Tag: overpopulation

Inconvenient Truths

Our Current Human Population is Unsustainable

All attempts to address the effects of human-induced climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and environmental pollution will utterly fail without a substantial reduction in human population.

The only acceptable method to reduce human population will require a substantial number of people opting for one child or no children.

Those of us alive today are burning through the Earth’s natural resources and polluting the environment (our environment) with toxic substances at a rate that is unsustainable for another one or two generations let alone a hundred. This aspect of overpopulation doesn’t get enough attention, and is exactly why our current population is an existential threat that must be addressed immediately and decisively by all nations of the Earth.

We Have Too Many Pets

The number of dogs and cats and other pets worldwide is exacerbating the effects of human overpopulation significantly.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Needs to be Repealed and Replaced

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was enacted in 1791. Much has changed since then! As written, the amendment is too general and does not take into account current realities of gun ownership and use.

The current interpretation of the Second Amendment is a moral and humanistic abomination.

Michael Moore has proposed a 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution which should seriously be considered, at least as a starting point.

We Need Binding International Laws

Globally, we must work toward establishing a global “super-government” that enacts and enforces binding international laws that are in the best interest of all the world’s peoples. Individual nations will have to give up some sovereignty in order to effectively address global threats such as nuclear weapons, warfare, human rights violations, pandemics, climate change, pollution, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, cybercriminality, and, yes, the proliferation of Earth-orbiting satellites. Whether the United Nations can be strengthened to serve in this role or a new organization created will need to be explored.

There is No Evidence for the Existence of God

Why does the world have thousands of religions? Why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people? The most sensible explanation is that religion is entirely a human creation based on basic human wants and needs and that there are no supernatural forces actively present in our daily lives.

The greatest of all mysteries is why does our universe exist and how did it come into being? Religion tries to answer these questions, of course, but I think it more likely that our intellect (as amazing as it is) is incapable of fully comprehending these questions let alone the answers. We have only our empirical knowledge of our world (and the universe) and our moral pragmatism (humanism) to guide us.

There is No Evidence for the Existence of an Afterlife

Regarding immortality, since we have no consciousness of anything before we were born, why should we expect that we would have any consciousness of anything after we die? To me, that is the most tragic fact of human existence. Within a few minutes (or hours, if extraordinary measures are taken) after death occurs, all of our knowledge and experience—our memories—everything that makes us who we are—is irretrievably lost. All that remains of us are the artifacts we have left behind (writing, music, art, etc.) and the memories of those who are still living who knew us. After all the people who knew us personally have died, then all that remains of our existence are artifacts. And, sooner or later, all of those will be gone, too. This truly emphasizes the importance of this life, of this world, of this time. How we live our lives and treat others today, tomorrow, and the next day are of paramount importance. It is all we have, or will ever have.

Not believing in God and not believing in an afterlife is incredibly liberating, and allows us to see our world and our lives through less varnished eyes.

Children One or Zero

I have written about the overpopulation crisis before, but a Population Connection webinar on July 13 by Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director of Population Balance, motivated me to write more. Her presentation, Pronatalism and Rapid Population Growth: Challenging the Social Pressures to Have Children, was excellent and informative. I will post a link to her presentation in a comment as soon as it is available. Even though this article draws upon some of the material Nandita presented, what follows reflects my point of view alone.

The United Nations issued a report this week that announces that the world’s human population will surpass 8 billion people in mid-November 2022. Think about it. Later this year, 8 billion people will be living on this planet. The age of the Earth is 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years, so we have nearly two people currently living and consuming resources for every year this planet has existed. That’s a sobering thought.

Source: Pop X Issue 168 11.16.24
Population & Sustainability, A Program of the Center for Biological Diversity

Powerful forces of ignorance and misinformation are at work today that prevent us from adequately addressing a number of critical issues that—if we don’t act quickly—will result in a serious decline in the quality of life for most of the human race within the next few years. Chief among these is overpopulation, which is the primary driver of most of the other problems we are facing (climate change, environmental degradation, the decline in biological diversity, conflict over resources, and so on). Rather than feel powerless, or resign ourselves to a dystopian future, or take false solace in an afterlife that doesn’t exist, we must act. That is the only moral choice, and it gives our life meaning. What kind of a world do we want for ourselves and future generations? We must work towards building that world, no matter how difficult or protracted the effort.

As it is, we have commodified every possible part of the natural world to meet our insatiable needs. What could possibly go wrong?

The rapid increase in human population during the past couple of centuries is not normal. The Earth’s resources can sustain a world population of around 3 billion indefinitely, but we exceeded that limit in 1960. Since then, we have been living on borrowed time, all of us. And the debt is coming due. Techno-optimism isn’t going to save us.

