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Contraception is almost five times cheaper than conventional green technologies as a means of combating climate change, according to new research commissioned by the Optimum Population Trust.

Tough Choices by Ari Bussel Many are worried that, if left on its own, the Jewish state will at one point have a non-Jewish majority. Thus, they claim, by democratic process alone, Israel will become a country of all its citizens, i.e. cease to be a Jewish state. Recognizing what they call “the inevitable,” some call for the creation of two separate states. I call them those of little faith. They surrender in advance, yielding to an idea that will bring only one solution: The Destruction of the Israeli (Jewish) State. Regrettably, many “centrists” in Israel have accepted the supposition...

ROME, October 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The head of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) told a gathering of African bishops in Rome on Monday that the theories of Thomas Malthus, equating increased population with food shortages, are incorrect. In response to a question from the floor at the African Synod, Dr. Jacques Diouf said that "food security" is possible in Africa now without the reduction of population, if there is the political will to achieve it. The solution to Africa's "yoke of hunger and malnutrition" is the reform of her political systems, said Diouf. "Transparency... the...

The Ten Biggest Lies of My Lifetime by J. Neil Schulman This is my short list of “Big Lies� — propaganda which is promoted by major movements, and which denying often gets one tagged as a lunatic, denier, hatemonger, or simply irrelevant.If you’re looking for me to put the Holocaust of European Jewry or Jihadis being responsible for 9/11 on this list, look elsewhere. I’m 56 years old, born in April 1953. So I’m limiting myself to Big Lies present in my own lifetime.Here we go, not in any chronological order. 1. The biggest threat to the human race...

CANBERRA, April 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A population control pressure group has issued a call for the Australian government to institute a one-child policy to ensure the continent's environmental and economic "sustainability." Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) said this week that Australia's 22 million people must be reduced to 7 million and that restricting each couple to one baby, as China does, is "one way of assisting to reduce the population" and avoiding "environmental suicide." Speaking on the eve of Earth Day, the group's national president, Sandra Kanck, a former Democrat politician, said a one-child policy is "something we need to...

"How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that stimulate the economy?"

The Texas Department of Transportation is asking Nueces County residents to attend a public meeting in Driscoll to comment and provide input on proposed upgrades of US 77 to a controlled access facility that meets interstate standards. The purpose of the meetings is to review proposed options for upgrading US 77 and to present recommendations, TxDOT officials said. The first round public meetings were held in early March. This second round of public meetings is being held as part of TxDOT's continued effort to gain public input on issues related to proposed improvements and to provide an opportunity for public...

The controversial project known as Interstate 69/TransTexas Corridor became a little less so last week after the Texas Department of Transportation announced it would recommend utilizing existing highway routes rather than building new ones. The announcement comes after months of public meetings during which residents along the path of the proposed path of Interstate 69/TTC voiced varying concerns. TxDOT has designated four priority corridors to address the state's transportation needs in the next decade. "The preliminary basis for this decision centers on the review of nearly 28,000 public comments made on the Tier One Draft Environmental Impact Statement," TxDOT Executive...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants to build a big highway through the Lone Star State. No, make that a really big highway, as in a monstrously big highway. The exact route hasn't been determined. The mega-highway would run roughly from Laredo on the Rio Grande River through the Hill Country and the Piney Woods and then through Texarkana in that tiny portion of the state that borders Arkansas. Imagine for a moment if that thoroughfare would be pointed in the other direction - from the Valley, through the South Plains and then through the heart of the Panhandle, right past...

County commissioners reaffirmed their stance against the Trans-Texas Corridor, and they took another step toward keeping county government transparent when they met Tuesday. First up on the court's agenda, commissioners heard a presentation by Connie Fogle on behalf of the newly formed Pineywoods Sub-Regional Planning Commission. According to Fogle, the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 391, requires state agencies to coordinate with local commissions to "ensure effective and orderly implementation of state programs at the regional level." "Critical in the code is the word 'coordinate,'" she said. "This does not mean the commission has to cooperate. The intent is to...

Each day, I make the dreaded drive down Interstate 35 to go to work in Fort Worth. Each day, I slug through the snarl and sludge of ceaseless traffic, which intensifies my growing desire to commit hari-kari, or at least incites a vehement curse of the highway gods. Certainly, we in Texas need more lanes, more roads, more rails, more something to deal with the ever-expanding urban population and growing international commerce. Yet how do we solve our transportation needs without carving up the countryside like some congratulatory cake? Or should the construction of a superhighway-rail-utility corridor even concern us?...

