his Vsauce channel, which juxtaposes the population of the world alongside the famous deep canyon by the Colorado River – situated in Arizona…..

This post was inspired, by the way, because of a challenge posted on my Facebook. I will include some of the discussion from it as well as videos.

This is a statement made recently on my Facebook:

“Go forth and be fruitful.” I think mankind has been more than “fruitful”. Earth overpolulated. Birth control a no brainer, and I’m not not talking condoms.Nobody is “pro-abortion .The “pill” negligible in health care costs. Never should have let some companies opt out of the pill. Stone-agers…. I’m sure God loves watching 30,090 of his children starve to death every day. We are over-populated, despite the garbage that “study” foments. Great thing about the medieval era, they slaughtered folks by the thousands Genocide just part of “nation building” for the crown.

I will omit the name of the person out of respect in my response[s]:

We are not overpopulated? That is one of the dumbest things I hear from the left (hence, you). Firstly, children dying of starvation has N O T H I N G to do with overpopulation. Do you think it does?

WORLD FOOD PRODUCTION

Right now the world produces enough food for 10-billion people. [We have about 7.2 billion right now.] And every year we find new ways to produce, irrigate, and the like to produce even more. Why most children die of starvation in the world is because of regimes typically based on regimes either Islamic in nature of far-left (socialist, Communist, Marxist — for the most part they are not shining examples of the free-market).

STATISTICS USED

I want you to especially respond to this question: where did you get your number from? That is, where are you getting your number 30,090 starve to death every day? I mean:

★ approximately 153 thousand people die every day. 30 thousand people would be 19% of this number, and I find it highly unlike that 19% of the world is dying every day from starvation.

GREEN ENERGY

IF — [India-Foxtrot] — you are soo concerned about starvation [aside from your fictitious numbers], you would be against GREEN ENERGY. Why? Because green energy raises the price of food, dramatically. (You really are not concerned about starvation, but Leftism.)

POPULATION GROWTH

Between 1950 and 2000, the world population grew at a rate of 1.76%. Between 2000 and 2050, it is expected to grow by 0.77 percent.

ALASKA

Example: If you put all 7 billion Earth Inhabitants in the State of Alaska, each person would have an average of 2,271.60 square feet of land. That area would be large enough to build a 4 bedroom house for each of the World’s 7 billion inhabitants!

NATION STATES

You could also put all 7 billion inhabitants in nearly any of the World’s Nation States–except perhaps the smallest island or nation states–without running out of room. Any one of the four largest countries–after Russia–China, USA, Canada, and Brazil could provide more than 16,000 square feet per person. In USA, it would be 16,502 average square feet of land for each of the 7 billion world inhabitants if all moved to the NEARLY 100 Trillion square feet of land in the United States of America, excluding the US Territories.

My friend gave me this pat response:

Maybe in Utopia, Sean. Or Atlantis. Good luck with that. Too many man-made barriers. Put down your Bibles and come back to the real world. Idjets! [see note below] …. And let’s not even get into the starving and malnourished. God does not provide for all. There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed the world. 

In later conversation the friend challenging me corrected his stats to 21,000 people dying of malnutrition/starvation per day.

However, it is primarily the Left who want more death versus less of it.They are the one’s worried about overpopulation.

It is the Left who blocks such things as Golden Rice, DDT, pushes bio-fuels which drives up food costs which affect the poor communities especially [etc, etc].

Not conservatives.

You should say in place of your “God does not provide for all”  ~ “Government models do not provide for all” (referencing totalitarian governments who misuse state funds). Then Parents are next in line in the “not providing” line (parents spending money on drugs, alcohol, or gambling rather than the well being of their children).

  • [Again] There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed the world (see above).

Texas has 7,494,271,488,000 Sq. Ft.

There are 7,200,000,000 people in the world.

That means each person would get almost 1041 Sq. Ft. apiece. Some families are large, some are small. Let us even it out with 4-per family. That means each family would get 4,163 Sq. Ft.

That is a house and lot to make food. OR, spread those people out in one country and irrigation, food production, etc. are in full swing.

My friend wraps up his naked-emperor side of the discussion:

Let’s close this out. Water…..(1% of available water on this planet is freshwater. L.A. can’t even find enough water. And you guys are “semi-developed”. What are you going to do? Move everyone to Minnesota? Good luck!

I give a final response:

[No luck, just common sense] …desalination plants and not high-speed rail. If you believe the governments OFFICIAL reports and Al Gore… RICH greenies can build these so we could drink away the rise of the seas.

Take HAITI, the top in the category of starvation/malnutrition. They have 298,689,177,600 Sq. Ft. Haiti’s population is 10.32 million. Each person gets 226,280 Sq. Ft. Government is said to be VERY corrupt and at time tyrannical.

Number two in starvation/malnutrition is ANGOLA. Angola has 13,419,379,353,600 Sq. Ft. Their population is 24,383,301. Every person in Angola gets 550,205 Sq. Ft. Angola’s government is corrupt and almost all the parties “voted” into power are Marxist, socialist, Communist, and the like.

