Letters to the Editor Policy

Too Many People

Less than two lifetimes ago one could walk along a California streambed and pick up gold nuggets. Today mines are drilled two miles into the Earth to extract a ton of ore from which only 5 grams of gold are obtained.

In Utah, copper nuggets could be found too big for a man to lift. Today that state has the world's deepest open-pit mine. A hole 2.5 miles wide has been excavated for ore that yields only one pound of copper for every 600 pounds of rock.

It's the same story with oil, coal, wood, or any mineral; the low-hanging fruit has long since been gathered. It requires more time, effort, and money, to obtain what in years past were cheaply mined.

“Human consumption had far outstripped available resources,” was the conclusion of the United Nations Environment Programme, a five-year study that involved 1400 scientists.

The Living Planet Report stated that for all humans to live at the same standard of living as western nations, three times more resources than the planet could supple would be required.

But the problem is not a lack of resources; it is the abundance of people. There are just too many people.

The world's population is growing at a rate of 1.2 percent a year. That seems perfectly okay. Certainly 1.2 percent is not much - until one does the math.

Too err on the conservative side, let's say the population is expanding at only 1 percent. This year the world's population will pass 7 billion. Next year 70 million will be added to that. There's more.

If one compares the increase between 2011 and 2012 (70 million) to the growth between 2019 and 2020 (76 million), we see that not only is the population increasing so is the rate; it's compounding.

At the present conservative rate of 1 percent the world's population will double to a staggering 14 billion in 70 years.

“The world is hurtling towards population overload placing billions at risk of hunger, thirst, and slum conditions,” was the conclusion of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The Institution recommended immediate implementation of four steps: conservation of energy, reduction of food waste, replenishment of ground water, and reduction of poverty. But would that solve the problem?

No. Surprisingly, even if it were possible to actualize these steps, they would only make conditions more favorable for population growth and place greater demand on resources.

On the other side of the ledger, disease, famine, and war would diminish population. While no one would recommend these drastic conditions, what realistically can be done? The Council of Foreign Relations recommends U.S. funding to nations with high birth rates so that women can make “critical decisions” about the size of their families. Bluntly, money and education can solve the problem. All right, let's say they can.

The United Nations lists the birth rate in less developed nations as 2.41 percent. At that rate their populations would double is 30 years. Let's say that birth control programs are so successful that the birth rate is cut in-half to 1.2 percent. But that wouldn't solve the problem; it would postpone it. Moreover, underdeveloped nations are not the problem.

It is the rich and emerging nations that consume the Earth's resources at a prodigious rate not the impoverished countries.

Then what about a 0.0 percent growth for the entire planet? Failure, too. At the world's current population resources are disappearing far faster than they can be replaced. Even no growth is not sustainable.

What about a wildly improbable negative growth rate?

Western and many eastern economies are based on a positive growth rate. More workers provide more taxes to pay off nation debts and to fund government programs such as social security, food for the needy, and medical programs. Without a positive growth the economies of the United States and western Europe, as well those in China, India, and Indonesia, would collapse.

All systems based on infinite growth have a finite end.

Albert Einstein, 1954: “Overpopulation has become a serious threat to health and a grave obstacle to peace.”

Paul McCartney, 1971: Too Many People Going Underground, Too many Reaching For A Piece Of Cake, Too Many People Pulled and Pushed Around, Too Many Waiting For That Lucky Break, That Was Your First Mistake.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

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