The only humane way to get us back to 3 billion people is to reduce the birth rate. Having one child or none at all has to become the new normal. But the many facets of pronatalism are getting in the way of that.

Pronatalism is the idea that having children is both expected and a purely personal act.

Having children should never be incentivized . Many of us are ill-suited to be parents, and certainly living a deeply fulfilling life of great value to society does not depend upon bringing children into the world or child-rearing. And for those of us who do want children and are likely to be good parents, why not have one child, and no more?

Every child should be wanted, and born into a nurturing environment. Did you know we spend more money on imprisonment than we do on education in the U.S.? The right to contraception (including permanent contraception) and, yes, abortion are deeply personal human rights that must not be taken away by anyone. The idea that an embryo or fetus is somehow equivalent to a fully-formed human being is the opposite of rational: it is irrational. Many who oppose abortion do so for religious reasons. And such irrational considerations have no place in law or governance. Unfortunately, for many, religion is a “gateway drug” that predisposes one to holding other beliefs and opinions that are not supported by a shred of evidence. This is dangerous in the extreme.

The idea that having children is a purely personal act is also wrong. If you have more than two children, then you are directly contributing to unsustainable population growth and a certain increase in human suffering due to that growth. We talk the big talk about “personal freedoms” in this country, but almost never about “societal responsibilities” that must put limits on those freedoms. Freedom without responsibility is selfishness, plain and simple.

There are a number of pronatalism pressures that must be effectively countered. These include cultural pressures (e.g. “when are you going to get married and have children?”), religious pressures (e.g. more followers, “believers” vs. “non-believers”), economy-driven pressures (e.g. more consumers and workers), and political pressures (e.g. more taxpayers, more soldiers to fight in our endless wars).

“Baby-bust alarmism” is often in the news, and must be countered wherever it occurs.

And then there’s “great replacement theory”, which is the idea that “our” people are soon going to be outnumbered by other, less desirable, people. There’s an inherent racism in this idea. Often, people who sound the “underpopulation alarm” are really talking about underpopulation of white people.

We certainly have our work cut out for us, but we don’t have to change the minds and hearts of everyone to save humanity and our natural world. We only need to reach a critical mass of enlightened individuals to effect real and lasting change. And that may be a lot fewer than you think.

The greatest legacy we can leave our children is fewer children.

Population

Last Updated: August 27, 2025

Climate change is a serious problem requiring immediate attention. We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere as fast as possible. Half measures will not do. We are rapidly running out of time before the quality of life for all humans on planet Earth declines, especially for the economically disadvantaged.

A precipitous decline in biological diversity due to habitat loss and extinction of species is of even greater concern, and yet it gets very little attention in the mainstream media. While climate change will render large areas of the Earth uninhabitable, biodiversity loss will lead to a partial or complete collapse of the ecosystem humans depend upon for food.

Getting even less attention is the cause of both of these problems: overpopulation. If you were born in 1976, the world’s human population is now twice what it was then. If you were born in 1955, there are three times as many people alive now than there were then. We have a climate emergency and a biodiversity emergency because we have a population emergency. The number of humans on this planet needs to decline, and the only humane way to accomplish that is to have fewer children. It is that simple.

And, yet, we often see this or that news article lamenting the fact that the birth rate in this or that country is too low. That’s crazy! A low birth rate should be a cause for celebration given the current state of the world and its environment. Certainly, a low birth rate does lead to some economic challenges, but these pale in comparison to the challenges we will face if population (and consumption) continue to grow.

As a humanist, I believe that we should do all we can to alleviate and eliminate human suffering. It is our highest moral calling. To be sure, some human suffering is inevitable and necessary when an individual makes poor decisions and suffers the consequences before hopefully making a mid-course correction. But the kind of suffering I am talking about is suffering that is imposed upon a person through no fault of their own, be it the cruelty of other human beings, or the cruelty of nature.

In this light we can see that our economic systems, governments, and most religions are utterly failing us. Nothing short of drastic changes will solve these problems. May wisdom, intelligence, ingenuity, and compassion guide us, rather than fear, ignorance, hatred, and dogma.

There are two organizations dedicated to stabilizing human population throughout the world by lowering the birth rate: Population Connection and Population Balance. I encourage you to support their work as I do.

In the table below, you will find the world population for each year 1950-2025. The growth factor tells you how much the population has grown between a given year and the latest year, For example, you will see that the world population in 2025 is twice what it was in 1976, and three times what it was in 1955.

References
World Population Prospects 2024, United Nations (medium-fertility variant).