I could go on, but “overpopulation” is not the issue here.

Here is the side-note:

BTW, the Judeo-Christian construct [esp. the Christian theistic worldview] is the best worldview to operate from in order to search well for AND to test truth by. In ALL matter of faith and non-faith.

All 10,000 [+] religions in the world break down into just 7-worldviews (actually, most into three BIGGIES). The Judaic/Christian worldview is the most coherent model to form a working epistemology from. SO, I will N-O-T put my Bible down… thank you very much. My worldview responds to what every worldview should, except better than others:

1) Ultimate Reality ~ What kind of God, if any, actually exists?
2) External Reality ~ Is there anything beyond the cosmos?
3) Knowledge ~ What can be known, and how can anyone know it?
4) Origin ~ Where did I come from?
5) Identity ~ Who am I?
6) Location ~ Where am I?
7) Morals ~ How should I live?
8) Values ~ What should I consider of great worth?
9) Predicament ~ What is humanity’s fundamental problem?
10) Resolution ~ How can humanity’s problem be solved?
11) Past / Present ~ What is the meaning and direction of history?
12) Destiny ~ Will I survive the death of my body and, if so, in what state?

WORLDVIEW

  • American Heritage Dictionary: 1) The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world; 2) A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group.
  • “A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our well being.” James W. Sire, Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept, 122
  • “Ours is an age of religious cacophony, as was the Roman Empire of Christ’s time. From agnosticism to Hegelianism, from devil-worship to scientific rationalism, from theosophical cults to philosophies of process: virtually any worldview conceivable is offered to modern man in the pluralistic marketplace of ideas. Our age is indeed in ideological and societal agony, grasping at anything and everything that can conceivably offer the ecstasy of a cosmic relationship or of a comprehensive Weltanschauung [worldview].” Faith Founded on Fact: Essays in Evidential Apologetics (Newburgh, IN: Trinity Press, 1978), 152-153.
  • People have presuppositions, and they will live more consistently on the basis of these presuppositions than even they themselves may realize. By “presuppositions” we mean the basic way an individual looks at life, his basic worldview, the grid through which he sees the world. Presuppositions rest upon that which a person considers to be the truth of what exists. People’s presuppositions lay a grid for all they bring forth into the external world. Their presuppositions also provide the basis for their values and therefore the basis for their decisions. ‘As a man thinketh, so he is,’ is really profound. An individual is not just the product of the forces around him. He has a mind, an inner world. Then, having thought, a person can bring forth actions into the external world and thus influence it. People are apt to look at the outer theater of action, forgetting the actor who “lives in the mind” and who therefore is the true actor in the external world. The inner thought world determines the outward action. Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society the way a child catches measles. But people with more understanding realize that their presuppositions should be chosen after a careful consideration of what worldview is true. When all is done, when all the alternatives have been explored, ‘not many men are in the room’ — that is, although worldviews have many variations, there are not many basic worldviews or presuppositions. Quoted from, Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1976), 19-20.
  • Alexander W. Astin dissected a longitudinal study conducted by UCLA started in 1966 for the Review of Higher Education [journal] in which 290,000 students were surveyed from about 500 colleges. The main question was asked of students why study or learn? “Seeking to develop ‘a meaningful philosophy of life’” [to develop a meaningful worldview] was ranked “essential” by the majority of entering freshmen. In 1996 however, 80% of the college students barely recognized the need for “a meaningful philosophy of life” and ranked “being very well off financially” [e.g., to not necessarily develop a meaningful worldview] as paramount.
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What Is the Cause of the Violent Arab Spring? Global Warming of Course

Published by Papa Giorgio

In the above audio of Prager he is talking about this article, “The Scary Hidden Stressor,” by Thomas Friedman. The following article is also mentioned in the above audio:

Dennis Prager’s Column:

Last week, Bjørn Lomborg, the widely published Danish professor and director of one of the world’s leading environmental think tanks, the Copenhagen Consensus Center, published an article about the Philippines’ decision, after twelve years, to allow genetically modified (GM) rice — “golden rice” — to be grown and consumed in that country.

The reason for the delay was environmentalist opposition to GM rice; and the reason for the change in Philippine policy was that 4.4 million Filipino children suffer from Vitamin-A deficiency, and golden rice contains Vitamin A.

Vitamin-A deficiency, Lomborg writes, “according to the World Health Organization, causes 250,000 to 500,000 children to go blind each year. Of these, half die within a year.” During the twelve-year delay, Lomborg continues, “about 8 million children worldwide died from Vitamin-A deficiency.”

Using golden rice is by far the most effective and cheapest way to get Vitamin A into Third World children.

So who would oppose something that could save millions of children’s lives and millions of other children from blindness?

The answer is people who are more devoted to nature than to human life.

And who might such people be?

They are called environmentalists.

These are the people who coerced nations worldwide into banning DDT. It is generally estimated that this ban has led to the deaths of about 50 million human beings, overwhelmingly African children, from malaria. DDT kills the mosquito that spreads malaria to human beings.

