Tyree's Tuppence

by Tyree Campbell

Cleaning Up The Mess

Dust bunnies roam free, and not all of them wind up lurking under the bed.  Some inhabit our unsuspecting to-do lists, our enumerated and abandoned resolutions, our scrolls of good intentions, where they spring upon us at the end of the year, clamoring for coins of attention like children around the tourist spots of any have-not nation.  So lemme just check my pockets for items left unattended until now . . .

One:

A recent two-frame political cartoon showed a fertile farmfield in the Midwest in the left frame, and above it the first line of America The Beautiful.  In the second frame was the second line of that song, "for amber waves of grain," above a stark drawing of a starving Sudanese child holding out an empty bowl.  We don't want to see this, because it bothers us, and we don't know what we can do about it, so we cluck and tisk and avert our eyes, the same way we avoid looking at the bellringers by the Salvation Army kettles who flock this time of year to the grocery stores and malls and other places where people are likely to have a few coins in their pockets.  Perhaps, for the kettles, we find a coin or two, which we deposit while continuing to avoid eye-contact.  But what do we do about the child in Sudan?

Well, we send food, either through the United Nations or CARE or some religious organizations or [and I'll admit I'm guessing here] a U.S. government program of some kind.  Perhaps we send medical care, even a nutrional expert. 

Does this warm our hearts, and make us glow?  It should.  It's a wonderful thing, to be able to help someone in desperate need.  But there's another side to this coin.  Regardless of how much or how little assistance is rendered, the people who are aided will continue to reproduce, to manufacture still more starving children with empty bowls. 

There!  There's an unresolved problem.  Solve it, somebody. 

We can't.  Because we are not just fighting the deplorable conditions in the lands of the starving.  As Schiller wrote in "The Maid of Orleans," "Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens."  We, too, are fighting stupidity . . . and blissful ignorance.

See . . . if we help the starving in Sudan, we will be thanked and praised for our generosity, as we should be.  That's the "feel-good" part.  But our assistance only addresses the symptoms.  The moment we express a desire to address the causes, we are transmogrified into heartless monsters.  Merely to suggest that the land of western Sudan, which is about as fertile as the Mojave, is not capable of supporting the population living on it, earns us contumely.  Adding the suggestion that perhaps, just maybe, the people of western Sudan might want to consider practicing some form of birth control to bring their population to a manageable level, invites vilification.  And if we should [horrors!] hint that the rendered aid be accompanied by instruction in birth control measures, the wrath of the righteous descends upon us . . .

. . . and all the while, the people of Darfur continue to starve, to reproduce themselves into perpetual starvation.

Stupid.

And it gets worse.  Darfur is hardly unique.  In fact, as the Earth's population inexcusably burgeons, there will be more Darfurs.  Rich as the United States is [and Russia could be], we cannot feed the world . . . or, rather, we cannot continue to feed a growing world population without serious harm to ourselves.  And if the U.S. fails, who then will feed anyone?

[How close is the United States to failing to produce enough food?  Last year we sold our reserve stocks of soybeans to China . . . well, the money was good, y'see, and we need their trinkets.  But in the process, we had nothing in reserve for ourselves as a hedge against a bad soybean crop this year.  Fortunately, this year's crop was substantial, although soybean rust did ruin some of the crop in the South.  Still, we have not restocked our reserves.  And if next year's harvest should decrease from this year's, and/or should be more affected by soybean rust, what then?]

Hey, it's not just me.  Scientists with reputations far far greater than that of my poor words have said that the single greatest problem Earth faces today is overpopulation.  But as the recent presidential election amply demonstrated, nobody is listening.  I don't want to be a jeremiah.  But I must say that we have a lot of resource and development problems on this planet, from the incineration of the Amazon basin to inadvertent oil spills in prime fishing grounds, to . . . to . . . argh!  And underlying all these problems is overpopulation.  So you'll just have to pardon me if I decline to weep and gnash my teeth and tear at my hair in anguish if two individuals who, left to their own devices, cannot possibly reproduce want to get married. 

