Over Population Questions

The planet is grossly overpopulated, and unless something is done to limit human population growth hunger, famine and resource depletion will ensue and justify limiting human reproduction. The very real problem of economic uncertainty and environmental damage have nothing to do with how many people there is in our world today, nor with the rate at which it is growing. Economic threats to our living standards and harm to the environment damage are products of capitalism – products of an unplanned system of mindless production for profit, which has been incapable of meeting the needs of the world’s population at any time in its history regardless of the number of people living on the planet.

Many believe that overpopulation is a question of lack of space. It isn’t.

Much is made of the expression “carrying capacity”, the idea that humans must live within the natural environmental limits of our planet but this denies reality. Humanity transform ecosystems to sustain ourselves. This is what we do and have always done. Our planet’s human-carrying capacity emerges from the capabilities of our social systems and our technologies more than from any environmental limits. We are a species which can reshape both its own future and that of our entire planet.

Today, there is approximately 7,268,730,000 people on earth. The landmass of Texas is 268,820 square miles (7,494,271,488,000 square feet). If we divide 7,494,271,488,000 square feet by 7,268,730,000 people, we get 1031 square feet per person. This is enough space for everyone on earth to live in a townhouse while altogether fitting on a landmass the size of Texas. And we’re not even accounting for the average four-person family who would most likely share a home. Cramming together a population that continues to over-consume, waste and poison the environment the way we currently do would be a recipe for disaster. This is just to give an idea of how it isn’t space itself that is lacking. Cities are overcrowded, the World is not. 

Don’t think people starve because the world is overpopulated. The world isn’t overpopulated at all. The world is abundant of resources and could provide for everyone’s need, yet every year rich countries waste more that 220 million tons of food. Meanwhile, the poor still starve to death – not because resources are scarce, but because they don’t have the money or have rights to enough land. Nearly one billion hungry people could be lifted out of malnourishment on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK and Europe.

It is not uncommon to see arguments claiming that famines are ultimately caused by overpopulation.

Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world’s current food supply. Enough grains are produced to provide every human being with 3,500 calories per day – 1,500 more calories per day than recommended by the Food and Drug Administration. The statistics show no evidence that fast population growth causes hunger. However, they did find that the populations of poorer countries, and those countries where the poorest 20 % of the population earned a smaller percentage of a nation’s total income, had less to eat. In other words, poverty and inequality cause hunger, not overpopulation. Africa has enormous still unexploited potential to grow food, with theoretical grain yields 25 to 35% higher than maximum potential yields in Europe or North America. In Chad, for example, only 10% of the farm land rated as having no serious production constraints is actually farmed. In countries notorious for famines like Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Mali, the area of unused good quality farm land is many times greater than the area actually farmed.

Future environmental degradation from climate change,  will pose a threat to food security, and the unplanned migrations of populations will undoubtedly exacerbated many environmental pressures. However, this represents does not offer an explanation of why so many people suffer and die from undernourishment today, despite their being adequate food available for consumption globally. If we want to put an end to hunger, we need to understand the diverse causes that bring it about. Oversimplifications that mistakenly see hunger and famine as an inevitable consequence of population growth do not contribute to this end. The main problem in the future will be associated with a declining population.

Overpopulation is not the problem – unsustainable capitalism is.