World Overpopulation Killing Earth
The Root Cause Of The Earth's Problems: Too Many People
The world has too many people. In the next 40 years, the world's population could grow by another 50% to 9 billion people (UN World Population to 2300 report (PDF)), page 14, table 1) with most of the growth taking place in less developed regions. This will create a significant burden on the world's resources. Although dealing now with the causes of climate change is important, it's more important to deal with the underlying problem. There are too many of us.
Some nations in Africa are currently unable to adequately feed their citizens and yet Africa's population could double within the next 30 years. Africa can address this by reducing the continent's resource burden by reducing its birth rate (as China has done). Feeding everyone requires changes within Africa and from elsewhere. The western world has for too long supplied the guns used in African wars. And the west continues to implement subjugating economic policies (BBC Report on Africa Commission Report, 2005).
Global Warming and Energy Consumption
Global warming has been brought about by industrial activity pumping too many chemicals into the earth's atmosphere for it to cope. We have treated the planet as if it has an infinite capacity to deal with the effects of our industrialisation. Some people and organisations are now modifying their behaviour to reduce the impact they have on the planet. We can increase this positive effect even further by reducing the number of people that the planet has to sustain.
In one year, each person on the planet consumes 1,675 units of energy (World Resources Institute, 2003) which have to be generated by some means, such as burning fossil fuels. That person also generates waste that needs to be disposed of. Each person in the US generates 2Kg of waste per day (US EPA. Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2005). If this person didn't exist, they wouldn't have an impact. Not only that, but if they don't exist, all of their descendants would never exist. Such an approach has a cumulative effect as less people means less descendants.
China has had a policy of encouraging families to have only one child since 1979. For most of the 1970s China had a voluntary policy of "late, long, few" which called for later childbearing, greater spacing between children, and fewer children. This caused the total fertility rate to halve from 5.9 to 2.9. A country's fertility rate is likely to drop due to increased economic prosperity as can be seen in India which has seen its rate drop from about 6 in 1950 to 2.7 today.
Planet-Wide Challenges
If we are to effectively deal with the planet-wide challenges of the 21st century (global warming being the most well-known), we have to address the issue of how many people the planet can effectively support. Overpopulation can lead to epidemics, overwhelmed social services (health, education, law enforcement, and more), and strain on the ecosystem from abuse of fertile land and production of high volumes of waste (Malcolm Potts, Popul Dev Rev 1997;23: 1-40, cited in BMJ 2006 article).
Most of the projected extra 3 billion people will be born in less developed regions which don't yet have the social infrastructure to cope with such an increase. Many people may have a life of unemployment and poverty, without access to a good education. They may starve. In a world of plenty, it is morally and ethically unacceptable to be condemning so many people to death. It is economic genocide.
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