The Big Chew Podcast

A Progressive Views The Environmental Costs of U.S. Immigration: Ethicist Dr. Philip Cafaro

Martin Luther King, Jr. called it "the modern plague" and challenged us to heal it, especially since we knew how. That "plague" is overpopulation—but in Dr. King's time, U.S. population was driven by a high birth rate. Today, the major driver of U.S. population growth is mass immigration—up to 1.5 million people come to live in the U.S. every year, and have for years, through legal and illegal means. What does that have to do with the environment? Well, the last thing this planet needs is more overconsuming Americans, says environmental ethicist, author, progressive activist, and philosophy professor Dr. Philip Cafaro. Mass immigration is also the last thing needed by the poor people already living in America: it forces lower wages and more competition for low-skilled jobs. Yes, immigrants themselves can often build better lives here. And hey! Wealthy Americans and corporations get cheap labor and new markets. Phil Cafaro's excellent book, How Many Is Too Many?: The Progressive Argument for Reducing Immigration Into the United States, lays out sane, humane arguments you've probably never heard before. Too often, US immigration is talked about in a binary, polarizing way: you're a liberal for open borders, or you're a conservative who wants a wall. It takes on racial tones—you're either for poor people from other countries building a better life in the U.S., or you fear a changing demographic and retreat into nationalism. But what if… -You care about the serious environmental impacts? -You realize the connection between a "perpetual growth economy," which screws the planet, and the drive for more immigrants to work more cheaply and buy more stuff? -You understand how mass immigration drives economic inequality in the US? -You want to help the world's poor in a way that helps them build better lives in their own countries, cultures, and communities? -You realize the world has changed since Emma Lazarus wrote that poem? -You yourself are the descendent of immigrants and don't want to be selfish? And what if you wonder why the hell environmentalists don't talk about the impacts of immigration anymore, when it used to be a major issue? This conversation, and Phil's book, outline not only the problems, but suggestions for building better immigration policies: Open to refugees, home to Dreamers, but at a scale our biosystems can handle. Any "developed" country could benefit from his work. www.thebigchewpodcast.com

Where Do Babies Come From? Laura Carroll on Reproduction Myths

Babies come from stories. From beliefs. Some of those stories are beautiful: I want to love and care for someone; I have a lot to share with a growing human. But a whole lot of baby-making beliefs aren't true for everyone, and many aren't true, period. Here are a few of the harmful and expired: I won't feel fulfilled without a child; It's nobody's business if I want to make a lot of kids; I'm not a real woman/man if I don't become a mother/father; People who don't have kids are selfish. With a population at 7.6 billion, and with a planet in serious overshoot, we need to look at these beliefs. Author Laura Carroll has done just that. She's researched where these beliefs come from and talked with thousands of people about their lives with and without kids. She's looked at the devastating impacts—on individual families, cultures, and on the wider world— of assuming everyone should reproduce. She's spoken on these issues on major radio and television outlets and is has authored several books about the outmoded pressures to have children and about the option of living child-free. (See links below). In this conversation, Laura and I talk primarily about the ideas from her book, The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood and Reproduction Will Create a Better World. Laura also edited the second edition of deep ecologist Dave Forman's Man Swarm: How Overpopulation is Killing the Wild World. I recommend both of them. This conversation isn't anti-kid. Laura and I are typical of people who have warm relationships with kids who aren't our own. But whether someone really desires parenthood or not, we need to bring the breeding thing down some major notches if anyone's kids are going to have a chance. Laura and I talk about: -What "pronatalism" is; examples of how we're soaking in it -Studies that show how having fewer children is essential for stopping extreme climate change* -How religions and businesses promote childbearing and why -The 7 assumptions that promote childbearing, why they're not true, and the healthier ones that could replace them We also mention Bill McKibben's Maybe One: The Case for Smaller Families NOTE: I swear in this. It's hard not to when you're talking about powerful stories that aren't true. Hey— I'm even worse in person. And I don't care anymore. And Laura's much nicer than I am. Laura Carrol's other books are Families of Two: Interviews With Happily Married Couples Without Children by Choice (international update on the way!), and Finding Fulfillment From the Inside Out. * Please note that the US is different from many Western countries in that it has the largest carbon footprint and is growing rapidly. You can learn more in the previous Big Chew episode with Joe Bish from the Population Media Center, or in the following episode with philosophy professor and environmental ethicist Philip Cafaro. Among other things, in the prior Chew Joe Bish and I talk about countries whose population is declining and who consider that a positive thing. Subscribe, and you won't miss the next Big Chew. www.thebigchew.com

