[Tone] [Music] [Narrator:] Today, weare suffering a tragedybeyond conception, a tragedy of too many people. Wherever there is spaceand water and sunshine, living things cover the Earth. The familiar animals reproducethemselves every year. Fine animals likethese are never allowed to be crowded or hungry. [Music] Each new couple wantsto have children. So families multiply. [Music] The newborn needs allthe time there is. [Music] He must suckvigorously to develop his mother's supply of milk. [Music] The potential for increaseof human numbers is enormous. On this model farm, ifa couple like this one were to have fourchildren, and each of these were to have four, beforethe couple is 80 years old, they would have 84 descendants. [Music] By then, the hometown, the farmwhich supported two or six, must now somehow support 84. Drift to the city begins. [Music] If we were to play thisgame on a chessboard, starting with two grains of riceand doubling on each square, there would be atablespoon on the ninth, a cup on the 13th square. And long before wereach the 64th square, the results would bebeyond conception. [Music] But food supplies of the worldare not so easily increased. All the easily worked landand much of the difficult land is already underintense cultivation. [Music] In Japan, no space is wasted. Rice seedlings aretransplanted to wet paddies. [Music] A bean crop can be inter-planted,because this grain will be carefully harvested by hand. [Music] Yields per acre have alreadybeen greatly increased by improved machinery,fertilizer, and livestock. [Music] In America, this reaperbinder replaced hand-cutting and is now often replacedby huge combines. [Music] Machines are more efficient onthe wide lands of the new world than on the tinyplots of the old. [Music] Sweet corn, once picked byhand, is dumped from a truck and bulldozed onto theconveyor of a freezing plant. [Music] On experimentalfarms, prize livestock make better use ofimproved pasture. [Music] Unlike people, the surface of the Earth cannot be multiplied. But irrigation is theoldest of all the ways to extend farmland. [Music] A dry field becomesrich pasture. Sage-covered hillsbecome an orchard. [Music] To feed the hungry, wenow expect new harvests from the sea. [Music] Based on greenplankton, food chains are already very productiveand easily disrupted by man. Today, through damsand overfishing, many salmon rivershave lost their fish. These Pacific salmon, setfree in this pond as minnows four years ago, nowreturn to spawn and die. [Music] Eggs artificially fertilizedfrom selected fish will be hatched, and the fryshipped to a barren river to be let go next spring. Four years from now,mature fish should return to rebuild the run. [Music] It is slow and expensive todevelop more food from the sea. [Music] Even if we exploit all theseways to increase the food supply, the rate atwhich we add to food is far below the rate atwhich we multiply ourselves. [Music] Food is not equally distributedanywhere in the world. And in our lifetime,it's not going to be. Rice, wheat, andcorn are the mainstay of impoverished people. [Music] In richer lands, animalseat food grains and people eat animal productsrich in protein. [Music] Hamburgers andmilkshakes... in America,, we take variety offood for granted. Squash, tomatoes, blackberries,string beans, grapes for wine, and hops for flavoring beer. The quality ofthis historic crop depends on cutting the vinesquickly and rushing them to the oat house,where the pods are stripped before they can wilt. Such crops areluxuries, only possible where there is landto spare from raising the bare necessities of life. [Music] In the United States, we areaware that the quality of life is threatened. We do not know theeffect of such crowding upon children and young people. We do not know howmany is too how many, how close is too close. But peace and reasonableelbow room are deeply related. In this classroom, children canstudy and get along together. If we double the numbers,as we have in many schools, then triple them,as we are now doing, they will argue and fight. [Music] In these situations, peoplebegin to feel like this. [Music] Only a hundred years ago,we were a new people, crossing a lonely land. [Music] Now only themountains are empty. [Music] Each year, thousands of acresare lost to industrial plants, highways, and parking lots. [Music] We should protect rich valleyslike this for raising food. Instead, a factory moves in. Land values go up. High taxes forcethe farmer to sell. [Music] In the race forwages and profits, the nourishingland is destroyed. [Music] Each year, cities spread,cherished patterns of living are crowded away. Next year or the year after,this lake and its blueberries will be gone. [Music] Americans love to challengetheir environment. They love to jump, to glide. [Music] We also love to attack it. [Music] Now we can polluteit altogether, not only city and town,but even the countryside. [Music] Throughout history, man hashunted all species of animals. But he has never been huntedfor food by any of them. Instead, his numbershave been kept down by hunger and disease. Now, grain is being shippedto many parts of the world where human numbersoutrun food supplies. Without solving theproblem, American surplus is being exhausted. [Music] Any delay means famine. Beside famine, stalksbattle and death. [Music] [Speaker 1:] So what are wesupposed to do about it? Personal liberties are involved. Perhaps parents have aright