The stork is welcome anytime

Overpopulation actually increases chances for human survival.

Marco Visscher | September 2007 issue

“Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health.” This is the objective of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. The environmental burden that life carries is also of concern to the Optimum Population Trust, a British think tank, supported by academics and nature-lovers. The best way to save the planet, say its members: Have one fewer child than you planned.

The question raised by these groups is making its way into the bedrooms of 20- and 30-year-olds in the Western world. What do these couples think about starting families when one planet isn’t enough to meet our consumer and energy needs? How do they see the future, in light of the threat from rising sea levels and other environmental calamities that may affect them and will certainly impact their children? The message is clear: All these new humans are a problem because sooner or later they’ll create a global catastrophe. Can anyone seriously consider having a baby?

This question is understandable, though not exactly new. Predictions about “overpopulation” and the impending end of humanity have been around since the beginning of time. After all, survival is a human urge and there will always be circumstances inviting us to doubt whether we will make it.

Today, the coming “apocalypse” is proclaimed by scientists. Our ears prick up when environmentalist James Lovelock tells us the Earth—which his famous Gaia theory describes as a living, intelligent, self-regulating organism—is about to catch a “morbid fever” that’s putting the Earth’s family in “grave danger.” And we shudder when evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond describes in his book Collapse how societies have fallen apart when they failed to take sufficient account of the deterioration of the environment.

Are these scholars right? Perhaps. But what doomsayers always seem to forget is that people are ingenious creatures. We come up with creative solutions. We always have. That’s why there are cities, medicines and flood walls. That’s why we’ll continue to find ways to get enough food and energy for the things we do. That’s why we’re here. More people means more understanding and imagination. And when people meet and work together, new ideas, insights and techniques emerge that will push the end of humanity a little further into the future.

Frank Furedi, the British author of Politics of Fear, once wrote that all the talk about human survival expresses a crisis of belief in humanity itself. The question, he wrote, “is not whether humanity will survive the 21st century, but whether our belief in humanity can survive it.”

We people are not the problem, we are the solution—as long as we choose to direct our energy toward solving the problems that face us. So bring on the stork!

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Comments (3)

Visscher says "More people means more understanding and imagination. And when people meet and work together, new ideas, insights and techniques emerge that will push the end of humanity a little further into the future."

This means he believes that humanity will "work together" to improve the world and maintain sustenance. Has he not seen the news? Does he not take into consideration that humanity is not united? Today if you don't profit, you will not create beneficial products for mankind.

In a world where neighbors might be the enemy and where city streets are filled with frowns walking about, where does this working together for a positive living come from?

I don't mean to be so negative, but I just can not see how this point of view is viable in the large scale.

posted by balcayaga on 9/13/2007 10:49 am

Visscher makes a point, to be sure, but in order to gain our attention it is dramatically overstated, which makes it fun to read, but difficult to integrate into a responsible world view. We do need entertainment and lightheartedness, but I think it is questionable to play into the human propensity towards magical thinking and fantasies of invincibility.

For me, the positive point that Visscher makes is that we need hope just as we need air and water. Optimally, we find ways to keep population and the earth's carrying capacity in balance, but this is becoming a huge challenge. I would point out, though, that in-depth studies like Jared Diamond's "Collapse" are not doom and gloom unless one is intent on seeing the earth as a huge party without regard to the future. Diamond is optimistic and cites many instances where human societies rose to the challenge of changing ecosystems and prospered.

The choice is ours. Will the motto of the human species be "Forget the future - the more the merrier" as if we are drunken teenagers unconcerned about trashing our parent's home until the morning after - when they are on their way home and it is "too late"? It may be comforting to believe that God or science will come up with whatever miracles are needed to fix all the damage we're doing, but the stakes are rather high, aren't they? So, a better motto may be "Let's have fun, and children, at the same time as we act as responsible citizens."

Earon Davis

posted by Earon on 9/ 4/2007 11:08 am

Here we go again... a half-assed assertion without the proper research. LOOK it IS simple:

In a CLOSED SYSTEM (such as the earth) the growth of ANY biologic organism will SELF-REGULATE to reach a plateau. This plateau shall last for as long as there are resources to sustain them. After that, they die-off.

Don't believe me? Just do the research. Start with growth paterns of bacteria in petri dished and go up from there.

SO, as long as we are in a CLOSED SYSTEM (i.e. earth) we have two choices:

1 - We regulate our growth forcefully 2 - We let nature do it

If you ask me, just check what is happening in ALL developed nations: they have reached a plateau and some are even decreasing!!

SO, it would seem that nature is doing a bang-up job!

The notion of overpopulation is a MYTH!!

posted by globus999 on 8/31/2007 10:44 am