Press release from Radical Statistics Population Group
Moral panic about overpopulation: the distracting campaign of Population Matters
Press release from the Radical Statistics Population Group
(http://www.radstats.org.uk/)
Date: 28th October 2011
Moral panic about overpopulation: the distracting campaign of
Population Matters
On the 31st October the world population will pass 7 billion. It is essential that evidence rather than
myth informs the challenges and opportunities that such population growth presents.
Population Matters describe themselves as “the leading environmental charity and think-tank in the
UK concerned with the impact of population growth on the environment”. The group have promoted
their apocalyptic views of population in well funded media campaigns to mark the passing of 7 billion
global population.
Radical Statistics’ Population group of UK demographers/population scientists and statisticians, have
examined the claims and policy of Population Matters finding them guilty of frequent overstatement,
rhetoric and one-sided assertion rather than evidence that population growth is the main cause of
environmental threats. Like others concerned about overpopulation before them, Population Matters
promote policies that erroneously focus on the groups who consume the least. The Radical Statistics
group calls on high profile patrons of Population Matters to reconsider their support, including the
naturalists and broadcasters David Attenborough and Chris Packham, environmental campaigner
Jonathan Porritt, and senior academic and cultural figures.
Seven key myths that are promoted by Population Matters are summarised below:
Myth 1
Population growth is increasing at an ever faster rate.
Evidence
Current UN projections indicate slowing growth and a maximum world population that
remains between 10.0 and 10.5 billion from 2083. In the UK levels of fertility are below the
level required to replace the current population.
Myth 2
Population causes resources to run out.
Evidence
This myth has a long history; it has been expressed by Malthus, Plato, Aristotle and
Tertullian, and many times since. Resources are not fixed or knowable; what is considered a
resource changes over time. This myth overlooks the potential for human ingenuity to
overcome problems, discover and use resources more efficiently. Historical evidence of
steadily increasing population fed by successive productive revolutions demonstrates that a
fixed human carrying capacity for planet earth is nonsense.
Myth 3
More population means more environmental damage.
Evidence
The link between population growth and environmental damage is not supported by evidence.
For example, there is a weak relationship between a country’s population growth and carbon
emissions. The Royal Commission on Environmental Protection’s final report in 2011 found
consumption and the impact associated with each unit of consumption more important than
population in terms of environmental impact. Historical experience clearly shows that current
population growth has not the prime driver of environmental degradation.
Press release from Radical Statistics Population Group
Moral panic about overpopulation: the distracting campaign of Population Matters
Myth 4
The economic and social inequality experienced by women and their access to
contraception are being ignored.
Evidence
Improvement of women’s educational and economic conditions, and non-coercive facilitation
of family planning throughout the world, are embodied in the Millennium Development
Goals, although more efforts to empower women are needed.
Myth 5
Population growth causes poverty by preventing development in poorer countries.
Evidence
There is no empirical evidence for this claim. Poverty is recognised to be a result of inequality
stemming from social factors rather than population size. For example, globally, according to
the Food and Agriculture Organisation, farmers produce more than the necessary nutrition
requirement to feed the world population. This supports views that not limited world
resources but the unequal distribution of resources mainly explains the current poverty and
hunger problems in the world.
Myth 6
Reducing teenage pregnancies will reduce the population of the UK (a policy advocated
by Population Matters).
Evidence
Teenage births represent only 7% of all births and births to young women below the age of 18
and around 2% of all births in 2008. Reducing teenage pregnancy would very likely have
little impact on population size especially as many teenagers would simply delay having
children to a later date.
Myth 7
Reduction of migration is needed to reduce the impact of population on the environment
(a policy advocated by Population Matters).
Evidence
The Royal Commission on the Protection of Environment (2011) found no case for further
controls to regulate non-EU migration on environmental grounds. Any policies on migration
will have no direct impact on population size. Population Matters are keen to restrict
immigration to the UK but do not encourage migration away from the UK to less populated
regions. Restricting non-EU migration to the UK might well lead to greater world population
in the future as research suggests migrants to the UK from developing countries tend to have
lower birth rates than the country they came from.
For more detail on the critique of Population Matters see the paper ‘Moral panic about overpopulation:
a distracting campaign?’ by the Radical Statistics Population Studies group available at:
http://www.radstats.org.uk/popgroup/
Dr Alan Marshall is the contact for Radical Statistics Population Studies Group on this matter and is
available for comment on Friday 28th October 2011:
a.d.marshall@leeds.ac.uk
07858447308
END OF PRESS RELEASE