Population: An Epic Problem and A Solution Waiting to Happen

There are too many humans on Earth, it's screwing everything up, and we have to change. There. I said it. Environmentalists used to say this frequently and passionately, and then they stopped:talking about population took on racial overtones ("too many of those brown people!"), or fears of "control" and force, as became the case in China. Meanwhile, there are even more people on Earth, and many more expected, and it's screwing everything up. But don't take my word for it: The only choice...limited number, happy life...meaningful life. Too many...miserable life and always bullying one another, exploiting one another. That's what His Holiness the Dalai Lama says. Would he lie to you? Now here's the good news—we know what works, and it's good for everyone, especially women. But we can't wait. My guest, Joe Bish, is Director of Issue Advocacy for the Population Media Center based here in Vermont. The PMC works through the power of story. Throughout the world, they present locally sourced soap operas—yes, soap operas!— that help people make better decisions about their lives, their health, and how many kids they have. PMC's results are well-studied and powerful. Joe knows population. In this conversation, we talk about how population drives everything from climate change to political instability to extinction, who benefits from population growth (hint: neoliberal economists and pro-growth die hards), how and why PMC's methods work, and why we all need to return the population overshoot problem to center stage. "People" was composed by Jule Styne with original lyrics by Bob Merrill, and is used here via Fair Use of the Copyright Law Section 107.

Missionary Re-Position: Wendy Marsman on Faith, Atheism, and Women

Wendy Marsman was raised in a strict Evangelical community in rural Canada. She fulfilled her dream of being a missionary by moving to the Brazilian Amazon for eight years with her then-husband and children. What followed was an unraveling of what she believed, and a painful realization that, as a woman, she was a second-class citizen in Christianity. Wendy has faced some stark personal truths, and has surmounted major changes to found Women Beyond Belief, a podcast where other women (and men) finding their way out of religious beliefs can also find community. We talk about: How she feels about having promoted to indigenous people beliefs she no longer holds herself How her community used religion to hide abuse How women were treated in her Evangelical faith "Closeted" atheists and dark family secrets: life in the "mission field" of the Amazon The different paths she's seen people take out of Christian belief—and which one she took The loss that can come with leaving one's religious culture Where she derives her "morality" and "ethics" outside of religion--and how she feels more deeply moral than before Where she turned when faced with a serious disease Hey! You can subscribe to the Big Chew Podcast at www.thebigchewpodcast.com

Humans and Water, with Big River Guide, Fluvial Geologist, and Writer Becca Lawton

Water: It's not just a "resource." It's not a "thing" that happens. Our bodies are mostly water. Maybe our souls are, too. Becca Lawton would know. She's a veteran river guide on the great rivers of the American West who became a fluvial geologist. She's also a beautiful writer whose prize-winning books and essays have helped her understand the connections between humans and wild water. If you live in the Western Hemisphere, you've heard a lot about water lately—mostly in the form of epic floods. No matter where you live, there's some kind of water issue going on (droughts, epic forest fires, you name it). We need to talk about it. Becca and I chat about: How, year after year, she saw people reclaim themselves on a river trip (give yourself at least three days) What river guiding taught her about humans Rivers as spiritual source How writing and stories can help us grok our place in Nature Her Fulbright research on why human brains don't recognize the risks of climate change Her wish in human-water relations Your new vocabulary word, "thalweg" Here's Becca's website, with info on her wonderful books. https://beccalawton.com/books-2/