Malthus was wrong. There is enough food to feed all the people in the world. Food production can keep up with population growth.
Over two hundred years ago, Thomas Malthus predicted that the growth of human population would soon outstrip the food supply. Although this may ultimately be correct, he was off on the timing. Since his dire predictions, there have been numerous [...]
Would not raising the standard of living of the poorer, developing countries increase life choices for men and women thereby encouraging smaller families and lower fertility rates?
The assumption that prosperity stabilizes or reduces population is questionable whereas more people threatens the prosperity of all by reducing non-renewable resources and the biosphere that sustains life. The assumption that development and prosperity will lower fertility is based on [...]
Until the developed world gets serious about reducing its over-consumption and pollution, can the developing world realistically be expected to deal with its population growth?
Of course, the developed world should curb its consumption, but there’s no reason for developing countries to wait for us to take responsibility for their problems. The developing world would be wise to use the industrialized world's errors as a [...]
Don’t poor families living off subsistence agriculture need large families to help with their labours and to ensure parents will have enough children to support them in their old age?
Historically, there have been the leading incentives encouraging people to have large families. However, we have now entered an era resulting from a quadrupling of population in this century and projected to increase by fifty percent in fifty years. Growing [...]
Isn’t it presumptuous for wealthier parts of the world to advise poor countries to stabilize or even reduce their populations?
Wealthier countries can afford to gather and analyze information on the impact of population growth, including in the Third World. This analysis shows that humanity is rapidly undermining the ability of the earth to sustain even current population levels. It [...]
Would it solve the global population problem to educate Third World women?
There is undoubtedly a direct correlation between increased female education and declining birth rates. Desirable for its own sake, female education is a key, long-term factor in reducing global population growth. And yet there are an estimated 500 million women [...]
Since rising standards of living are said to lower fertility levels, can’t the problem of overpopulation be addressed by sharing the wealth to eliminate poverty?
Answer: Faced with a huge and growing human population and diminishing resources, it is reasonable to consider whether there could be a more equitable sharing of the earth’s resources. Such redistribution would need broad public will among donor nations and [...]
Won’t technological developments allow populations to expand indefinitely?
Answer: Technology allowed humans numbers to grow and to draw unprecedented resources from the earth… in so doing creating equally unprecedented waste and environmental degradation. Our instinct for continual growth and excessive consumption is the central problem facing humanity. Rapid [...]
Human population is apparently decreasing, so what’s the problem?
Answer: It is the rate of growth that is decreasing, not overall numbers. The world’s population is growing at a lower rate, but it's still growing. In fact, we need to feed, clothe, house, transport, educate and medicate 75 million [...]