Overpopulation Symposium

WHAT IS OVERPOPULATION? Let’s begin by considering some statistics:

WHAT DOES OVERPOPULATION MEAN FOR US? The grim reality of a world with too many people.

We see the strain the risk of overpopulation has on our beautiful, beautiful planet every day. And there is no denying that our Earth is not beautiful – there is no planet other than Earth that is known by modern science that has this incredible capacity for life. But this capacity is being tested. British economist Thomas Malthus in 1798 proposed the unsettling theory that population growth would outrun the ability to produce food. This, he said, would lead to war, famine, disease, and other calamities. Some of these calamities are unfortunately coming into fruition – global warming, dying species, deforestation, and other climatic changes. It is no help that developing countries and even developed countries have incredibly high fertility rates. The United States is expected to grow 1.5x in size within the next 50 years and our birthrate stands at 2.1 children per woman – the highest of any developed country! And currently we are merely the third most population country, after China and India. Speaking of developed countries, they are eating the planet’s resources. The Earth’s natural resources are being severely overwhelmed.

THEN and NOW: Around 1850, the world population reached one billion. By 1987, it was at five billion and still rising rapidly. Today it is over 6 billion, only 22 years later. Third World nations are responsible for a great deal of the population growth. In 1989, about 90% of the people being born were in developing countries. The populations of Third World countries are expected to continue to boom. Today’s population stands at 6.8 billion and, if it continues on course, will reach 8 billion in 2020 before leveling off at about 9 billion in 2050. Formally, overpopulation by Merriam-Webster as “the condition of having a population so dense as to cause environmental deterioration, an impaired quality of life, or a population crash”

Information collaborated and design by Jessica Tu © Bioethics Symposium Fall 2009. All rights reserved.

THE OVERPOPULATED WORLD THE IMPACT ON WORLD ECONOMIES: Overpopulation has a definite effect on a country’s economy. First of all, when countries are overpopulated, the hardly have enough food to support themselves, never mind the hope of having a surplus to sell. This can contribute to a low GDP per Capita. This leads to high levels of debt in countries. Furthermore, when a country is overpopulated, there is a high rate of unemployment because there just aren’t enough jobs to support the population. This results in a high level of crime because the people will need to steal things in order to survive. THE IMPACT ON THE WORLD ENVIRONMENT: Every person on the planet takes up space, but space is needed for farmland, and forests. People excrete wastes and pollution that flow into water systems, and animal habitats, polluting water, and killing wildlife. Many people cannot bathe or brush their teeth because of the status of the water in their land. Greed and overconsumption can destroy the quality of life we are accustomed to. Forests are being torn down as more wood and land is needed to support our ever-growing population. The loss of these forests leads to extinction of plants and animals. 51% of the fossil fuels on Earth are being used by USA and China alone, leaving less than half for the remaining countries, including those in Africa. In fact, most of those remaining fossil fuels go to other developed countries, leaving a dismal amount for Africans. FOR WORLD POLITICS: Governing an overpopulated country presents problems. The economy is stretched beyond belief, and civil wars break out left and right. There is utter anarchy Civil wars are fought over already meagre resources. Important fossil fuels need to be traded away for pitiful amounts of cash used to no avail. The government of an overpopulated country falls into constantly increasing debt.

WHAT THE OPPOSITION HAS TO SAY

OPPOSITION #1: The world is overcrowded and

WHAT WE CAN DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

LONGTERM SOLUTIONS FOR A LONGTERM PROBLEM: WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STOP OVERPOPULATION AND ITS EVILS

The situation is urgent. Lester Brown, President of Worldwatch, stated in 1998,"The question is not whether population growth will slow in the developing countries, but whether it will slow because societies quickly shift to smaller families or because ecological collapse and social disintegration cause death rates to rise." The most important thing we as individuals can do is choose to have fewer children. While cutting back on your personal consumption of resources is laudable and may reduce your environmental footprint by 5%, 25%, or maybe even 50%, having a child will double your footprint, and having two children will triple your footprint. It is virtually impossible to compensate for reproducing by consuming less yourself. Although most of the population growth over the next few decades will take place in Asia and Africa, global overpopulation is as much a problem for “developed” countries as it is for third world countries. Americans constitute only five percent of the world’s population, but consume 26% of the world’s energy. Because we consume so much more than most people around the world, we can have the most impact when we choose to have fewer children or no children. Internationally, the United Nations Population Fund works for gender equality, access to birth control, and the education of women. According to the UNFPA, “Some 200 million women who would like to use contraceptives lack access to them.” Women should be educated not only about family planning, but also generally. World Watch has found, “In every society where data are available, the more education women have the fewer children they bear.”

population growth is adding overwhelming numbers of humans to a small planet. In fact, people do live in crowded conditions, and always have. We cluster together in cities and villages in order to exchange goods and services with one another. Most of the world is actually empty. It has been estimated by Paul Ehrlich and others that human beings actually occupy no more than 1 to 3 % of the Earth’s land surface. OPPOSITION #2: Overpopulation is causing global warming. The message that is most likely to arouse the fervor of young people is that overpopulation is destroying the environment and the biosphere. While the consensus is that global warming is man-made, there are still climatologists that believe that the globe goes through cycles of warming and cooling.

OPPOSITION #3: The world's forests are disappearing because of overpopulation. Today we know that trees inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, which means that they are a first line of defense against air pollution and the specter of global warming. The world forested area, estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. (FAO), currently covers 30 % of the land surface of the earth. Few people realize this is the same figure as in the 1950s.

OPPOSITION #4: Many plants and animals are disappearing because of the growth in human numbers. There is absolutely no scientific data whatsoever to support this claim. Some species, such as blue whales, spotted owls and blackfooted ferrets, have been found to be more numerous than was once thought. Claims of massive species extinction appear doubtful.

OPPOSITION #5: Overpopulation is the chief cause of poverty. In reality, problems commonly blamed on "overpopulation" are the result of bad economic policy.

OPPOSITION #6: Population control is the only way to solve the ills of overpopulation. The “solution” to overpopulation, as seen in China, leads to human rights violations such as forced infanticide, abortion, and sterilizations.

OPPOSITION #7: Overpopulation causes war and revolution. The most war–torn continent on earth Africa is also one of the least densely populated, with about half as many people per square mile as in the world as a whole. Bad governments, propped up by ineptly and unjustly managed foreign aid, are more probably the root of strife.