Overpopulation FAQs
(Frequently asked questions)
from overpopulation.org
1. What are the biggest issues that arise from overpopulation, and
why are they so bad?
a. Food shortages and associated malnutrition, susceptibility to
disease, stunted growth and stunted brain power, starvation
b. Peak oil, which greatly impacts food supply.
c. Per capita water shortage and poor water quality, which greatly
impacts food supply and human health
d. Climate change which creates hotter, more hostile crop growing
conditions and flooding, also hostile to crops.
e. Shortage of nonrenewable resources, particularly fertilizer,
necessary for crop production, but also other resources needed for
manufacturing, without which our materialistic civilization will grind
to a halt.
f. Environmental damage caused by the quest for more fossil fuels and
essential metals, destruction of animal habitat caused by
urbanization.
2. In the future, do you foresee it getting worse or better, and to
what degree?
b. Belief that population stabilization requires 'population control'
- the One Child policy in China,for example. Not understanding
thatthere are gentle solutions that will help people live a better life,
and that people actually want, and that have been proven to work.
c. Inability to connect the dots when 6 billion goes to 7 billion in
12 years and then to 8 billion in 13 years.
d. Belief that 'God will take care of it'. Cornucopian view of the world
fostered by decades of technological advances and materialistic success
has caused people to think that the world's natural resources are
unlimited. Forgetting that fossil fuels have allowed the West to advance
technologically and live very comfortably, and therefore not really
thinking to look at the dim future of fossil fuels.
e. Many people do not understand the relationship between our Earth's
finite resources and humans existence. They believe that, if we are
well-off, everything is OK. They do not see that we have already
heavily borrowed against the Earth's resources: water in ancient
aquifers are being overpumped, oil that was stored in the ground for
thousands of years is not being replenished. Ancient civilizations who
became overpopulated did not see it either.
6. Do you believe overpopulation, or the way we use resources is
more of a problem, and why?
There is no doubt that, if the 2 billion people living very
comfortably on this earth made sacrifices, then the 2 billion living
on the edge could live more comfortably - IF (a very big if) it was
practical to transfer the assets of the rich to the poor, and if the
rich would willingly give up their comfortable life. Unfortunately
Overpopulation causes rural farming people to outgrow their lands, so many people use the excuse that consumption is a bigger part of the
problem (they believe it is) to avoid dealing with population
the grown children move to cities. Urbanization eats up farmland,
reducing crop production. Also growing seasons are becoming hotter, altogether, when, in fact, all conservation steps made today will be
so many crops fail due to heat and drought. Overuse of the soils caused overrun by population tomorrow, AND - enable the population to grow
larger until all resources have been exhausted.
by overpopulation leads poor nourishment for crops and eventually
desertification. Overpopulation draws on available water to the point
that there is not enough to water crops. Aquifers are overdrawn to the Most frequently we hear about overconsumption in the West measured
in terms of carbon emissions. However, we must remember that the
point where they are not replenished fast enough.
critical path for humanity is the supply of food. Arable land is fast
disappearing due to urbanization, soil erosion/overuse, and water
3. Is there anything that you believe we can do to help lessen the
shortages in both rich and poor countries. Both rich and poor
effects of overpopulation on the environment and other animals?
countries will suffer, the poor first, but then the poor in the richer
a. Voluntary family planning and reproductive health care - programs countries. Already the middle class is fast disappearing in the U.S.,
due to loss of jobs to overseas employees. So the U.S. is not immune
providing services for voluntary family planning and reproductive
to the impacts of food shortages.
health care have existed since the 1960s and they do work, having
Going by a. Food shortages alone, it will only get worse unless we
quickly stabilize population and find some as-yet-discovered
agricutural advancement. The Green Revolution has petered out.
brought the world's fertility rates down to 2.5.
b. Girls education, c. discouraging early marriages, d. male
involvement, e. women's empowerment are also needed to stop male
preference, which results in higher birth rates.
f. Entertainment social media on TV, radio, or in plays that give both
good and bad role models and open up communications on sensitive
topics and help people decide the the most beneficial way to live their
lives, which usually includes choosing a smaller family size.
g. But these programs need more funding and we must push for that
funding.
4. Why should people be concerned about overpopulation now, as
opposed to waiting until it becomes more apparent?
Slowing population growth takes time unless we resort to drastic,
ugly, highly unpopular solutions. We must increase funding for family
planning now, because putting babies back in the womb, or even a
worse alternative, is not an acceptable solution.
5. Why do you think so many people are ignorant on the topic of
overpopulation and it's effects?
a. Resistance to contraception and the belief that sex is only for
procreation by certain Christian religions.
7. When do you think the world's population will stop growing?
At current fertility rates the world's population will only stop
growing if people die at a faster rate, which is what will happen when
we run out of natural resources. No one has predicted when this will
happen. Malthus is reputed to believe it would happen in the 1700s
(that wasn't actually what he said); Paul Ehrlich thought it would
happen in the 1970s, but both did not see the technological advances
that saved the world's growing population. Unfortunately, this time
experts say, it will take a miracle for everyone to survive the
perfect storm of resource depletion that is coming.
The good news is that fertility rates are coming down, just not fast
enough. If they continue to come down at the same rate as they have
been, then the worlds population growth rate will level off by 2010 at
10 billion. That is not counting the people who die of starvation,
slowing population sooner than predicited. If fertility rates vary by just
one half a child (average), we could reach 15.8 billion by 2100 and
continue to grow - on the high side, or we could reach 8.1 billion by
2050 and start a decline. Since we went from 6 billion in 1999 to 7
billion in 2011 (12 years), I find it very difficult to believe we will wait
until 2050 to have 8.1 billion. Unless we change our ways and increase
funding for family planning programs.
