Two new videos look at growth and human population

Richard Grossman, M.D.Durango (Colo.) Friends Meeting

My childhood was marred by not going to the movies. Yes, once or twice a year I was taken as a special treat. The lack of movies was part of being brought up as a Friend, I guess. Now I realize the importance of video as a means of education as well as entertainment.

Two new videos, Growth-busters and Mother: Caring for 7 Billion, treat the issues of growth and human population. Both were made in my home state, Colorado, and I feel somewhat responsible for each.

Growthbusters lets you know from its title that its producer, Dave Gardner, has a great sense of humor. If you need more proof, go to<www.youtube.com /watch?v=FXSTrW_dARc>. He also has a lot of experience as a filmmaker, having worked for PBS in Texas for years.

Then he moved back to Colorado Springs, the town where he grew up, and found that it had changed. Bigger and busier, it had lost many of its human values. Dave had an epiphany--growth is not always good. The video is about his campaign to get people to realize this. He is not only concerned about economic growth but also about human population growth. We had Dave come to Durango to speak, and you can catch a glimpse of him in Growthbusters in the footage shot at Fort Lewis College. To learn more, watch the trailer and to order your copy go to: <www.growthbusters.com>.

I feel like I am the father of Mother: Caring for 7 Billion. At least I gave its real parents, Chris Fauchere and his wife Joyce Johnson, the idea of making a film about human population.

After watching The Great Squeeze, another video by Chris and Joyce, we chatted. This earlier video is about the many problems that are ganging up on the world. (Perhaps some of you remember watching it in Chicago at a QEW steering committee meeting.) They came down from Denver and stayed with us for a week, doing some filming. You might catch a glimpse of my back in Mother.

Mother is so good that it earned a full-page write up in Science magazine, the USA's preeminent scientific journal. In the concluding paragraph, the reviewer states, "The film compellingly argues that a fair and just solution is likely to only be found in a complete refocusing of our priorities and societies. Specifically, we must value diversity, human and biological, over the gross national product and human solidarity over competition." For more information, check out <www.motherthefilm.com>

Our mania for economic growth gets no mention in the normal press. It is just assumed to be the norm and to be good. I know of only one organization, the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, that questions this belief. These two new films are major contributions to sanity! As the Science review ends up, these films "…will also convince (viewers) that… we must not be afraid to re-engage with the population issue and that the time for such renewed engagement is now." <>