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A LETTER TO EVERYONE From the day we're born, all of us are inspired by our natural instinct to grow our physical abilities and knowledge, our family relationships, our talents, our friends, and our growing skills to work and earn a good living so we can grow our bank accounts and enjoy "the good life", and then advance our good reputation as successful men and women in a prosperous economy for a nation of growing influence around the World ---- which becomes a problem if other people in other nations push forward with their own agenda = World Wars One and Two, and the recently ended "Cold War" with the former Soviet Union. But even if all the people of the World learn to live together peacefully for growing trade and expanding global cooperation, it can't go on forever. Why? Because the Earth, the planet we live on, is not growing. In fact, with each volcano and earthquake, it is slowly cooling and shrinking, as it has from its beginning with the Sun as an enormous cloud of hot, swirling gases slowly cooling and forming the planets Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars Earth, Venus and Mercury. Yet, it's hard to find scientists, economists or anyone to admit that, because almost everyone assumes we must go right on growing our families and expanding our careers and business investments forever; and millions see their own children as a financial investment to make the family rich, so the more the better! Why not?! It's certainly good for business to promote a growing population of ambitious consumers who always buy more products every year. A favorite slogan is "A growing economy is a healthy economy." If only we could somehow make our planet grow right along with us, there would always be more of everything for everyone, right? So the astronomers and astro-physicists are busy searching the night sky for other life-supporting planets orbiting other stars like our Sun, if only we could travel millions of miles into outer space. Problem solved! We'll send high tech robots that don't need food, water, air or sunlight, produce no sewage or garbage and require only a little oil, recharge and a replacement part once in awhile. Later we'll invent a safe method of suspended animation, like Sigourney Weaver had in those three sci-fi "Alien" films, so living astronauts can sleep through the exciting adventure of space travel (!) But there is another problem. While scientists and businessmen are busy planning to conquer the universe, our human population keeps on growing, now 7 billion and counting. So, we face a very difficult question: How many people can the Earth support? We must find an answer now because, not only is it slowly shrinking, as a living system, it is struggling to neutralize the ever-growing mass of our trash, junk and sewage with more violent storms and floods, huge tornados, droughts and raging wildfires, all happening now around the World because every day growing tons of garbage and sludge are dumped in the ocean, lakes and rivers, while big cities like Los Angeles are surrounding themselves with growing mountains of "landfill", while growing thousands of coal-fired power plants and growing thousands of jet planes are spewing out growing tons of toxic smoke and exhaust fumes, and occasionally an oil well is operated below safety standards and suddenly spills tons of crude oil onto land and into the sea. But how much can the Earth absorb? Each one of us is born with an "auto-immune system", so if germs make you sick with the "common cold", without you having to think about it, your body will automatically raise your temperature, make you sneeze and cough up phlegm, blow out nasal fluid, need more water and fruit juice and more sleep, during which time the white cells in your blood stream will surround and kill the virus invaders. But if you've been drinking coffee, alcoholic beverages, smoking cigarettes and staying up late, you immune system could be so weak your cold may turn into a fatal case of pneumonia. Likewise with planet Earth. It has its own auto-immune system that constantly absorbs and recycles everything in rainstorms and flooding rivers, hurricanes and tornados, hot summer and cold winter seasons. Everything is always moving and changing, because the Earth is a "biosphere", not cold and dead like Mars, or broiling hot like Venus, but a living, breathing weather system of four seasons we all depend on to grow and store our food and water and to breathe fresh air from the photosynthesis of natural forests and the phytoplankton in the ocean that together convert the carbon dioxide we exhale into the oxygen we must inhale to stay alive. If that systen collapses from the growing mass of our pollution, every living thing on Earth will die. Therefore, our lifetime job should be to protect that biosphere so our children will have a safe and healthy place to live and grow. We should give that to them as their birthright with food, clothing, shelter, love, friendship and education, which can only exist on a life-supporting planet. To do this successfully, two things must be accomplished as soon as possible: 1. Safely recycle 100% of all garbage and waste materials, or close down their source. For example, there is no such thing as "clean coal technology" because even if all the smoke from coal-fired power plants could somehow be "scrubbed", there would soon be a gigantic tonnage of carbon waste and no safe place for it. Some say bury it, but it would eventually mix with ever-seeping ground water and leach into streams and lakes. But the coal seams in their original underground locations were harming no one, because over eons of time by slow geologic permutations, the Earth isolates its many toxic elements, including coal, oil and uranium, so life can evolve. The only reason we need coal, oil and uranium is to supply our massively growing population. 2. Peacefully establish family planning clinics in every neighborhood in every village, town and city where each woman is given the legally protected right to freely decide if and when to birth her children. Very few women want 6, 7, 8 kids. More want none at all, but the vast majority want no more than 1, 2 or 3. Abortion is rarely necessary because thousands of childless couples are waiting to adopt. In this way, the human race can live in a natural balance with a healthy biosphere that provides everything we need because, with less people, work is more valuable with plenty of resources for everyone, and thus no possibility of obsessively growing super corporations or massive federal bureacracies, no overcrowded cities infested with crime and crooked politics, no thousands of air-polluting coal-fired power plants, no thousands of oil wells spilling from unsafe rigs and platforms. Modern technology has already developed cleaner sources of electricity, like solar, wind, geo-thermal, tidal and battery-powered vehicles, which are perfect for a smaller and more sensitive human population working as a friendly network of locally sovereign towns and villages who trade freely for everyone's mutual benefit. We have the scientific ability to create a virtual paradise on Earth for everyone and everyone's children for a million years and beyond, or we can let our predatory instincts grow and drive us blindly and stupidly into ecocide and self-extinction. So, how many people can learn about this dilemma now, today, tomorrow, next week, next month and throughout this year and next? Is there still enough time to change, and will enough people think about it and make a rational choice? If you pass this letter on to some one you know, that might help.
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