8. What do you think is the main factor/factors contributing to
overpopulation?
Lack of education and economic opportunity for women; authoritarian
households where women don't have a say about their own lives, their
health care or how many children they have; child marriage; lack of
maternal health care for women; cultural beliefs in rural areas that
say many children are needed to take care of the land, not realizing
that too many children will outgrow the land; male preference;
contraceptive inaccessability; lack of educational opportunities to
learn that smaller families are healthier and more economically
feasible.
9 How does overpopulation effect a countries economy?
Overpopulated countries cannot build sufficient infrastructure or
provide sufficient services for its population because there is too
much competition for natural resources for people to earn enough to
support a government. Over 2 billion people earn less than $2 a day.
When a population is growing, however - not yet overpopulated, and
there is a high ratio of young people, and opportunities are available
for these young people to become educated and have jobs, then an
economy will boom. However, when these young people are old, and
they will have likely lowered their fertility rate, then there will be more
older people than young people, and the economy will suffer. On the
other hand, if the country reaches a point where resources in the area
are exhausted, and the country cannot buy its resources from other
countries, then the country is overpopulated, and poverty will be the
result.
10. Why do the most populated countries have their high
populations?
High populations result when death rates are brought down while
fertility rates remain high. Sanitation, pumping of aquifers, modern
medicine, better ways of treating sick infants, and the Green
Revolution have brought down mortality. Without a corresponding
drop in fertility, population will grow.
11. Are there any solutions to end starvation?
The UN claims that farmers in Africa can be be taught better farm
management. Africa is where the highest growth is. It remains to be
seen if this will be enough to end starvation.
12. What types of diets have the least environmental impact?
Diets which use plants instead of animals; animals are ok if they feed
on land or in water that cannot be used for crops. Some plant diets
are better than others, using less resources.
13. Is overpopulation a problem that we need to be worrying
about?
Yes, overpopulation is like a runaway train, and the longer we wait to
do something about it, the harder it will be to deal with the impacts.
16. In what areas of the world is overpopulation having the biggest
effects and how?
China, and India are seeing the biggest effects, mostly because of
water shortages and deforestation. Africa will soon follow,
particularly northern Africa where there is not enough water.
17. Have you been able to see the effects first hand? If so, what is it
like?
I have seen deforestation in Nepal and Ethiopia. People have to walk
further and further to find firewood. In Nepal they climb up in trees
and chop out branches to feed the leaves to their buffalo and the wood
fuels their fires. The trees look all mangled. In Ethiopia, people
have to walk 3-4 miles for wood to fuel their stoves.
In the 1980s in the U.S. I noticed how crowded the roads had become,
whereas, 20 years before my family could go camping in the woods
just about anywhere, we now had to make a reservation to camp. I
started to become involved after my trip to China in 1995 where I
noticed that the farmland I flew over had a whole village for every 40 100 acres, but in the U.S. there would be just one farmhouse for the
same amount of land. And there were no vacant lots in cities like
Shanghai – every space was taken.
18. How does overpopulation differ here in the United State
compared to other countries?
Overpopulation in the U.S. affects the world because the U.S.
population exceeds its carrying capacity, getting many of its
resources from other countries, often taking advantage of the poverty
in the other countries by paying much less than the resource is worth.
19. When do you feel overpopulation will grow to where it is
affecting the lives of people all over the world?
It already is. The current economic crisis is due to our oil-based,
debt-based economy having built up a large bubble and now it has
burst. In addition, food prices are rising and some people cannot
afford to buy sufficient food to feed their family.
20. What can people like me, an eighteen year old, do to help?
You can join an activist group, or do tabling alone if you can't find
a group. You can educate yourself on the subject and all the arguments
and issues on the subject (I hope my website will help you there), and
participate in letter writing and leaving comments on online newspaper
articles about population. You can find WOA's Facebook page (World
Overpopulation Awareness), and share your activist activities with us
there. You can look up Population Connection, and find suggestions of
what to do there (one of them is making presentations to school
teachers, who take the lesson to their students). You can hook up with
the Sierra Club and join population activities there:
http://www.sierraclub.org/population/
21. Why don't we hear much about this issue on the news and
such? It seems like something that should be dealt with
14. What is the biggest effect of overpopulation?
immediately, yet I don't see anyone in power taking action.
The United States and other countries HAVE been taking action on this
The most drastic impact so far is food shortages, with one billion
issue for many years. Programs are in place for voluntary family
people classified as 'undernourished' by the World Health Organization planning and reproductive health, among others that reduce fertility
(WHO) in 2009, and nearly a billion undernourished in each of 2007, rates. These programs have been instrumental in bringing down world
2008, and 2011. 3 billion people in the world today struggle to
fertility rates, which are now around 2.5 children per woman. But
survive on US$2/day, and food prices are rising.
every year there is a battle over how much funding should be put into
these programs by the U.S
The second and third impacts of overpopulation are Peak Oil and
Climate Change. Some will argue that climate change is not man made, ~~~
but it is indeed happening and causing crop failures. The world is
This article may be copied freely, in whole or in part. Reference to
producing less oil today than it did last year, and this trend will
its source, overpopulation.org, would be appreciated, but only without
continue. Both peak oil and climate change result in less food to feed
significant modification of any wording in the text.
the world, peak oil because food depends on mechanized farm
machinery and transport.