Minutes south of Interstate 10 and Sealy, the pastures along FM 1458 are their own silent world in the morning. Mists lift to reveal black cattle, brown and spotted horses, snow-white egrets underfoot in lush green grass. Then a concrete mixer comes churning down the blacktop. Just up the road is a small subdivision. More are sure to come as city dwellers, including weekenders and retirees, move out in search of a quieter, simpler life — and relief from city traffic. Although the gradual influx may bring greater changes in the long run, what disturbs residents most is the planned...

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry promised to keep fighting for private toll roads and his other transportation priorities Tuesday during his first major speech on the subject since the death in December of transportation commission chairman Ric Williamson. "This is a place for big challenges, not big excuses," he told state Transportation Department employees and highway experts from around the country at the annual Transportation Forum. Next year's legislative session, he said, can't be anything like last year's. "The Legislature must understand that 'no' is not a solution," Mr. Perry said. "It is an abdication of responsibility." Before last year's...

As the state's population continues to grow in its urban centers, expansion plans for the highway system continue to be the focus for transportation improvements. The Trans Texas Corridor proposal is aimed to alleviate traffic congestion, improve air quality and provide safer traveling for drivers, among other goals. In 2002, Texas Governor Rick Perry released the plan to create the passageway, which spans northeast from Laredo to Oklahoma and is set to total 4,000 miles in the next 50 years. The $140 billion project calls for the incorporation of new toll roads, commuter railways, power lines and gas pipelines, while...

For Peyton Gilbert, the battle over the Trans-Texas Corridor is reminiscent of the moment in 1836 when Lt. Col. William Travis drew a line in the sand at the Alamo and invited those willing to fight thousands of Mexican soldiers to step across. "That line in the sand is the Trans-Texas Corridor, and it's a threat to our sovereignty again, just like at the Alamo," said Gilbert, 14, who is from Whitehouse, near Tyler. Gilbert was among a large crowd of people who marched down Congress Avenue to the Capitol on Saturday afternoon to demonstrate against the proposed highway-rail-utility corridor...

BELTON - There appears to be no easy way to address the challenges that inflation has brought to the Texas Department of Transportation. “We’ve seen 60 percent inflation over the last five years for transportation projects,” said Chris Lippincott, a TxDOT spokesman. To look to the federal government for assistance would appear foolhardy at this point as the Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to become insolvent by 2009. The fund was created in 1956 to ensure a dependable source of financing for U.S. interstates and highways. “The Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to go into the red very...

There's been a lot of talk about the new Trans-Texas Corridor — the next-generation "super-highway" — and opinions are varying. Now the debate is coming to Lufkin's doorstep. On Monday, the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and TURF will hold a workshop at Lufkin's Pitser Garrison Civic Center on how to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor 69. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A portion of Texas citizens have voiced their opposition to the TTC-69 in public meetings held by the Texas Department of Transportation, but believing they are not being heard, four cities and their...

In the midst of inflation, funding difficulties and halted expansion projects, a budget error on the part of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) may have exacerbated their challenges. "TxDOT does some mysterious accounting," said Rep. Chuck Hopson (D-Jacksonville). "They had close to $1 billion counted in their budget twice." "That was a serious error on our part and we have made changes to try to prevent that type of error from occurring again," said TxDOT Spokesman Chris Lippincott, adding that the amount added twice in their financial statement was unrelated to the $1.2 billion in federal rescissions, which are...

TYLER - Heated debates are cropping up in rural East Texas communities as the Texas Department of Transportation hold hearings on the proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor. It's the first construction project of it's kind in the country. The Texas Department of Transportation says they want it to make room for a growing state. "A thousand people a day move to texas," says spokesman Larry Krantz,"where are these people going to drive? The population in Texas is going to explode by 60% in the year 2030." Their plans involve moving commercial trucks off existing interstate highways and onto one of two...

AUSTIN - When it comes to road improvement and maintenance, by most accounts, the South Plains and Panhandle are fortunate. Despite a $1.1 billion accounting error, the Texas Department of Transportation recently reported no projects in the region have been canceled or delayed while cities like Dallas, Houston and Laredo had at least a half dozen highway projects delayed. But the $1.1 billion-error, which occurred because TxDOT inadvertently counted some bond money twice and consequently allocated more funding than it had, is just the latest problem plaguing the beleaguered agency. For months, TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz and other transportation...

HOUSTON -- It did not take long Tuesday for the Texas Department of Transportation to find out what the Houstonians at a public hearing thought about the proposed 600-mile Trans-Texas Corridor, KPRC Local 2 reported. "George Washington, Sam Houston would vomit on you people," one attendee said. Chris Zora, who opposes the plan, attended the hearing at the Arabia Shrine Center in Southwest Houston. "I'd like to see a show of hands here of anybody that approves of this corridor," Zora said. "Is there anyone in this room who approves of this corridor? Raise your hands if you approve of...

