Ask Alexandra – September 2013

Hi Alexandra

I have been a fan of yours since i was in grade 6. that was from i was 11 Yrs. I became a fan of yours mainly due to the character you played as Stephanie Holden in Bay Watch. I just wanna know, when you compare your self with Stephanie’s is there a major difference in the characters or is it the same.

Love
Michelle

Hi Michelle,

Stephanie was like me in that I love to work out, and I am disciplined, slightly neurotic and sometimes bossy! Stephanie is also very earnest and back then I took myself more seriously than I did as I got older.

Stephanie was stronger in her personality than I was at that time. In fact, playing that character helped me tap into my own power, and my voice became more commanding rather than the breathlessness I had in earlier movies. She was tougher on people and had less sense of fun.

Best wishes,
Alexandra

2) The 1968 book “Population Bomb’ by the Ehrlich’s scared the hell out of me when i was a sophomore in college. Now that I am retired, I would like to get actively involved in helping to solve this problem.

My concern for the well-being of the planet and the wildlife living on it prompted me to join the World Wildlife Fund, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Fund, and the Nature Conservancy.

I’ve been looking through theses organization’s websites and I see no mention of the threat that overpopulation by the human species poses for our planet. I’ve also written to them expressing my concerns. While they all express sympathy with my concerns, none of them have the means to address this overarching problem.

Surely, I’m not the first-person to realize that all of the pollution, wildlife degradation, and climate change these groups are trying to fight has, as its ultimate cause, the overpopulation of the human species.

My question is this — what are these reputable organizations doing to help slow the growth of the human population? I’m not advocating eugenics or forced sterilization, but there must be something we can do to help bring the human population under control before it destroys all other species on our globe. Please don’t think I’m advocating eugenics, genocide, or ethnic cleansing.

Please let me know what I can do to help in the San Francisco Bay Area.
John Schuster

Hi John,

It is very disappointing that none of the big environmental organizations tackle the human overpopulation problem. NONE. I was at a meeting for Rainforest Action Network, a very courageous non profit that hangs banners off buildings and leads boycotts against big companies, and I asked the executive director why RAN does not include the human overpopulation issue in any of its literature. At the very least, a recommendation for having smaller families could be listed in their “top ten ways to save the rainforest” because we all know that increasing numbers of humans put enormous pressure on resources. She admitted that overpopulation was an extremely serious issue, but that she was “afraid of alienating donors”. If RAN is afraid of the issue, then you can bet mainstream groups are sure to stay away too…

Just the fact that you felt like you had to repeat you are not advocating eugenics or forced sterilization shows how skittish even those educated on the issue are wary of bringing it up!

The solution is to not bring forth more than one or two children yourself. TALK about the issue, to override this silence and fear surrounding it. Write blogs, letters to the editor. Share my short TEDx talk on your social media.

Stabilizing and lowering the human population DOES NOT need to entail forcing anyone to do anything. See my short talk on this!!!

Insist that your local media report on human overpopulation in a scientific way, and that journalists understand the link between rising numbers and so many other problems they report on having to do with the environment, the economy and quality of life.

Make clear to all those environmental organizations to which you belong, that you are not going to continue to be a member unless they acknowledge and tackle human overpopulation.

Support organizations that DO deal with overpopulation like World Population Balance and Population Media Center.

I am so thrilled you are interested in this topic. Thank you for writing in.
Alexandra

3) Hello Alexandra . You are a wonderful actress, and you keep it real. I’d also like to commend you on your activism efforts. You do what others just talk about, and we need more folks like you to help make this a better place for everyone. I also drive an older Prius that just won’t die, and wonder what was the reasoning behind destroying those EV’s,do you think it was big oil, or what?
Scott Ramey

Hi Scott,

Good for you for having a Prius, which gets very good gas mileage, and for keeping it a long time. Buying a new car uses up resources, so keeping what you have (as long as it is gas efficient) can often be better for the environment than purchasing something new.

Why did virtually all the car companies that produced electric cars in the 1990s and early 2000s crush them? I think it was purely financial: they were not willing to make the switch to a new technology which would initially lose them money. Oil prices were under $25/ barrel in 2000, and it was not until the 2006 triple threat of oil prices at $60/barrel, the public discussion of climate change thanks to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and the release of the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? that the car companies, the public and the US government began to get behind EVs.

Another reason car companies did not want EVs on the road is that they did not want to have to service the original batch of electric cars for years to come if the concept was not going to catch. I think a car company is mandated to keep parts for at least a decade.

I do not think it was a conspiracy. If it was, oil companies miscalculated to let oil prices go so high so suddenly – as that opened people up to alternatively fueled vehicles. I do think that now the oil companies are keeping the price below $100 barrel to get us used to gasoline at $4.50, and not so shocked and mad when it goes above $5. I think there will be a tipping point when the price goes too high and millions of drivers will make the switch to battery powered cars.

I think car companies see the writing on the wall and realize they have to get into the electric vehicle market. Most manufacturers are still resisting, and dealerships are terrible at selling EVs, but in a few more years I think plug in cars will be as accepted as hybrids.

Thanks for writing in. And thank you for your support!
Alexandra