Pop goes the world
Can there be too many people?
BY Garrett Zehr
Illustration by Dave Donald
In 1968, Stanford University biology professor Paul R. Ehrlich declared, “The battle to feed all of humanity is over.” Based on the 20th century’s unprecedented population growth, he predicted the following two decades would see hundreds of millions starve to death. Ehrlich argued that population control was the only way to avoid this doomsday scenario and suggested a wide range of drastic measures, including adding sterilants to tap water.
Though his predictions were dramatic, his thesis was hardly original; over a century and a half earlier, British economist and sociologist Thomas Malthus infamously laid the foundations for the population-control ideology. But the title of Ehrlich’s book, The Population Bomb, created a new catchphrase and his writing fodder for a new generation of overpopulation apologists.
Some proposed drastic measures similar to Ehrlich’s, while several activist groups used the public attention to advocate better access to education and family planning.
By the late 1980s, it was clear that Ehrlich’s apocalyptic predictions, like Malthus’s, were wrong and soon overpopulation dropped off the public’s fear radar.
However, “the debate about overpopulation is rearing its ugly head again,” says Eric Chaurette, program manager with Inter Pares, an Ottawa-based social justice organization.
Recent world events have given neo-Malthusians such as Madeline Weld, president of the Population Institute of Canada, plenty of ammo in their attempts to rekindle the idea that the planet has too many people. She cites overpopulation as the primary cause of issues such as climate change and the recent food crises.
But many environmental and social justice activists aren’t buying that. While Chaurette acknowledges that there are plenty of people on the planet, he explains that the root of our problems isn’t overpopulation but instead over-consumption, trade liberalization and corporate control—all subjects masked by overpopulation rhetoric.
Current population trends are hardly the apocalyptic doom the neo-Malthusians would have us believe. While the world population, at 6.7 billion, is the highest it’s ever been, the population growth rate has been steadily dropping since the 1960s due to declining birth rates. The UN now estimates total population will peak at 9.2 billion in 2050.
It’s a size many academics and activists say would be sustainable if we start looking at global problems beyond the numbers.