Trucks hauling everything from cars to produce use Southeast Texas roads to deliver their goods, and when a proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor is completed, local drivers could see even more of them, local transportation officials said. The proposed I-69 corridor stretches from Michigan down to Texas. Once in Texas, the corridor goes about 650 miles from Texarkana to Brownsville and Laredo and includes separate lanes for cars and semis and areas for trains and utilities. It doesn't cut through Beaumont, but local arteries like U.S. 69 and Interstate 10 would connect to it. Travelers and truckers just need to...

McALLEN — In other parts of the state, transportation officials try to allay property owners' fears that a superhighway from Laredo north to Texarkana will result in a massive land grab. But in the lower Rio Grande Valley, the state's road builders spend more time assuring local leaders that they have a shot at being included. People in the fast-growing border area between Brownsville and McAllen have developed something of an inferiority complex about being the state's largest metropolitan area without an interstate highway. One after another, Valley leaders stepped to a microphone at public meetings last week and made...

ROBSTOWN, Tex. — Leon Little’s farm here near Corpus Christi would not be seized for Texas’s proposed $184-billion-plus superhighway project for 5 or 10 years, if ever. But Mr. Little was alarmed enough to show up Wednesday night with hundreds of his South Texas coastal neighbors to do what the Texas Department of Transportation has been urging: “Go ahead, don’t hold back.� Don’t worry. Texans have gotten the message, swamping hearings and town meetings across the state to grill and often excoriate agency officials about a colossal traffic makeover known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, a public-private partnership unrivaled in the...

Sometimes the truth just has a way of coming to light. A public information officer with the Texas Department of Transportation this week wrote a column in the Herald-Press describing the financial woes facing TxDOT and how because of those problems the state’s transportation department doesn’t have the money to deal with many of the state’s transportation issues. Apparently, several of the state’s senators do not feel that is the case at all. David Dewhurst called out the state’s interim chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, Hope Andrade, on this very issue, according to a story from the Associated Press....

A so-called “NAFTA Superhighway� earned support from the city’s mayor and discussion among residents Monday during a public hearing on the Texas Department of Transportation’s I-69 project. TxDOT held a public hearing at the Brownsville Events Center Monday to explain the progress of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a future segment of Highway I-69, which will link the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border. After a short presentation, the floor was open for comments. Among the local politicians, college students and retirees at the hearing there was a wide range of opinion on the project. According to Mario Jorge, district engineer for...

A big protest is planned for Monday afternoon, ahead of the latest public hearing on the proposed statewide tollway. Lots of landowners are upset about the state’s plan to build a tollway from Mexico to northeast Texas. There have already been several town hall meetings about the Trans-Texas Corridor. Most of the people who have spoken out about the plan say it will put them out of business. But state officials argue the tollway is necessary to keep up with the growing population in Texas. Monday’s meeting is being held in Huntsville. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Walker...

A proposed North American “super corridor” would relieve overburdened highways and promote economic growth in three countries, supporters say. But others wonder whether the proposal might bring in cheap exports and put unsafe Mexican trucks on U.S. roads. The issue takes center stage at a three-day conference that begins today in Fort Worth, Texas. More than 350 transportation, logistics and economic development specialists from the United States, Canada and Mexico are meeting. The conference is sponsored by Dallas-based North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition. The nonprofit coalition, whose members include public- and private-sector organizations, wants to develop an integrated transportation system linking...

AUSTIN — A two-year moratorium on private toll roads that won preliminary approval in the House on Tuesday would put the brakes on the Trans-Texas Corridor, a superhighway that a private firm received a contract for earlier this year. The moratorium also would halt seven near-term projects in the state, said Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, the Brenham Republican who added the proposal to a House bill. "This is us tapping the brakes, looking before we leap ... into contracts that last 50-plus years," Kolkhorst said. Her proposal would require the state to create a commission to study the effects of private...

In the midst of the campaign month of October came the news last week that the population of the United States has passed the 300 million mark. There's a sharp contrast between the negativity of the political climate and the robustness of our demographic increase -- we were at 200 million in 1967, less than four decades ago. Then, as now, Americans were in a negative mood, but had much more to be depressed about. We were then mired in a war that produced more than 20 times the number of American deaths as the conflict in Iraq has so...

