In 1970, when the first Earth Day was celebrated, there were 200 million people living in the United States. Sometime during 2015, our population will top 320 million, and the Earth seems destined to harbor at least 10 billion of us by the middle of this century.
So many of today’s environmental problems – from urban sprawl and air pollution to climate change and collapsing fisheries – are exacerbated by rising numbers of people, each demanding their piece of the global resource pie.
As standards of living increase, studies have shown that population growth declines. But this is a slow process. By the time global reproduction reaches the replacement level – one birth for each death – we will be consuming more than six times the energy resources we do today(*). The same goes for harvesting from the oceans and the development of agricultural land.
A sure-fire way to reduce escalating resource consumption, and its impact on the environment, is to slow the rate of population growth. One can envision the benefits of a world in which every child is a wanted child; any reduction in births would reduce future resource demands on our planet.
There is a silver lining. The newest predictions of future population are lower than they were a few years ago, when the United Nations anticipated 12 billion global citizens by 2050. Funding for family planning, education, and economic development have made a difference, and further progress is possible. Programs that empower women have been particularly effective.
This Earth Day, let’s keep population growth in the conversation.
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–This segment was adapted from an essay by Dr. William H. Schlesinger. You can read the original piece on his blog Citizen Scientist here.
*Moses, M.E. and J.H. Brown. 2003. Allometry of human fertility and energy use. Ecology Letters 6: 295-300.
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Photo, posted March 26, 2015, courtesy of Sam Valadi via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio, with script contribution from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.