Category: Population

Related directly to population issues.

Categories
Family Planning Population

Broadcast this Message

We were leaving one of Durango’s fine restaurants when the maître d’ engaged me in conversation.
“Aren’t you the person who writes for the newspaper?”
“Yes” I replied.
Then he said something such as “Thank you for writing what you do. It is an important message that most people are afraid to talk about.”
People greet me this way once or twice a month. It is encouraging to get positive feedback from people I don’t know, but who recognize me from the picture in the Herald.
This sort of encounter is heartening for several reasons. It means that people still do read newspapers, historically a vital means of communication and education. It means that I am not the only one in Durango who worries about overpopulation. Most of all, this sort of unsolicited contact shows that we belong to a friendly community.
In one form or another “Population Matters!” has appearing in the Durango Herald for 17 years. Sometimes I have strayed from the topic. I remember a message from my very tolerant editor, Bill Roberts: “stick to the subject.” Yet he has put up with articles that have nothing to do with population, but are about some of my local heroes—Linda Mack, Joe Fowler, Sister Sharon Ekler. In the past I have thanked the Herald for their support in publishing these articles—probably the only regular column on population issues in the world—and I would like to thank them again.
Not only has the Herald printed these columns, but also they have allowed me to own the articles’ copyrights. They have encouraged me to distribute the articles wherever I want. So far, this effort hasn’t been too successful, however.
You can go to the website, www.population-matters.org and find many of the older pieces. I have been lazy at keeping the blog up to date, however. You will find occasional announcements there, too. One notice is a request for subscriptions to the listserv. That way people outside of Durango who don’t subscribe to the Herald can read the columns after they are published.
If you know of anyone who shares a concern about our increasing numbers, and if they would like to get monthly emails with these essays, have them contact me. The best email is: subscribe@population-matters.org. Over a hundred people are now on that listserv from several different countries. Indeed, this growing list makes my regular email account balk at sending messages to so many people.
The preeminent British organization concerned about human population recently changed their name to “Population Matters”. They were kind enough to warn me, and we have agreed to cooperate. Their web address is the same as mine, but without the hyphen. Therefore be careful of that little symbol or you may end up on the wrong side of the Atlantic!
My efforts at reaching large numbers of people about this most important subject are, I admit, amateurish. As many people as possible need to understand that we are using more of the Earth’s resources than is sustainable. Education is the only way we can find a solution to this immense problem.
One friend has an idea of reaching more people in the USA with a mass advertising campaign. It would take a huge amount of money just to design, let alone execute, such a program. Do you know any billionaires who would like to help?
Another friend has brought subtle health education to multiple countries. Bill Ryerson’s Population Media Center promotes radio and TV programs with a message. The Center promote health and family planning through serial dramas (soap operas). They have been shown by scientific studies to be effective in educating and changing attitudes, including about safe sex where HIV is prevalent.
The message about small families has hit Brazil in a big way—but it is unintentional. The average Brazilian woman will have less than two children; the total fertility rate is just 1.9. How did this happen? Everyone watches TV in Brazil, and family shows are very popular. It is difficult to manage lots of kids on a TV set, so show writers have unwittingly set the standard of family size!
Human population growth is the cause of many of the world’s problems—climate change, pollution, extinction of species and probably even our current drought. I believe that people will change their lifestyles and decrease their desired family size if they understand the connection between population and global problems. Please help broadcast this important message!
© Richard Grossman MD, 2012

Categories
Carrying Capacity Population

Population Paradox #1

Population Paradox #1—7-2012

            From a biological standpoint, the most important goal of any species—or individual—is to pass on its genetic information. That is the reason that so much time and energy is spent on reproduction. In general, the more progeny, the better.

The exception to this observation is humans, at this time in history.

The human species has been so successful that our numbers have grown enormously. We are not as physically powerful as some animals, nor do we have the weaponry like claws and teeth that many carnivores enjoy. Nevertheless we have become the planet’s top predator.

I can think of no other predator that increased its numbers beyond a sustainable population for long. Prey animals may expand their numbers beyond their territory’s carrying capacity, but then predators feast and the prey population drops. The balance of nature is restored as the predators’ numbers diminish.

Many humans think we can exceed the planet’s carrying capacity permanently. Economists and politicians talk about growing the economy, but seem to have two blind spots—that we live on a finite planet that is already stressed, and that indefinite growth is impossible. The Global Footprint Network’s 2011 Annual Report illustrates these concepts wonderfully. Titled “What happens when an infinite-growth economy runs into a finite planet”, it is available at www.footprintnetwork.org.

The number of people who can live on Earth (its carrying capacity for humans) is not fixed. We have succeeded in increasing the planet’s carrying capacity immensely, thanks to our fantastic inventiveness. First we learned to squeeze food out of much of Earth by devising agriculture. Then we discovered remarkable ways to increase agriculture’s productivity. We have benefitted from stripping our planet of its resources. Fossil energy from below ground provides each person in our country with work that couldn’t be performed by a score of human slaves.

We are so successful that we are exhausting our life-support systems. You know the extent of our destruction: extinction of species, depleted ocean fisheries, polluted air and water, loss of topsoil, climate change, slashed rainforest. Although we lead lives of unparalleled bounty, our progeny will suffer because we have used more than our share of resources.

How would it be if our population had leveled off at, say, three billion? That would be what our numbers were when I graduated from high school, 50 years ago. Of course this question cannot be answered. I remember that the1960’s was a bad time for the environment with DDT, burning rivers and toxic fog. It was also an era when we were still living sustainably, according to Ecological Footprint measures.

As a species we have been victorious in passing on our genes. We have followed the command in Genesis: “…God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” We humans have been too successful in multiplying, and now we are killing off the fish and fowl. Most ocean fisheries are depleted and many species of fish are endangered. We have also caused the extinction of many species of birds—the Carolina parakeet, passenger pigeon and the dodo are memorable.

All signs are that we will leave too few resources for those yet to come. Our success has endangered our progeny’s future.

What can we do? The first step is to recognize that the Biblical phrase above no longer applies. We have been too fruitful. A current estimate of the number of plants and animals on Earth is over 8 million. We have already permanently exterminated 802 species that we know of, plus innumerable members of creation that were unknown to biologists. We need a second ark for all the endangered species.

I fear that our success as a species will also be our downfall. This is the second of two population paradoxes. The first is that armed conflict was a significant factor in keeping the human population from growing rapidly in the past. Our era, called by some the “long peace”, has allowed our numbers to increase radically. We have outgrown Earth’s carrying capacity and conflicts over resources such as petroleum and water may trigger a catastrophic Armageddon. The paradox is that small skirmishes may have helped prevent total war.

The time has come to realize that what has worked in the past will cause a disastrous future. For our progeny’s sake we must promote small families.

© Richard Grossman MD, 2012