One day this month an immigrant will arrive or, more likely, a baby will be born who will make the United States a nation of 300 million. This demographic milestone has prompted hand-ringing among environmentalists on the left and immigration opponents on the right, all of whom are misguided. Passing the 300 million mark should be cause for celebration: Never in the history of mankind have so many people lived such free and prosperous lives in one country. Anti-immigration activists blame newcomers for driving up the population, when in fact most growth is natural. Since 2000, births have averaged 4.05...

Baby Three Hundred Million The US population is set to cross the 300 million mark next week, a sign that our population is prosperous not only in dollars but also in people. But instead of celebrating, many Americans will look at their kids, nervously wondering whether they are contributing to the inevitable downfall of civilization that we've been told will follow as our population grows. You see, we have been indoctrinated to think that more babies are a bad thing, especially if those babies may not have pre-paid college tuition accounts while in utero. Because of our anti-baby bias, Americans,...

Once again, the fastest-growing cities in the United States are some of the far-flung exurbs in the Sun Belt and the Far West, according to fresh population estimates from the Census Bureau. The bureau's annual survey of municipalities with at least 100,000 residents shows that from July 1, 2004, to July 1, 2005, four outer suburbs in California, three in Florida, two in Arizona and one in Nevada were the country's most rapidly growing. Leading the list was Elk Grove, Calif., on the Sacramento area's far southern edge, which grew nearly 12 percent in those 12 months, to 112,338. Elk...

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. Jun 18, 2006 (AP) AP Enterprise: America's National Parks Face Pressures From Population Growth, Conveniences The ice-covered mountaintops are shrouded by fog. A stream gushes against the rocks on a headlong rush to the lake. High above the deserted visitors' parking lot, an elk stares at a lone hiker. Glacier National Park is an island, a sanctuary from the outside world. For how long? To the west, subdivisions, vacation homes and large chain stores march toward its borders. To the north, bulldozers pause for the winter before pushing deeper through the forests to a planned coal...

The more acrimonious the immigration debate grows, the more we wish that President Bush would talk about America's population shortage. We're all for enforcing the law, but let's skip for a moment the question of whether people got here legally or illegally or are native born. The broader point that needs to be made is that people are good - life is good - for America and for any nation. This point is understood at almost every level by our religious leaders. It has been pressed with particular clarity, though by no means exclusively, by the members of the Council...

Women's liberation may yet rescue the world from a population calamity. That revelation came to me as I sat at a rickety child desk inside a decrepit schoolroom in the hill village of El Salto north of Mexico City. Around me were several smiling children with their mothers and grandmothers. Each of their faces reflected a genetic heritage shared with the ancient people who lived in that land long before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. It was late November 2005 and I was in Mexico to receive a journalism award from the Population Institute, an international educational organization based...

Viewpoint: Population as a resource, not a bomb By Lloyd Eby Special to World Peace Herald Published November 11, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Today's most widely accepted view on the growth of population worldwide and the effects of this population growth on human wealth and well-being and on the environment owes a lot to the work of Thomas Robert Malthus (1776-1834). In 1798 the first edition of Malthus's work that has come to be known as the "Essay on Population" was published. As one website puts it, "In this famous work, Malthus posited his hypothesis that (unchecked) population growth always exceeds...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Reflecting a continued shift of U.S. population to the South and West, Florida, California and Texas will make up nearly half of total U.S. population growth between 2000 and 2030, the Census Bureau said Thursday. In new state population projections, the bureau said Florida, now the 4th most populous state, should edge past New York into 3rd place by 2011, while California and Texas will continue to rank 1st and 2nd, respectively, in 2030.These three states would each gain more than 12 million people between 2000 and 2030, accounting for 46 percent of total U.S. population growth...

"Smart Growth" is here, a collection of proposals, guidelines, and goals that will ultimately make homebuying less feasible and commuting more difficult. And that's the good news. The essential idea behind various "Smart Growth" initiatives is to move zoning decisions from local communities to Washington. This is necessary, it's alleged, because we have too much traffic congestion, metro areas are getting too big, and we're losing too much farmland. To solve such problems, we must allow the federal government to spend $10.5 billion for programs and strategic planning. The "Smart Growth" concept is a wondrously curious idea precisely because it...

The U.S. Census Bureau's latest population figures released this month show that the U.S. population is growing at a 1 percent annual rate. The nation added 2.9 million people between July 1, 2003 and July 1, 2004, with about 1.2 million of that coming from immigration, according to the bureau. (However, the bureau may underestimate illegal immigrants.) This growth was not spread evenly across the country, but was concentrated in the more pro-life, family-oriented "red states." America's relatively robust growth stands in sharp contrast to the demographic disaster facing Europe and Japan, both of which are in the opening stages...

