Cherish All Life

Open letter to Gov. Hochul of New York State, USA, on support for Israel (sent 2023/10/08, posted 2023/10/09)

Note on War

To me, war is often pronatalism by other means. Because so many children are born, resources eventually run short. To continue their way of living, people must seize the resources of others and prune the population of their own country. This opens a path for them to be fruitful and multiply. There is also an element to war akin to what rutting male deer are up to when they joust with their horns: displaying reproductive fitness.

Let's stop advertising the virtues of having children. I doubt we'll run out, except through catastrophe, which is apt to be brought on by war or excessive consumption of resources due to large population and high standards of living.

Fewer offspring = fewer wars.

To get a sense of the relevance of this note to the underlying cause of the war between Israel and Hamas, I suggest reading stories in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz about water supplies, including "The Illegal Settler Outpost Has Running Water. Its Palestinian Neighbors Don't. This Is Apartheid at Its Starkest." On the other hand, according to an abstract in the Journal of African Earth Sciences, "Gaza coastal aquifer has been exposed to severe overexploitation to meet the human needs for water supply."

Babies are good.

Not creating them is also good.

By getting through life without creating a child,

I will leave more resources for the children of others

And for nonhuman life, without which no one survives.

This is ample cause for pride, though I must say it myself

And hear from one person that I’m probably not an adult

And from another that sure, some people shouldn’t have children,

As if incompetence were the only reason to seek the discipline not to reproduce.

Babies are good.

Not creating them is also good.

Diversity is the key to survival on a finite planet.

Thanks to John Oliver for his report this week on the inadequacy and actual harm of carbon offsets. As a physicist, I was particularly struck by the clip around minute 4 of a man illustrating carbon offsets using helium balloons. Earth’s supply of helium is a finite resource that is of great value for technological applications and that we are squandering. The answer to the climate, biodiversity, soil, water, and, yes, helium crises is to consume far less: www.steadystate.org (August 22, 2022).

If you keep doing the same thing over and over,
You are guaranteed a different result eventually.
Just ask the owner of the dead camel
Who kept piling straws, one by one, on the poor animal's back.
So it is with having babies, working hard, and buying lots of stuff.
Let's not break the back of our faithful camel, Earth,
By which I mean the current environment, hospitable to humans.

Just as having children does, not having children helps humanity to survive, in its case by promoting ecological balance. If you want to achieve reproductive success by remaining childfree, instead of achieving reproductive success by having children, then

Neither a father nor a mother be.

Do not forget: Do not beget.

This way, the Earth will save us all, no fuss.

Be nice to Mom: She’ll be nice to us.

Note on War
(2022/02/20)

To me, war is often pronatalism by other means. Because so many people wind up having children, resources eventually run short. To continue their way of living, people must seize the resources of others and prune the population of their own country. This opens a path for them to be fruitful and multiply. There is also an element to war akin to what rutting male deer are up to when they joust with their horns: displaying reproductive fitness.

Fewer children = fewer wars.

Starvation in Afghanistan

A million children are expected to starve in Afghanistan this winter because of policies imposed on its government by the United States and some of its allies.

"Afghanistan's unnecessary plight" Financial Times 2022/02/06

Here is a message I sent President Biden on November 16:

Dear Mr. President,

For our benefit, please act fast to save the people in Afghanistan who will starve this winter. By preventing the deaths of those ruled by our former enemies despite the support this will give to the government imposed by those enemies, we will demonstrate our humanity and deprive terrorists of their greatest recruitment tool, our poor image among the poor of the world. Please accomplish the goals of war in the dismal peace that has followed by feeding the people of Afghanistan.

Without thinking to write you directly, I published harsh words concerning the deportation by your administration of Haitian asylum-seekers. Please don't repeat the mistake of demonstrating scorn for the lives of others in an attempt to secure the safety of Americans. The interests of powerful nations are served by upholding the greatest respect for the lives of all. Anything less is penny wise and pound foolish, leaving aside its ugliness and evil.

Thank you for your time and your service. Thank you, too, for asking for my pronouns.

Best wishes,
James

Does humanity have a purpose beyond survival? Maybe we could work a bit more on our interpersonal and interspecies skills, which would promote our own survival, and maybe happiness, into the bargain.

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