Dingo wrote:
At least Suzuki, the author of the article, has something relevant to say on the topic of overpopulation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x98KFcMJeo&feature=relatedYes. Suzuki is pointing to exponential growth in human population and yet, although he is well aware of the seriousness of the population problem, he explains, in the following article, that while most wealthy westerners would say that over population is the biggest challenge we face today, it is in fact over-consumption by the most privileged that is even more to blame in the destruction of the environment and resource depletion.
Quote:
I once asked the great ecologist E.O. Wilson how many people the planet could sustain indefinitely. He responded, "If you want to live like North Americans, 200 million." North Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and Australians, who make up 20 per cent of the world's population, are consuming more than 80 per cent of the world's resources. We are the major predators and despoilers of the planet, and so we blame the problem on overpopulation. Keep in mind, though, that most environmental devastation is not directly caused by individuals or households, but by corporations driven more by profits than human needs.
And ....
Quote:
Stabilizing or bringing down population growth will help, but research shows it's not the biggest factor. A United Nations report, The State of World Population 2011, concludes that even zero population growth won't have a huge impact on global warming.
Suzuki goes on to explain that while it is not sustainable to have a human pop. that is growing exponentially, the average number of children per woman has actually gone down from 6 to 2.5 in the last 60 years, and that:
Quote:
Research shows the best way to stabilize and reduce population growth is through greater protection and respect for women's rights, better access to birth control, widespread education about sex and reproduction, and redistribution of wealth.
He also points out that the group who identify overpopulation as the biggest problem are also the group who oppose measures that would bring that population down. Corporations with politicians in their back pockets, and vice-versa, actually fight against these measures.
Suzuki maintains that if we do not uphold social justice, we will also see a corresponding failure in both environmental integrity and population increase.
So while we may be less poulated in North America and Europe than we are in Asia, we are degrading the environment and using up the resources much faster. We need to curb population and yet, it's going to take a lot more than that to solve our problems.
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/scienc ... -too-many/