Muslims grow at 36%, Hindus down to 20.3 in India PTI NEW DELHI: The first-ever census report on religion on Monday showed a "high growth" of Muslims at 36 per cent in sharp contrast to the "decline" in the Hindu population to 20.3 per cent in the country. In terms of growth of different religious communities, Hindus showed a decline over the previous decade, their population growing by 20.3 per cent during 1991 and 2001 as compared to 25.1 per cent during 1981-91. On the other hand, the Muslim population grew by 1.5 per cent to 36 per cent during...

Note: 1 crore = 10 million A census report on religion shows that the Muslim population in the country grew at the rate of 36% between 1991 and 2001. The Hindu rate of growth was 20.3% in the same period. During 1981-91 the figure was 25.1%. The Muslim growth rate in the previous decade was 34.5%, according to 'The First Report on Religion'. Census Commissioner J K Banthia released the report, prepared by the office of the registrar general and census commissioner, in New Delhi on Monday. He presented a copy to Tarlochan Singh, chairman, Minorities Commission. At 82.7 crore,...

US Will Continue to Grow While Rest of World Shrinks, Says Report A report released this week by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) claims that almost all of the developed world will face serious and sustained population decline over the next five decades except for the United States, where an above-replacement fertility rate and immigration will account for continued population growth. According to the report, entitled “ 2004 World Population Data Sheet,” “The United States is one of few countries in the world whose fertility rate is not falling.” In fact, “Among the developed countries, only the United States is...

TAKING super-sizing to new levels, the US is heading for a growth spurt that will see its population boom 43 per cent by 2050. Most rich countries are ominously down-sizing, spelling major changes in world economics and lifestyles. But the US is bucking the trend. Its population of 293.6 million is expected to blossom to 419.9 million in the next 45 years. Australia will be following in moderation, rising from just over 20 million to a robust 26.3 million in the same time span. In contrast, Europe's rapidly ageing population will drop by 8 per cent, a US research institute...

RESULTS OF POPULATION DELPHI ROUNDS I and II In the first round, the panelists were asked to rate some forces that led to the reduction of the world population growth rate from 2.06% in the late 1960s to 1.7% currently and to assess how these forces might change over the next 25 years. They were invited to add forces, which were rated in the second round by the same Scale A below. Table 1: orders these forces by their historic influence Table 2: orders them by their future influence. Scale AHistoric Influence 1 = Very Important 2 = Important...

Population growth would give the state another seat in Congress, accoding to 2002 estimates By Chuck Lindell WASHINGTON -- In only the first two years of this decade, Texas gained population so quickly that it already qualifies for an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to a private analysis. What's more, if the 2002 population estimates were used to reapportion Congress -- something that won't actually happen until after the 2010 census -- Texas would be high on the list for a second additional seat, according to Election Data Services, a Washington consulting firm that specializes in...

As individuals and as a nation, we're defined by the choices we make. And too often, by the tough decisions we avoid. Most of us have avoided even thinking about how our rapidly growing population is affecting our quality of life and shaping our society. Our population has more than doubled since World War II, and at this rate, we could be on our way to 1 billion people living in the U.S. by the end of the century. One billion people. Our population growth, driven in part by unchecked immigration, is already straining our health care and educational systems...

Russia turns spotlight on abortion By Robert Greenall BBC News Online Russia could be on the point of a significant change in direction on morality and sexual issues, as a major debate looms over the rights of women and unborn children. A government resolution on abortion, approved last month, is the first restriction of any kind on the practice since a ban imposed by Stalin was lifted in 1955. Russia is currently estimated to have nearly 13 terminations for every 10 live births, and the highest abortion rate in Europe after Romania. The resolution, which went virtually unnoticed in...

Ame Hellman remembers when she could see cattle, deer and coyotes in the pastures of the Carson Valley. Now, her view is of trophy homes, an 18-hole golf course and a sprawling clubhouse on what was once prime ranchland. Hellman says the development south of Reno led her to join the movement to protect open space. Nevada, with its roots in mining, has never been a hotbed of environmentalism. But even here, attitudes are changing because of runaway growth. Reflecting a nationwide trend, Nevada voters last month approved three significant initiatives - including the biggest conservation bond measure in state...

+== TIME-OUT PROJECT ==+ Readers of this ezine will remember that in October 2000, ProjectUSA erected a billboard at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City reading, "Immigration is doubling US population in our lifetimes." It pictured two children and cited the Census Bureau as its source. The board lasted just thirteen days. The owner of the property on which the billboard sat, the Port Authority of NY/NJ, ordered the board removed after, according to the New York Times, "an authority employee noticed it and told his superiors." That the Port Authority would force down a simple...