Moving right along . . .

Sara Joan Berniker's gloomy yet poignant short story, "Who's Watching The Children?" appears in the December 2004 print issue of Aoife's Kiss.  It's beyond relevant to the problems of a society struggling to deal with overpopulation.  Please read it.  Yeh, that means you'll have to buy a copy of the magazine.  So I'm asking you not to dismiss this as a simple advertising ploy.  Tell you what:  order a copy of the December 2004 issue of Aoife's Kiss from either Project Pulp or The Genre Mall, and I'll rebate you $1.00 if you send me an e-mail saying that you read about the rebate in the Tuppence and placed your order.  My e-mail address for this rebate is thairee13@mchsi.com .

Two:

In a recent article about the effects of global warming, the melting of smaller glaciers within the next couple decades was predicted.  It was suggested, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that Glacier National Park would have to change its name by 2030.  Glaciers in the Alps, in Scandinavia, and South America also made the Endangered Iceblock List.  So what?  Well, we're not talking about Evian here.  We're not talking about Culligan Man.  The glacial melt from these glaciers provides drinking water and running water throughout the year.  When that is gone, the [continuously growing] populations will have to depend on whatever falls on the ground from the sky.  It will not be nearly enough.  What's going to happen to that population?  Whatever happens, I'm betting it will be as unpleasant as the circumstances in Darfur. 

So what can we do?

Well, first of all, we're not going to solve any problems by electing or re-electing leaders and representatives whose cluelessness and avarice are the stuff of legend.  To solve a problem, any problem, the very first step is to acknowledge that it exists.  Those who deny its existence [and those who support that denial, either through contrived ignorance or benign neglect . . . e.g., the media] need to be denied public office, for they do not serve the public.  To do that, we the people need:  one, to demand that the two major political parties nominate individuals who will work to address the problems of population and resources instead of obnoxiously concerning themselves with each other's military records, and/or two, to build a viable third party, with electable candidates, who will address those problems.  Specifically, we the people need to avoid candidates who present fluff and smiles without substance and who insist that we trust them without reservation, who demand that we take them on faith without questioning their goals and intentions.

Hmm . . . well, there's the first roadblock, right there.

But that's why we write science fiction and fantasy, innit?  To present these and other problems, to tell about people who struggle for solutions to them, or who fail to struggle for solutions, or who ignore the problems altogether.  Isn't that what we do? 

[Sam's Dot Publishing is open to submissions for Ecotastrophe, an anthology of stories and poems themed to global warming.  It'll be edited by our very own J Alan Erwine, and is tentatively scheduled for release as a trade paperback in January 2006.  For more information, please check out the guidelines at http://www.samsdotpublishing.com/EcotastropheGL.htm ]

Three:

Thanks to the present administration, this country is seven and a half trillion dollars in debt.  [I can remember just a decade ago when the party of the present administration was practically beside itself with hostile opposition to the deficit].  Well, fifty nine million people can't be wrong, right?  So let's move on to the consequences . . .

. . . one of which could well be the curtailment of the exploration of space except insofar as space technology improves our odds of withstanding a surprise attack from Liechtenstein.  We do have some probes out there.  But the Mars lander program is, so far, pretty much toast, with no renewal planned that I'm aware of.  A base on the Moon is years away . . . decades, even.  Of what will our children dream?  And their children?

Hey, it's just a question . . . 

Stay with us in 2005.  To go anywhere from here you have to take a step.  I think you'll like our maps.

On behalf of the staff of Sam's Dot Publishing, I wish you all a pleasant winter solstice and a dream-filled New Year.

Tyree Campbell

Managing Editor

Sam's Dot Publishing

Past Tuppence:
September 2004
June 2004
March 2004
December 2003
September 2003
June 2003
March 2003
December 2002
October 2002
August 2002
June 2002
April 2002
February 2002
December 2001
October 2001
August 2001

Read more from Tyree Campbell in any of the following:

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 4

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 3

Sex and the Single Alien
An anthology

Nyx
A novel by Tyree Campbell

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 2