FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 1, 2010

For more information contact Jill Garvey 312-266-0319

CHICAGO – Today’s hostage situation at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland indicates an alarming re-emergence of racially-tinged population control arguments.

An irate statement posted on a website called SaveThePlanetProtest.com, which is believed to have been written by the alleged attacker James Lee, repeatedly refers to humans as "filth" and demands that the Discovery Channel "stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants."

The author of the statement specifically demands that the Discovery Channel “Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks into the stupid people's brains until they get it!!”

Neo-Malthusian theory was born when Thomas Malthus published “An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798” in which he stated that the discrepancy between the rate of population and the rate of food growth would lead to a permanent food shortage for humans. 

Malthus’ works gained influence in 19th Century England and was used to justify ideologies that essentially blamed the victims of early industrial development — a development that swallowed up, displaced and destroyed populations, and which was itself highly artificial and environmentally destructive — for their own misfortune.

“Ironically, this attack comes amid a renewed commitment and common declaration by environmentalists to build a democratic and diverse environmental movement,” said Rebecca Poswolsky, field organizer at the Center for New Community.

This commitment comes in the form of a pledge that acknowledges that immigrants and refugees are also spearheading movements for ecological and economic renewal, and are allies rather than adversaries in the fight for environmental sustainability.

In a recent report called, Apply the Brakes, and a subsequent film titled, The Green War on Immigrants, the Center for New Community raised red flags about neo-Malthusian ideas around population gaining legitimacy in mainstream environmentalism.

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The Center for New Community is a national organization committed to building community, justice, and equality. Based in Chicago, the organization defends democracy, empowers communities, and promotes equality in its commitments to cultivate civic life and advance systemic change in partnership with local leaders, organizations, congregations, and other institutions.