to have children. Or perhaps children have aright not to be born unwanted. Of course, the world has knownhunger and famine before. [Narrator:] But never like this. Before 1850, totalhuman numbers had never exceeded one billion people. We passed two billion in 1930. We passed four billion in 1970. At the end of thepresent century, our current rates ofgrowth imply a population of eight billion people. This is seven billionmore than we had in 1850. For many countries, thiswould mean disaster on a scale beyond conception. [Music] What caused such explosivegrowth of population? [Music] Due to the efforts ofscience and medicine, adults live longer, infant deaths fall, the world fills up. [Music] Once man had to accept a highbirth rate and a high deathrate. Now we are experiencing a highbirth rate and a low deathrate. The world's populationincreases rapidly. To balance the flowof births and deaths, births must fall drastically. Many scientistsand statesmen are certain that the two-child family must become the pattern for everyone. The two-child family meansthat parents and children would be in balance, aswell as people and food. [Music] Yet the two-childfamily is a sad thought. Many of us must have fewerchildren than we want, because in the past,so many had too many. We do not like toadmit this in America. [Music] In the last two centuriesin the United States, the average numberof children has dropped from eight to three. Yet between 1950 and 1967,with an average of three-child families, we havejust added 50 million more Americans, or one quarterof our entire population, in 17 years. [Music] To make a dent on 50million, how many Americans must we hurl intospace to other planets? [Music] Numbers like thisare hard to grasp. For comparison, 20 million diedin the greatest loss of life in history, the influenzapandemic of 1918. New York, our largest city,reached eight million in 1960. If nothing is doneto limit births, death will restore the balance. There will be new wars,new famine, new disease. So long as we are notovercrowded, not hungry, not impoverished, we can pretendthere is no crisis in America, that it is not our problem. [Music] Or we can recognizeit is our problem and explore the meansto fewer births. [Music] For millions ofyears, human existence has depended on thesuccess of fertilization. A woman is designedto get pregnant, and a man is designedto get her that way. [Music] But now, human existence mayvery well depend on circumventing this design. Conception can be preventedby social control. [Music] Society can delay andprevent sexual relations by separation of boys andgirls, by strict chaperonage of the unmarried,by later marriage. The Irish marry eightyears later than Americans. In Tibet, formalcelibacy was encouraged in monasteries and nunneries. These methods of birthcontrol may seem rigorous, yet they have been effectivein slowing population growth and have been enforced by manyreligions and races of people. [Music] Today, in additionto social controls, modern contraceptionprevents pregnancy, even though sexualrelations take place. Most methods areused by the woman to preventfertilization of an egg. In human fertilization,sperm are placed by the male in the vagina. Sperm enter thecervix very quickly, pass through the uterus, andfertilize the egg in the tube. The fertilized egg may implantin the wall of the uterus, or it may disappear. Turning to the side view of thewoman, and starting at the top are the ovary and tube. The uterus, wherepregnancy occurs, projects into the elasticvagina, which opens out just under the pubic bone. These are widely usedmethods of contraception. The two most effectiveare the IUD and the pills. These methods arepreferred because women using them areprotected at all times. Other methods areless effective, partly because couplesneglect to use them. The pills were the resultof expensive research and must be bought regularly. The IUD costs afew cents to make, and if suited to the woman,provides protection for years. The intrauterine device, orIUD, fits the uterine cavity. It is often made offlexible plastic. The strings makeit easy to remove. Using sterile gloves, itis fed into a plastic tube, fitted with a plunger, andinserted through the cervix into the uterus. On this x-ray, the IUD uncoils into place in the uterus. The strings can beseen at the cervix. The IUD affects only thetubes and the uterus. The surface it touchesis shed every month. New IUDs are beingperfected for women who have not had children. The pills are hormones and mustbe taken and taken correctly to be effective inpreventing pregnancy. They are startedon the fifth day and taken daily for 20 days. The first day of thenew flow is new day one. Pills are restartedon new day five. Many women cannot remember this. Others complain of side effects. Future researchpromises injections of hormone instead of pills. Pills are fine forspacing births, but the IUD is preferredfor the completed family. Other widely used methodsdepend on preventing the sperm from entering the uterus. This is very difficult to do. The foam makes aneffective barrier and stops themotion of the sperm. A full applicator is insertedin the back of the vagina just before intercourse, andagain each time intercourse is repeated. The diaphragm israrely requested when other modernmethods are available. It is inserted into thevagina to make a barrier at the cervix, and must beused with a sperm killing jelly or cream. The rhythm method