Overpopulation, Is It A Disaster, Or Not?
A fierce debate rages between people who believe our planet is overpopulated, and people who think it is not.
For our first two hundred thousand years, our species depended upon procreation for survival. With the advent of agriculture, imposed hierarchy, and city states, we found even more safety in family and tribal units.
The first billion people arrived near the end of that two hundred-thousand-year mark. The second billion people arrived just 100 years later. And we’re still growing in numbers, currently at more than seven and one half billion mouths to feed.
Will the population bomb explode or not?
Most projections agree that population may well grow to ten billion by 2050. For those who say that’s okay, they often contend that food production and innovation will meet the need. They see, correctly, that it’s not a lack of space, or technical inability to feel more mouths, but merely a food distribution problem. We throw away enough food to feed everyone, and most of the Earth’s surface is still empty.
They also point to the fact, also true, that in every nation that has economic opportunity and race, and gender equality (or approaches it) has a falling birthrate.