Timeline of Works

Here is a very brief timeline of some of the big works on overpopulation and the idea of limits to the Earth's carrying capacity:

 

1798 Thomas Malthus, 'An Essay on the Principle of Population'

He predicted that mankind would outgrow the Earth's resources and that a finite amount of land was incapable of supporting the exponentially increasing population

                

         

1874 George Perkins Marsh, 'The Earth as Modified by Human Action'

He was seen as one of the first American conservatives.

 

1968 Paul Ehrlich, 'The Population Bomb'

Some of Ehrlich's predictions were quite extreme and for this he has been criticised. For example he wrote that there would be mass starvation in the 70s and 80s. However he maintains he was even optimistic and that perhaps because his book was so alarming, people took heed and thus the 80s were not as drastic as he predicted.

 

1994 (recent update 2004) Donnella and Dennis Meadows; Jørgen Randlers and William W. Behrens III, 'The Limits to Growth'

This study by the club of Rome used a computer model to simulate alternative scenarios in order to make forecasts. Most scenarios depicted ongoing population and economic growth until a turning point in around 2030. It proposed that only drastic measures for environmental protection proved to be enough to change system behaviour but that the necessary political measures weren't being taken.

I believe that there is a population bomb on our planet. 

Not the kind of bomb that is waiting to explode into famine and war and disaster as predicted by some, but one that has been slowly exploding as the human population has been growing exponentially and maybe even before that. As if in slow motion, the blast is gradually engulfing everything in its path; destroying ecosytems, crippling and contorting the climate system.

Many believe that overpopulation is a myth and that our planet is more than capable of sustaining the human population even when there are 10 billion of us. However for me, herein lies the issue: the earth's resources may be capable of feeding and fueling us in the future, but at what cost? At what cost to the environment, to our own standard of living?  Do we really want to live in a world where our climate is distorted by our own obsession with growth? Where there is no wilderness left, because it is all being cultivated for food production, fuel and mineral extraction, or being concreted over in the expansion of cities?

Although I am starting off from an opinionated position, my aim in writing this blog is to examine the available literature and research that has been done on the subject, in order to determine what the scientific evidence is on human impact on the environment and whether, according to the experts, overpopulation really is a myth. I will start by looking at some of the work that confirms the notion of overpopulation and then some that contests it. Then I shall research what is being done (and has been done in the past) in practice about the issue, and the difficulties with these policies, keeping up to date with any current news or debates in the meanwhile!

Although by the end, the blog might not have reached a definitive conclusion - debate on the subject has been going on in environmental science and economic and political fields for a long time - I hope to have shared light on the issue, which is often an uncomfortable one certainly in the socio-political realm, and its proposed solutions.

Here is a video that sums up some of the background of and issues with overpopulation in under 4 minutes. Please ignore the overly dramatic music.