Chapter focuses on the error of the concept of overpopulation- holding
together the pantheon of environmentalist causes.
Overpopulation: Greenies defined this as population exceeding the
amount of arable land necessary to sustain life.
Paul Ehrlich states “ Chief among the underlying causes of our planet’s
unease is the overgrowth of the human population and its impact on
both ecosystems and human communities. Those impacts are the
threads linking all the seemingly unrelated problems and others
besides” (Ehrlich,The population Explosion, New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1990. Page 11.)
~“When Paul Ehrlich wrote his famous book ["The Population
Explosion"], women were having an average around the world of five or
six children; now they’re having an average of 2.6. Fertility rates around
the world have halved. So the population bomb as we’ve conceived it
before really isn’t there. There’s still population growth going on, but
that’s going to stabilize.” –Margaret Eby~
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2010/04/19/population_crash_ext
2010
In 2008 the World population was estimated at
6,697,254,041
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wbwdi&met=sp_pop_totl&tdim=true&dl=en&hl=en&q=population+of+the+world
The World’s 10 Largest Countries
Three of the world’s 10 most populous countries in 2004 are the United States, Russia,
and Japan. By 2050, only one, the United States, is expected to remain in that top 10 list.
2004
Population
(millions)
1. China- 1,300
2. India- 1,087
3. United States- 294
4. Indonesia- 219
5. Brazil- 179
6. Pakistan- 159
7. Russia- 144
8. Bangladesh- 141
9. Nigeria- 137
10. Japan- 128
Found on the 2004 World Population Data Sheet of the Population Reference Bureau
Pseudo Politics: The revolutionary Model
 French Revolution (1789–1799) was a period of radical social and
political upheaval in French and European history.
 Attack on the Bourgeoisie (middle class) by radical Jacobins of the
manufacturing towns created unemployment.
 Also destroyed Luxury class (upper class) and the unemployed crowded
the streets. Economy is interdependent no great class can be
eliminated without idling other classes.
 Created the revolutionary Calendar- eliminated holidays instituted 10
day week, added 3 ½ working days to every two weeks, 3 working
months to every year. Fewer workers were needed.
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Revolutionary Calendar
System of depopulation- created by the committee of
public safety
 Reduction of population to 1/3 from 25 million to 8 million.
 Baccheus Babeuf who was a conspirator against established
order wrote in accord with Maximilian Robespiere
(summarized): french population is in excess of resources,
of soil and of requirements in useful industry. To be able to
live at ease hands were too numerous for execution of all
works of essential utility. Do to this conclusion a portion of
revolutionaries must be sacrificed.
 The system of terror answered the problem of
unemployment , 300,000 people were drowned,
guillotined, and shot all over France. Only 3,000 of them
were nobles.
Pseudo Science-Malthusian model
 English Churchman and economist Thomas Robert Malthus laid pseudo scientific
ground work for modern people-phobia.
 In 1798 Malthus published first version essay on population-3 theories (all proven false)
Population growth had outstripped food production, better living conditions stimulate
higher birth rates and that the British population increase was due to a rising birth rate.
 Abraham states population has not outstripped food production (then or now),As living
conditions improve birth rates usually decline not incline, and that British population
increase was not due to a rising birth rate (dropping at that time), but rather to a death
rate reduced by a revolution in health care.
 Evidence that the Malthusian theory is wrong can also be proven by veteran
environmental writer Fred Pearce (refer to his book “The Coming Population Crash: and
our Planets Surprising Future”) Pearce argues that the world’s population is peaking. In
the next century, we’re heading not for exponential growth, but a slow, steady decline.
This, he claims, has the potential to massively change both our society and our planet:
Children will become a rare sight, patriarchal thinking will fall by the wayside, and
middle-aged culture will replace our predominant youth culture. Furthermore, Pearce
explains, the population bust could be the end of our environmental woes. Fewer people
making better choices about consumption could lead to a greener, healthier planet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVOU5bfHrM
Eugenics and Racism
 Malthusian theory gave rise to Eugenics movement: study of human
hereditary improvement by genetic control.
 Along with “the white man’s burden eugenics enshrined itself into the
Anglo-American Establishment and was incorporated into numerous
American state laws- providing for sterilization of undesirables and
mental defectives.
