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Thursday, October 03, 2013

Too many People?

Over-crowding is the not the same as over-population. Too many urban dwellers is a matter for town planning not family planning.

Hunger is not caused by lack of food availability but capitalist laws which  prevent food from being transported to where it is needed, or distributed to those who are hungry, “overpopulation” is not to blame. The world currently produces enough food to feed 10 billion people, and there are only 7 billion of us. That is, with 7 billion human minds at work, we produce enough food for 10 billion human bodies. World agriculture produces 17% more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago. This is enough to provide everyone in the world with at least 2,720 kilocalories (kcal) per person per day. Oxfam stated, “Famines are not natural phenomena, they are catastrophic political failures.”

 Lack of water is a serious humanitarian issue. But it is not an overpopulation issue. Water, although plentiful, can be difficult to move to those who need it, hence local water scarcity. Water is expensive to transport relative to value per unit volume, requiring large-scale capital investments in infrastructure networks.  In other words, we need more dams, canals, and pipelines.

Imagine how much food we can produce with 10 billion bodies and minds. There is no reason to think that we are running out of human ingenuity. If anything, a larger population means more opportunities for technological and scientific collaboration.

Between 1950 and 2000, the world population grew at a rate of 1.76%. Between 2000 and 2050, it is expected to grow by 0.77 percent. A UN report titled “World Population to 2300” paints a picture of Europe’s future if European fertility rates don’t rise above current levels: “The European Union, which has recently expanded to encompass 452-455 million people (according to 2000-2005 figures) would fall by 2300 to only 59 million. About half the countries of Europe would lose 95 per cent or more of their population, and such countries as the Russian Federation and Italy would have only 1 per cent of their population left.”  In other words, the French, German, Italians and British will virtually cease to exist. About 48% of all people live in a country with below-replacement fertility.

Every man, woman, and child on earth could each have 5 acres of land. Every man, woman, and child on earth could each have a half acre of arable land. Every man woman and child in the world could stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the island of Zanzibar.

From here

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