The problem with overpopulation

Written by Miruna Hurmuz

Conserve Energy Future — a website that aims to inform users on renewable energy — finds within article “20 Major Current Environmental Problems” among pollution, global warming, natural resource depletion, and many others, the issue of “overpopulation”. They say about it the followings:

“The population of the planet is reaching unsustainable levels as it faces a shortage of resources like water, fuel, and food. Population explosion in less developed and developing countries is straining the already scarce resources.

Intensive agriculture practiced to produce food damages the environment through the use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides and insecticides. Overpopulation is also one of the crucial current environmental problems.”

Within the multitude of COVID-19 vaccine’s conspiracy theories, one about it maliciously causing infertility in order to solve the issue of overpopulation arises. Therefore, I believe this issue is of high interest and it only seems natural to bring further understanding on the topic.

Back in 2009, ScienceDaily mentioned in article “Worst Environmental Problem? Overpopulation, Experts Say” that “overpopulation is the world’s top environmental issue, followed closely by climate change and the need to develop renewable energy resources to replace fossil fuels, according to a survey of the faculty at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF)”. Needless to state the obvious opinion, that is already clearly expressed within the title itself, the article also contains extracts from interviews with a system ecologist — that mentions that the only problem we have is overpopulation and otherwise, the others would not exist, a forest ecologist that explained that overpopulation means we are “putting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere”, fact that he relates to overconsumption in general (sorry for breathing too much), as well as a teacher of the American history of the environmental movement that mentioned that regardless, everyone is encouraged to consume “too much”. As in, consumerism, capitalism? Oh, and blaming regular people for how they managed to adapt to the system, not the actual system.

Within article “The Environmental Impacts of Overpopulation” (LeBlanc, R., updated in 2021), The Balance Small Business mentions:

“The current population of the Earth is almost 7.6 billion people and growing. It is projected to reach over 8 billion by 2025, 9 billion by 2040, and a whopping 11 billion by 2100. Population is growing rapidly, far outpacing the ability of our planet to support it, given current practices.” It is also specified that “the problem of having too many people has made lasting solutions more challenging to find”.

As such, the numbers appear to be scary. Furthermore, Ecavo — a website that contains articles with a focus on technology and ideas regarding “energy sustainability, environmental science, universe exploration & outdoor appreciation” — goes on to say that “Over the last half century the population of the world has exploded. In 2021 there are almost Eight billion people on the planet and this number is projected to grow in a short period of time.” They add that “Of all of the environmental challenges facing the planet today overpopulation is one that sometimes slips under the radar. Issues like pollution, climate change and water shortages all seem to take precedence, but overpopulation is one of the main contributors to many other environmental issues.” The following causes for overpopulation are found: poverty, poor contraceptive use, child labor, reduced mortality rates, fertility treatment, and immigration as well as the following possible effects of overpopulation: lack of water, lower life expectancy, extinction, resource consumption, increased intensive farming, and faster climate change. The solutions that they find are better sex education, access to contraceptives, changes in policy, and education on the subject. While these all are areas that severely need improvement, especially in underdeveloped countries, are these really to blame, or is it the market’s encouragement in a capitalist word to consume and then blame the peers for adapting and surviving to the political environment?

Moreover, talking about overpopulation comes with consequences. Within the 2018 Vox article “I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about overpopulation. Here’s why”, it is mentioned that usually, talking about population growth is morally and politically fraught and that in practice, these concerns are oftentimes associated with racism, xenophobia, or eugenics. Most often, “particular population” needs reducing.

When political movements or leaders adopt population control as a central concern … let’s just say it never goes well. In practice, where you find concern over “population,” you very often find racism, xenophobia, or eugenics lurking in the wings. It’s almost always, ahem, particular populations that need reducing.

To add up, in 2019 Vox article “We’ve worried about overpopulation for centuries. And we’ve always been wrong”, it is stated that even in a book from the 60s’, written by a Stanford biologist, The Population Bomb it was said that “In the 1970’s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death [because of overpopulation]” (later editions modifying the sentence with “the 80s’”) and that “the world we live in now, despite approaching a population of nearly 8 billion, looks almost nothing like the one doomsayers were anticipating”. Hence, the issue, they find, is not overpopulation, but the fact that “if we don’t transition to better energy sources, we’re doomed no matter how much we shrink our numbers”.

The problem with overpopulation, or rather, the problem of talking about overpopulation is more complicated than it seems. As such, while there are multiple solutions for it, most of them do not involve talking about overpopulation per se, but rather tackle the issues that influence why overpopulation may appear as an issue itself. All of these will be discussed in a further article that deals with the solutions found for this problem.

Bibliography

• “20 Current Environmental Problems That Our World Is Facing – Conserve Energy Future”. 2021. Conserve Energy Future. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/15-current-environmental-problems.php.
• LeBlanc, Rick. 2021. “The Environmental Impacts Of Overpopulation”. The Balance Small Business. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-overpopulation-impacts-the-environment-4172964.
• Piper, Kelsey. 2019. “We’Ve Worried About Overpopulation For Centuries. And We’Ve Always Been Wrong.”. Vox. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/20/20802413/overpopulation-demographic-transition-population-explained.
• Roberts, David. 2018. “”I’M An Environmental Journalist, But I Never Write About Overpopulation. Here’S Why.””. Vox. https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/26/16356524/the-population-question.
• SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. “Worst Environmental Problem? Overpopulation, Experts Say.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090418075752.htm (accessed November 8, 2021).
• “What Is Overpopulation? | 2021 (Causes, Effects & Solutions)”. 2021. Ecavo. https://ecavo.com/overpopulation-causes-effects-solutions/.