Human overpopulation
Those who believe global human overpopulation to be a valid concern, argue that increased levels of resource consumption and pollution exceed the environment's carrying capacity, leading to population overshoot.Other critics claim that overpopulation concerns ignore more pressing issues, like poverty or overconsumption, are motivated by racism, or place an undue burden on the global south where most population growth happens.[23][24] Modern proponents of the concept have suggested that overpopulation, population growth and overconsumption are interdependent[25][26][27] and collectively are the primary drivers of human-caused environmental problems such as climate change[28][29] and biodiversity loss.[39] Additionally, many economists and historians have noted that sustained shortages and famines have historically been caused by war, price controls, political instability, and repressive political regimes (often employing central planning) rather than overpopulation,[50] and that population growth historically has led to greater technological development and advancement of scientific knowledge that has enabled the engineering of substitute goods and technology that better conserves and more efficiently uses natural resources, produces greater agricultural output with less land and less water, and addresses human impacts on the environment due to there being greater numbers of scientists, engineers, and inventors and subsequent generations of scientists overturning scientific paradigms maintained by previous generations of scientists.[90] Even more dramatic growth beginning in 1950 (above 1.8% per year) coincided with greatly increased food production as a result of the industrialization of agriculture brought about by the Green Revolution.[103] By the early 19th century, intellectuals such as Thomas Malthus predicted that humankind would outgrow its available resources because a finite amount of land would be incapable of supporting a population with limitless potential for increase.The book predicted population growth would lead to famine, societal collapse, and other social, environmental and economic strife in the coming decades, and advocated for policies to curb it.[110][36] In The Population Bomb, Ehrlich stated, "In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now,"[113] with later editions changing to "in the 1980s".Therefore, Global Footprint Network and its partner organizations have engaged with national governments and international agencies to test the results—reviews have been produced by France, Germany, the European Commission, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.[154][155][156] A July 2017 study published in Environmental Research Letters argued that the most significant way individuals could mitigate their own carbon footprint is to have fewer children, followed by living without a vehicle, forgoing air travel, and adopting a plant-based diet.[158] Continued population growth and overconsumption, particularly by the wealthy, have been posited as key drivers of biodiversity loss and contemporary species extinction,[159][160][140][26] with some researchers and environmentalists specifically suggesting this indicates a human overpopulation scenario.[162][163] IGI Global has uncovered the growth of the human population caused encroachment in wild habitats which have led to their destruction, "posing a potential threat to biodiversity components".[164] Some scientists and environmentalists, including Jared Diamond,[165] E. O. Wilson, Jane Goodall[166] and David Attenborough,[167] contend that population growth is devastating to biodiversity.Wilson for example, has expressed concern when Homo sapiens reached a population of six billion their biomass exceeded that of any other large land dwelling animal species that had ever existed by over 100 times.[169][154]: 146 Some commentary has attributed depletion of non-renewable resources, such as land, food and water, to overpopulation[170] and suggested it could lead to a diminished quality of human life.[180] Physics professor Albert Allen Bartlett at the University of Colorado Boulder warned in 2000 that overpopulation and the development of technology are the two major causes of the diminution of democracy.[136] John Harte has argued population growth is a factor in numerous social issues, including unemployment, overcrowding, bad governance and decaying infrastructure."[184] He and his colleagues have also demonstrated that capitalist elites throughout recent history have "used pro-natalist state policies to prevent women from practicing family planning" in order to grow the size of their workforce.They suggested several possible approaches, including:[190][191] There is good evidence from many parts of the world that when women and couples have the freedom to choose how many children to have, they tend to have smaller families."[200] The warning noted:Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any efforts to achieve a sustainable future.[202] "We are jeopardizing our future by not reining in our intense but geographically and demographically uneven material consumption and by not perceiving continued rapid population growth as a primary driver behind many ecological and even societal threats," they wrote.But its call to action included "estimating a scientifically defensible, sustainable human population size for the long term while rallying nations and leaders to support that vital goal.The 2020 "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency" stated: "Economic and population growth are among the most important drivers of increases in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.""[205] "The world population must be stabilized—and, ideally, gradually reduced,"[206] it concluded, implying that humanity is overpopulated given current and expected levels of resource use and waste generation.In the developing world, some 514,000 women die annually of complications from pregnancy and abortion,[210] with 86% of these deaths occurring in the sub-Saharan Africa region and South Asia.[150] In a 2022 warning on population published by Science of the Total Environment, Ripple, Ehrlich and other scientists appealed to families around the world to have no more than one child and also urged policy-makers to improve education for young females and provide high-quality family-planning services.[citation needed] In response, philosopher Tim Meijers asks the question: "To what extent is it fair to require people to refrain from procreating as part of a strategy to make the world more sustainable?[227][245][70][166][246] Paul Ehrlich's Population Bomb begins with him describing first knowing the "feel of overpopulation" from a visit to Delhi, which some critics have accused of having racial undertones.[197] Feminist scholar Donna Haraway notes that a commitment to enlarging the moral community to include nonhuman beings logically entails people’s willingness to limit their numbers and make room for them.[249] Ecological economists like Herman Daly and Joshua Farley believe that reducing populations will make it easier to achieve steady-state economies that decrease total consumption and pollution to manageable levels.
Population growthpopulation overshootpopulationssustainedworld populationincreased from 1 billion to 8 billionmedical advancementsagricultural productivityUnited Nations' projectionsfertility ratesnational birth registriessub-replacement fertilityoverpopulationThomas MalthusMalthusianism and its Malthusian catastrophefaminepovertyPaul EhrlichThe Population Bomboverconsumptionnon-renewable resourcesresource consumptioncarrying capacityovershootpopulation momentumbiodiversity losshunger and malnutritionresource depletionhuman impact on the environmentglobal southclimate changepopulation planning strategiessustainable populationdemographerseconomistsshortagesfaminesprice controlscentral planninghistoricallytechnological developmentadvancement of scientific knowledgeengineeringsubstitute goodsinventorsoverturning scientific paradigmsprevious generations of scientistssocial scientists argue that disputes between themselves and biologistsappropriateness of definitions being usedtalking past each otherUnited Nationsscience mythreinscribing colonialWorld population milestonesfertility rateList of countries and territories by fertility rateBlack DeathHaber processLotka–Volterra equationsagronomistDavid PimentelVirginia AbernethycivilizationHoloceneglacial iceLast Glacial PeriodIndustrial RevolutionGreen RevolutionList of countries by population densityAfricaEuropeLatin AmericaCaribbeanNorth AmericaProjections of population growthhuman populationforecasthuman developmentfertilitymortalityUnited Nations Population Divisionless developed countriesNigeriaMalthusianismTertullianCarthagesocieties that have collapsedAn Essay on the Principle of PopulationEnglish poor lawsIrish Great FamineWorld Population ConferenceLeague of NationsMargaret SangerPaul R. Ehrlichsocietal collapseClub of RomeThe Limits to Growthscience fictiondystopian fictionWorld Population Conferencesfamily planningAlbert Allen Bartlettprofileenvironmental issuesE. O. WilsonPentti LinkolabiospherePew Research CenterAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science50 Nobel prize-winning scientistsTimes Higher EducationLindau Nobel Laureate Meetingsenvironmental degradationWorld Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Noticecontemporary species extinctionhuman population controlCatholic churchDavid AttenboroughPlanetary boundariesWorld Wide Fund for NatureGlobal Footprint Networkbiocapacityecological footprintLiving Planet ReportRoger MartinPopulation Matters