Israel, Pronatalism, Degrowth

The Folly of Pronatalism

The Israeli situation is a classic example of the folly of pronatalism. Golda Meir encouraged new settlers to ‘out birth’ the indigenous Arab population, and Yasser Arafat retaliated in the same vein. A shameful policy that showed how little humanity learned from the tragedy of World War II. Consequently, Israel is one of the most overpopulated pieces of land on Earth. No wonder it is now a powder-keg. The data available from the Global Footprint Network, see graph above, reveals that consumption levels exceeded the available biocapacity by a factor of 17 in 2022.

My own mother was Jewish; and I studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to attain a degree in Mathematics and Physics. My mother gave me a hard time over my own decision not to have children; she resented my care-free lifestyle, and she resented not having any grand-children. Whilst living in Israel, I gained first-hand experience of the powerful pronatalism that prevails in the Jewish culture.

A recent ICMGLT webinar featured an Israeli Professor of History. He bemoaned the meagre size of the global Jewish population, and was looking for sympathy. I pitched in (at 1:14) about eco-systems collapse, and did my best to give him a hard time about pronatalist cultures and growth economics. The whole world is a powder-keg because of the escalating existential pressures and the collective reluctance of humanity to deliberately steer in the direction of economic Degrowth.

Several in my family-tree died in concentration camps; I feel that I can speak candidly without being viewed as antisemitic.

Self Criticism

Much of Jewish humour revolves around the ability to laugh at oneself. The comedian Seinfeld was one talented example. Humanity urgently need to hone that skill to steer away from the self-destructive direction dictated by growth economics. Israel is a just one extreme example of what is going on in the affluent world. The UK are currently discouraging immigration and encouraging pronatalism, this is how eugenics works. Favour A and eliminate B. The Guardian published a letter of mine in response to MP Robert Jenrick’s suggestion that we ‘need more children to look after us in our old age’. It appeared with two other very good letters. Thus:

Robert Jenrick reveals how low the moral standards of our growth-obsessed society have become. Children are nothing more than resources to care for us in our old age. They are expected to be able to work for us in this way, despite the escalating climate breakdown and ecosystems collapse that they have inherited because of our addiction to an ecocidal economic model.

Is having children to look after us in our old age really a moral reason for having children, especially when we are introducing them into an overspent environment? We are already exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet by 300%.

Sustainable Development Goals

Some of the UN Sustainable Development Goals reflect the folly of the world view that is obsessed with economic growth. We must ask ourselves why SDG1 No Poverty, is ranked before SDG2 Zero Hunger. We cannot eat money. In global ecosystems collapse, no amount of money will buy food.

This is an example of an unwise attempt to persuade the global population of over 2 billion subsistence farmers to have a bank account, so that they get drawn into the ecologically damaging Pyramid scheme that is growth economics. The same unwise motive lies behind SDG8 Decent Work and Economic Growth. Our concept of ‘Decent Work’ needs to change dramatically; because most of the work carried out in the affluent world is non-essential and damaging to the environment. We need to re-examine the motives behind certain aspects of these objectives which are broadly virtuous, and were simply a casualty to our unwise direction in certain respects.

Irresponsible Global Leadership

To date we don’t have a single global leader who admits that growing Gross World Product is damaging to the environment. This is a world in chronic ecological overshoot, escalating climate breakdown, and ecosystems collapse; and yet, not one of our world leaders can see that the financial Pyramid scheme on which all our dreams rest is now collapsing. On the contrary, the USA has introduced the Inflation Reduction Act which will serve to exacerbate the global situation further.

Numerous problems are now arising from the unwise pursuit globally of pronatalism and growth economics. Both these ideas are now well beyond their sell-by date and are giving rise to: pandemics, food insecurity and energy insecurity, extreme weather events, global inflation and stagflation, rise in the cost of living, escalating extinction rates (many keystone species are now threatened), civil unrest, refugees and economic migrants, and any war is a fight over resources, either land, natural or human resources.

Redefining Peace

We need to redefine the concept of peace. Ecocidal business-as-usual will precipitate World War III. The modern frantic eco-destructive business-as-usual is not something we should try to perpetuate. Mother Nature needs a seat at any negotiations for peace; she needs to opportunity to recover from the injuries that we inflict every day with our global growth economics.

Ecological Justice

Collectively humanity are destroying the life support system on Earth. The UN Charter for Ecological Justice will serve as a global peace treaty, inspiring global collaboration and mutual aid on a level never before achieved by humanity. The most powerful uniting factor is the recognition that if we care at all about our wellbeing, and that of our children, our children’s children, and all the lives to come, we shall empower and advise young adults not to venture into parenthood until there is a global ambition to eliminate ecological overshoot.

We are currently operating at nearly three times the biocapacity of Earth, this is an unsafe situation for all of life on Earth. This five minute animation explains why we need the Charter for Ecological Justice.

To maximise mitigation we need to change direction from global growth, to equitable Degrowth, sharing remaining resources fairly. Ideally with a global rationing arrangement to meet SDG2 Zero Hunger, and allow people to leave ecologically damaging employment whilst we restructure our society. We need contraception and other family planning services to be free and globally available and accessible. Everyone should be encouraged to minimise the unborn that get embroiled in the unfolding poly-crisis.

Post Script: Your personal journey

If you like the ideas in this article you might like to share the global level petitions that are working to inspire voluntary equitable Degrowth.

Below are some other free resources that may help you to grapple with your personal journey in the mindset shift which is rapidly being transmitted around the world. All these are evidence of the growing momentum that is seeking global peaceful cooperation to shrink back within the carrying capacity of Earth:

1. The Nee Nae fictional series consists of 3 dystopian science fiction stories about human overpopulation and ecosystems collapse.
2. My own website and Medium publications
3. Wisocracy offers participatory discussions
4. KWYRA ‘Know What You Really Are’ offers a series of videos to help you on your personal journey to raise your level of consciousness. Four videos, 11mins, 31mins, 43mins, 34mins. Worth a try?
5. Stable Planet Alliance Conversations Podcasts
6. Wellbeing Economy Alliance — these folks do not represent Degrowth, but they are doing a magnificent job of maintaining a calm process of sharing ideas within a highly aware population. They also have several governments involved.

Further reading The Catalyst of Overpopulation in the Gaza Conflict — The Overpopulation Project (overpopulation-project.com)

Barbara Williams is the author of the Social Science paper: A Roadmap to Ecological Justice.