U.S. News writer Carrie Lukas reported in 2010, “Fortunately, in September 2006, the World Health Organization announced a change in policy: It now recommends DDT for indoor use to fight malaria. The organization’s Dr. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah explained, ‘The scientific and programmatic evidence clearly supports this reassessment. Indoor residual spraying (IRS) is useful to quickly reduce the number of infections caused by malaria-carrying mosquitoes. IRS has proven to be just as cost effective as other malaria prevention measures and DDT presents no health risk when used properly.’”

Though Lukas blames environmentalists for tens of millions of deaths, she nevertheless describes environmentalists as “undoubtedly well-intentioned.”

As we end the above Leftist lunacy, we should remember well CS Lewis’ words about well-intentioned persons:

 “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

Golden Rice and Common Sense | Blood on Their Hands

Published by Papa Giorgio

Vitamin A Deficiency

Look at it … look at it! Ideas have consequences.

From video description:

Dennis Prager reads from the Lancet an article written by Bjorn Lomborg about Golden Rice, a genetically modified rice that has increased vitamin A in it (article: PROJECT SYNDICATE). Reason.com also quotes from it but also has a photo of one of the kids talked about for a reference to what is otherwise just talked about (REASON.ORG). Many deaths are on the heads of these eco-fascists, and even well-meaning people who get stuck in a rut of thinking one-way. 

From the PROJECT SYNDICATE article:

Three billion people depend on rice as their staple food, with 10% at risk for vitamin A deficiency, which, according to the World Health Organization, causes 250,000-500,000 children to go blind each year. Of these, half die within a year. A study from the British medical journal The Lancet estimates that, in total, vitamin A deficiency kills 668,000 children under the age of five each year.

Yet, despite the cost in human lives, anti-GM campaigners – from Greenpeace to Naomi Klein – have derided efforts to use golden rice to avoid vitamin A deficiency. In India, Vandana Shiva, an environmental activist and adviser to the government, called golden rice “a hoax” that is “creating hunger and malnutrition, not solving it.”…

To be sure, handing out vitamin pills or adding vitamin A to staple products can make a difference. But it is not a sustainable solution to vitamin A deficiency. And, while it is cost-effective, recent published estimates indicate that golden rice is much more so.

Supplementation programs costs $4,300 for every life they save in India, whereas fortification programs cost about $2,700 for each life saved. Both are great deals. But golden rice would cost just $100 for every life saved from vitamin A deficiency…

Now, finally, golden rice will come to the Philippines; after that, it is expected in Bangladesh and Indonesia. But, for eight million kids, the wait was too long.

“If you plan to destroy test fields to prevent responsible testing and development of Golden Rice for humanitarian purposes, you will be accused of contributing to a crime against humanity. Your actions will be carefully registered and you will, hopefully, have the opportunity to defend your illegal and immoral actions in front of an international court.” — Dr. Ingo Potrykus to Greenpeace, February 2001

CLIMATE DEPOT has this:

….According to the World Health Organization between 250,000 to 500,000 children become blind every year due to vitamin A deficiency, half of whom die within a year of becoming blind. Millions of other people suffer from various debilitating conditions due to the lack of this essential nutrient.

Golden Rice is a genetically modified form of rice that, unlike conventional rice, contains beta-Carotene in the rice kernel. Beta-Carotene is converted to vitamin A in humans and is important for eyesight, the immune system, and general good health. Swiss scientist and humanitarian Dr. Ingo Potrykus and his colleagues developed Golden Rice in 1998. It has been demonstrated in numerous studies that golden rice can eliminate vitamin A deficiency.

Greenpeace and its allies have successfully blocked the introduction of golden rice for over a decade, claiming it may have “environmental and health risks” without ever elaborating on what those risks might be. After years of effort the Golden Rice Humanitarian Project, led by Dr. Potrykus, The Rockefeller Foundation and others were unable to break through the political opposition to golden rice that was generated directly by Greenpeace and its followers.

Recently the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has taken a lead role, in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, in breaking through these barriers and bringing Golden Rice to market. Field trials are now underway in the Philippines and Bangladesh with the hope of introducing it to the market by 2015. Since the invention of Golden Rice in 1998 between four million and 8 million additional children have become blind, nearly half of whom have already died. Surely this constitutes “great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.” Greenpeace continues to oppose these field trials.

Greenpeace has openly and aggressively spread misinformation about Golden Rice since it was first invented and has continued to do so at every opportunity. They claim that there are better ways to alleviate vitamin A deficiency, such as vitamin pills and “home gardening”. Yet Greenpeace is doing nothing to implement alternative programs for the millions of victims, claiming the cause of vitamin A deficiency is “poverty”. One might ask if purposefully condemning millions of children to blindness and early death perpetuates poverty rather than alleviating it. Academies of Science around the world endorse the use of biotechnology, including genetic modification, to improve the nutrition and productivity of our food crops. There is zero evidence of any possible harm from these improvements….

…READ MORE…