 Eugenics reached open climax with Nazi’s, after Nazi defeat, went
underground disguising itself with the guise of anti-racism (freedom
and racial equality).
 White man’s Burden with its racial arrogance can be seen in Lionel
Curtis’ work The Problem of the Common Wealth. He wrote “ In the
function of government is reserved to the European minority, the
unanswerable reason that for the present this portion of its citizens is
alone capable of the task-civilized states are obliged assume control of
backward communities to protect them from exploitation by private
adventurers from Europe…the task of preparing for freedom the races
which cannot as yet govern themselves is the supreme duty of those
who can”
Eugenics and Racism Cont.
 Radical Feminist and developmentalists Margaret Sanger founder of
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planned parenthood brought people phobia from Britain to America.
Margaret was convinced that “the inferior races were in fact human weeds
and a menace to civilization…She yearned for the end of the Christian reign
of Benevolence that the eugenic socialists promised, when the chocking
human undergrowth of morons and imbeciles would be segregated and
sterilized. Her goal was to create a race of thoroughbreds by encouraging
more children from the fit and less from the unfit.” (George Grant , Grand
Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood. Brentwood Tennessee:
Wolgemuth and Hyatt, 1998, pg. 91.)
Sound a lot like Hitler?
Margaret outlined her ideas in her plan for ‘peace’ calling for coercive
sterilization, mandating segregation, and rehabilitative concentration
camps for all dysgenic stocks. (Grand Illusions p. 92)
Abraham states developmentalists today still reveal the same racist trend,
they have replaced the old military colonialism with a new type based on
science. It is easier to exercise influence then to exert control.
Politics Not Poverty
 More often politics not population causes famine
 Ex. Soviet Union was once the bread basket of Europe and grain
exporter, they must now import grain from the U.S, where government
pays farmers to idle their fields because caves, silos, warehouses and
storehouses are overflowing.
 Increased population is an indicator of prosperity not poverty.
 Exs. Netherlands the most densely populated country on earth is the
net exporter of food stuffs. (population per square mile- 1,033, total
population 16.3 million-2004 World Population Data Sheet)
 India and China two of the most hungriest countries in in the world are
among the least densely populated countries on the bases of people per
square mile of arable land. Farmers use half of the land and a tiny
portion of water available for irrigation. (china- 352 people per square
mile (2004), India-856 people per square mile (2004).
Politics Not Poverty Cont.
 There was 9 % more total arable land in 1960 than in 1950 in 87
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countries (data taken from 73% of the worlds total land area.
United nation’s data shows a 6% rise in worlds arable, permanent
cropland from 1963-1977.
In 1989 the world population was 5,234,000,000. If all those people
were to be put in the state of Arkansas each person would have an area
of 16 ft 8 inches squared (most people don’t even have a bedroom that
big).
Eco- Prophet Barry Commoner states the argument that earth is a
closed system with finite resources is not true. With enough energy
available they can be re-cycled and re-used indifferently. The energy
needed is available.
Regarding to fertilizer the basic ingredients potash and sulfate is
adequate for several centuries, the third major ingredient nitrogen is
freely available in the atmosphere. Energy is abundant enough to
extract it from the atmosphere because the worlds coal supply is
adequate for some 2,000 years.
The Myth of Mass Starvation
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/origins_imgzoom
.cfm?id=798&backpage=maps.cfm?articleid=38
 Abraham states that only about 2% of the world’s population suffers from serious
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hunger.
For the past 30 years lesser developed countries life expectancies have risen up by more
than a third while lesser developed countries death rates for one to four year olds have
dropped to nearly half.
Kasun states world food production has increased considerably faster than population in
recent decades. Some of the most dramatic examples of this occurred in the poorest
countries.
Ex. Rice and wheat production in India in 1983 was 3.5 times higher then in 1950 and
more than twice the percentage increase in the population of India in the same time
period.
Population growth does not inevitably mean poverty. Every new mouth comes with a pair
of hands. More consumers but more producers as well.
How much population can the earth carry?
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/origins_imgzoom.cfm?id=780&backpage=maps.cfm?articleid=38
 Abraham states the American type diet could provide for 35.1 billion people (7 times the
present population) On the Japanese diet the earth could feed 22 times the present
population.