Human Population Growth

Human population growth is at the heart of overpopulation issues, of course. As with other issues, it seems we only hear the negative assessment of our increasing population. However, there is another side to the story, other facts which we don’t hear enough. Indur Goklany, who wrote The Improving State of the World, states that Total Fertility rates (measured by number of children per woman of childbearing age) have been dropping worldwide…even China’s TFR is lower than the replacement level. The increase in population began around 1950 and will likely end around 2050, according to Bjorn Lomborg (The Skeptical ...). This increase is largely due to a dramatic drop in the death rate resulting from improved access to food, medicine, clean water, and sanitation. One UN consultant put it rather bluntly like this: “It’s not that people suddenly started breeding like rabbits; it’s just that they stopped dying like flies.” (The Skeptical ... p. 46)

Human population growth resulting in overpopulation is generally depicted with pictures of tightly packed masses or overcrowded mass transit stations. However, the number of people is not necessarily the problem—even the famous population biologist, Paul Ehrlich, agrees with this. It is poverty rather than population density that leads to suffering for the masses. Many of the most densely populated countries are in Europe. “The Netherlands, Belgium, and Japan are far more densely populated than India, and Ohio and Denmark are more densely populated than Indonesia.” (The Skeptical ...) So, obviously, more people do not equal bad news!

Another interesting thing to note is that despite increasing numbers of humans, most of the earth’s landmass will not become more densely populated than it is today! This is due to the fact that most growth will be in cities. For the first time in history, more people now live in urban areas than in rural areas. Moreover, whereas in 1950 New York was the only “megacity,” today there are 19 of them. Some would argue that urban life—especially in poor countries—mars quality of life. While there are, to be sure, poor conditions, it is still an improvement over rural living. Water supplies, sanitation, and health services are better in cities as well as education being easier to come by. “The World Resources Institute clearly concludes that ‘cities are growing because they provide, on average, greater social and economic benefits than do rural areas.’” (The Skeptical ...)

Human population growth is the basis of overpopulation concerns. However, it becomes clear when we look at it rationally, that it’s not inherently bad to have more people inhabiting the earth! Moreover, people tend to naturally decrease their reproduction on their own when poverty is overcome. The other pages in this section address other aspects of an increasing population. It seems that we have plenty of what is needed to sustain the billions of people on earth—personally, I find that amazing and awe-inspiring! 

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