dependson avoiding intercourse during that partof the month when the egg is likely to be shed. For women with regular periods, this occurs sometime betweenthe 10th and the 23rd day. In this interval, couplesmust avoid intercourse. because the time of ovulationand the days of sperm survival are not known. For women withirregular periods, this method is no help at all. The male, in hopes ofpreventing pregnancy, sometimes attempts to withdrawbefore any sperm are shed. To be effective, this methodrequires great control. For many couples, itresults in pregnancy. Condoms and foamsare important methods because they can be boughtwithout prescription. The condom or rubberis highly effective if the male uses it eachtime and uses it correctly. Space must be left at thetip, and the rim of the condom must be held in placeduring withdrawal to prevent thesperm from spilling. Over the long-term, sterilization may be the best answer. For the male, vasectomy can bedone in an office or clinic, and is a simpler procedurethan sterilizing the woman. Vasectomy cuts and ties off thesperm carrying tube or vas, but leaves the malehormone cells intact. Sex drive and performance are not affected, because hormones enterthe bloodstream just the same. For the woman, sterilizationis a hospital procedure. Cutting and tying hertubes keeps an egg from reaching the uterus. Often performedafter the last birth, it is effective and quite safe. Abortion is the commonest methodof birth control in the world today. In America, one out of fivepregnancies ends in abortion. Almost all of these are illegal. In other countries,where it is legal, a suction tube isbeing widely used to detach the embryoquickly and safely. With medical care, abortioncan be safer than childbirth. Beyond the moment ofconception, what then? Imperceptibly, over a periodof weeks, new life begins. The embryo isabout two weeks old when the first period is missed. This human embryo isabout six weeks old. It will be threeor four months old before the mother showsmuch change of shape. Pregnancy ordinarily ends withthe experience of childbirth, where muscularaction of the womb propels the baby throughthe ring of the pelvis and out into the world. [Music] A healthy woman is exhilaratedby successful childbirth, and in most societiesenjoys feeding her baby through the firstmonths of life. The world has room onlyfor the child you do want. The child needs a mother'slove, a father's example. [Music] But what about theunwanted child? What does a boythink of when he has sired a baby he does not want? [Music] Who will he talk to? How much will it cost? What will happen to her? What does a girlthink of when she must choose between abortionand giving away her baby? [Music] Teenagers are producingmore thousands of babies foradoption every year, or are rushing into earlymarriage, where divorce rates are twice the national average. Grandparents, hopingto retire, are suddenly raising these babies. Thus attitudes are changing. Once it was a sin tovaccinate against smallpox, to protect against polio. Today, we believecitizens should protect society and themselvesfrom these disasters. Unwanted pregnancy isalso a cruel disaster, and couples shouldprotect themselves. If contraceptionis one answer, it must be much easier to getfor the single, for the young, for the poor. It is still true that the rich get richer and the poor get babies. By 1965 in New YorkCity, for the first time, the number of babiesborn to welfare parents approached the numberborn to wage earners. This imbalancethreatens rich and poor alike with a breakdownof civic life. Can we balance population andresources at this late date? Human resistanceto birth control comes partly from adesire to outbreed, or a fear of being outbred by some other group, of some other race,religion, or language. Only the two-child familysilences these fears and is fair to everyone. [Music] But the two-child familywill not become a fact unless all peoples, allreligions everywhere, limit their populations. Traditionally populationwas held in check by late marriage, disapprovalof sex, and infant death. The facts of contemporary lifeare early marriage, approval of sex, and infant survival. This has caused an emergencywhich has not fully struck home to us. [Music] For any population, an ageprofile graph like this pictures the ratioof young to old. A sequence of graphs showschange of population size through time. A town in America 150 yearsago might have had many deaths in the first few months of life,steady dying off in the middle years, and a few peoplesurviving past 50. The difference between thispopulation and this much larger one is not more births. It is survival ofbabies into adult years. Such a shift occurredsuddenly in many countries due to moderncontrol of disease. If a two-child family were the pattern, this populationwould stabilize here. But larger familiesare still the pattern. Births increase. The base from which populationgrows expands again. [Music] This expandingpavilion of people threatens the limitedgreen fields of the Earth. [Music] Can we halt this expansion? Only if we limit ourselves,not only now, but generation after generation. It is a race betweenbirths and birth control. It is a race against famine,and disease, and war, and death. [Speaker 1:] But if we are in love, what we do is our own affair. [Music] [Speaker 2:] Our own affair. [Multiple voices:] Our own affair. [Narrator:] But today, babiesare the world's affair. [Music]