Just say ‘No’ to motherhood 

Non-Mother’s Day is a special day, celebrated between Mother's Day and Father's Day, on the first Sunday in June. (On June 4 this year, the occasion was marked by special events in Nipomo.) It was established in 1996 to call attention to the population explosion.

It took more than 2 million years for our species to reach its first billion individuals in about 1830. It then took only 100 years to add the second billion in 1930, which was about the time I was born. Since then, we have added 5 billion more people to a planet able to maintain sustainably, in my opinion, only a half-billion.

Microbial populations increase exponentially, modifying and contaminating their habitat. This is followed by an exponential decrease (deaths) in numbers as their waste builds up. It seems, despite our name (Homo sapiens, i.e., man wise), that we are no different than bacteria. We are on the verge of a population collapse—read Jared Diamond's best-selling book Collapse.

The Los Angeles megalopolis is (again, in my opinion) unfit for human habitation. If you disagree, move back there. Recent data indicates that life expectancy is decreasing for people living there. The air is often unfit to breathe, the groundwater is becoming contaminated, and food and water must be brought in from all over. Sewage pours out to contaminate the ocean. In biology we call it a “sink.�

One hundred Nobel Prize winners—along with 1,500 scientists—have issued a paper titled "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" that states: "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course." It lists ozone depletion, air pollution, lack of fresh water, contamination of ground water, damage to farmlands, global warming, deforestation, loss of plant and animal species, and population growth as the greatest dangers. I would add invasive exotics and wetland loss.

"The earth is finite," the report says, "and pressure from unrestrained population growth puts demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any effort to achieve a sustainable future."

We must first put our own house in order. The United States is the fastest-growing industrialized nation in the world, adding 3 million people each year. This figure is greater than all other developed nations in the world combined.

The rate of extinction that we are experiencing today was last this high 65 million years ago at the end of the Mesozoic Era, but this time it is being caused by just one species: Homo sapiens. A high extinction rate is an indication of planet biome modification. The Central Coast biosphere becomes less suitable for Homo sapiens as the "cancer" called LA metastasizes north. It is the single greatest cause of ever-intensifying pressures on our resources and our environment from besieged national parks, farmland loss (e.g. Point Sal Dunes), overflowing schools, traffic jams, and the need for more and more rules and regulations and restrictions.

Immigration accounts for 60 percent of this population growth, and—if present trends continue—will account for 90 percent of future growth. Most of this immigration comes from Mexico, where the birth rate is five times the death rate, and where they are doing very little to reduce their high birth rate.

Teenage pregnancy in the United States is the highest of all the industrialized nations, with Santa Maria leading. We need better sex education and greater knowledge of contraceptives for the sexually active. Up until recently, 40 percent of all girls get pregnant by the time they are 20 years old, and one teenage girl out of 10 becomes pregnant each year.

Sixty percent of pregnancies in the United States are unintended. Human life should be more valued and not the result of "accidents." Each day, we read of child abuse, abandonment, assault, and even murder. Every human has a basic right to be born planned, wanted, and loved .

The annual Non-Mother’s Day celebration is meant to educate young women that motherhood is just ONE of many choices of what they might do with their lives. Other choices are: firefighter, congressperson, truck driver, lawyer, enviro-activist, supervisor, computer expert, doctor, road crew, senator, corporate CEO, and, soon, president.

Non-mothers make up more than 18 percent of our population, and their numbers are increasing. This is a day set aside to honor these women, to call attention of the general public to the “population explosion,� to encourage males to get a vasectomy, to add "reproduction" to the other "R's," and to encourage contraceptive use thus reduce “accidents.� ∆

Bill Denneen is a Nipomo resident who supports copulation, not population. Send comments to [email protected].