SHANNON KELLY
Assistant Perspectives Editor
“In a world that is growing by 168 people every minute of every day, there is no greater challenge facing us than stabilizing world population,” said Peter Kostmayer, executive director of Zero Population Growth, at a recent fund-raising event.
In a world where catastrophists can influence people with their outlandish assertions, the greatest challenge is not “stabilizing world population,” it is reminding people of the real, not-so-horrible state of the planet. If people like Kostmayer keep declaring doom because of the population growth, too many people are going to consider such remarks true and join the population-control enthusiast.
The problem with joining, however, is that their ideas are simply outdated and untrue. “The population bomb propagandists have all the intellectual credibility of the Flat Earth Society,” economist Stephen Moore points out.
When explorers and scientists searched for the truth instead of simply believing the flat-earth theory, they proved that the earth is round. As intellectuals explore the truth about population-related issues, they are proving that there is no population explosion and that supporting moderate population growth is actually in the best interest of human kind.
The roots of “overpopulation” theory
“Overpopulation” is not about how many people live on the planet. It has to do with the number of people in comparison to the resources they need to survive. The number of people in the world does not exceed the carrying capacity of Earth and its resources. Good news — the world is not overpopulated.
Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, environmentalists began making doomsday claims saying that the continuously increasing population would cause major resource shortages and widespread famine. Biologist Paul Ehrlich drove the pointless panic with his 1968 book “The Population Bomb.”
Pessimists believed his terrifying foreshadowing of the world’s apocalyptic future, caused by uncontrolled reproduction. Ehrlich acquired an extensive following, which is shocking considering that his claims were completely made up and he went as far as comparing human beings to cancer.
In his book, he illustrates his foolish mania by writing: “A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people. Treating only the symptoms of cancer may make the victim more comfortable at first, but eventually he dies — often horribly. A similar fate awaits a world with a population explosion if only the symptoms are treated. We must shift our efforts from treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer.”
For anyone who appreciates the enormous value of human beings, Ehrlich’s cancer analogy is extremely hard to swallow. It’s sickening to read a mad scientist’s ability to equate human beings to a deadly disease. Not only is his comparison crude and grossly uncouth, but its foundation, “uncontrolled multiplication of people,” is not even the cause of population growth. The cause of population growth, people living longer, is a testament to human greatness in people’s ability to properly and efficiently use Earth’s resources.
Population growth is not caused by uncontrolled reproduction
Humans are not and have not been breeding uncontrollably like cancer cells. But with the current population at about 6.5 billion, there are more people on earth than ever before. “Overpopulation” theorists, however, choose only to see the evil in humankind and incorrectly blame population growth on people’s supposed inconsiderate and uncontrolled reproduction. They claim that the only way to prevent future famine and depletion of resources is for human reproduction to dramatically slow down or stop completely.
The cynics are claiming a faulty cause.
The real cause of population growth is that more people are living longer than ever before and less people are dying prematurely from diseases and poor healthcare.
According to the U.N World Population Prospects, from 1950 to 2000, the percentage of children younger than in the world fell from 34 percent of total world population to only 30 percent, while the number of people older than 60 increased from 8 percent to 10 percent.
These numbers show that there is not a problem with population growth. If anything, growth is slowing. More importantly, however, there is nothing negative about human progress. There is nothing wrong with less people dying from now preventable causes. There is nothing bad about less human suffering and people living longer, happier lives.
But population control supporters beg to differ. They want to impose morally wrong ideas and policy on society by arguing that regulating reproduction will somehow save the world from “overpopulation.” Not only does overpopulation not exist, but regulating population also has nothing to do with population growth. It takes away individual freedom is immoral, and is unnecessary and threatening to human progress.
More humans, more resources
Those who believe in an overpopulation problem continue to assert that people are greedy devourers of the earth’s resources. They are correct saying humans use a lot of resources, but they fail to give proof as to how using resources is really a problem. The best thing to do with the stubborn doomsayers is to prove them wrong.
The Population Research Institute (PRI) is a non-partisan group that educates leaders and legislators of various political perspectives about the benefits of a development policy that treats people not as greedy consumers of the planet’s natural reserves, but as the world’s most valuable resources.
On its Web site, PRI presents a bet that was made in 1980 between economist Julian Simon and Ehrlich (the pessimistic biologist who falsely predicted global disaster).
Was the world headed for doom from resource shortages, like Ehrlich predicted, or was Simon correct in asserting that human ability and economic progress guarantee infinite resources?
The bet focused on the market price of metals. Ehrlich picked five metals worth $1,000 in 1980, and Simon bet that the price of those metals would drop rather than increase. If the prices dropped, that would prove that the availability of resources had gone up even as population and demand increased.
Simon won.
As human beings found better ways to improve metal production, prices fell and resources became more abundant. In his book “The Ultimate Resource 2,” Simon wrote, “I’ll bet that just about any environmental and economic trend pertaining to basic human material welfare will show improvement in the long run.”
World is getting better, not worse
Continued improvements in science and medicine, as well as more individual freedom and economic progress have led to people living longer, happier and more fulfilling lives. Overpopulation propagandists continue to condemn people when they actually deserve praise in the light of so much human progress. Human life is good and immensely valuable, and the 6.5 billion people living today are evidence to successful advancements.
Human capability ensures abundant resources as people continue to find better, cleaner, and safer ways to sustain happy lives.
“We have in our hands now — actually in our libraries — the technology to feed, clothe, and supply energy to an ever-growing population for the next 7 billion years,” Simon wrote in a policy report for the Cato Institute.
I’ll put all my money on Simon’s theory before I bet one cent on “overpopulation.”
10-06-2005
