For the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, scientists came up with an “end of the world” scenario in the 1980s that had nothing to do with the U.S. or Soviets pressing a button. The doomsday delivery method, they feared, was overpopulation.
Twenty years later, symptoms of overpopulation’s strain on the system are headline news: thinning ozone, global warming, over-fishing, water shortages, peak oil….
Reminding us of overpopulation’s underreported root cause is first-time author Edward C. Hartman. Hartman began writing his self-published book, The Population Fix: Breaking America’s Addiction to Population Growth, in 1996—the year he became a grandfather.
Detached from the left- or right-wing agenda (and neither pro- or anti-immigration) Hartman examines overpopulation purely from the viewpoint of an environmentalist, focusing on its ill effects on California, the country’s most populous state. He argues that having more than 2.1 children (the zero-growth replacement rate) does no one, including Mother Nature, any favors—except to benefit the industries that are addicted to and promote population growth politically, including builders and developers, mass media companies and food processors.
Following are snippets culled from the book’s first six chapters.
We just keep growing!
When my father’s father was born, America’s population was approximately 45 million. When my father was born, America’s population was approximately 87 million. When I was born, America’s population was approximately 125 million. When our first child was born, America’s population was approximately 185 million. When our first grandchild was born, America’s population was approximately 265 million. At the current rate of growth, when our first child reaches my present age, America’s population will be approximately 375 million. When our first grandchild reaches my present age, America’s population will be approximately 485 million. When our first grandchild’s grandchild reaches my present age, will America’s population be 650 million or 750 million or 850 million? Nobody knows for sure. However, whether the correct answer is two-thirds, three-fourths, or four-fifths of one billion, I’m glad I won’t be around to find out.
Since the census of July 1, 1900, America’s population has grown every year except one! Between June 30, 1918 and July 1, 1919, America had one million troops in Europe and one-half million people in America died from an influenza epidemic. The U.S. Census Bureau showed a population decline of 60,000 for that year, a one-time aberration, as annual growth was 1.3 million both the year before and the year after.
As a professional financial advisor, how I’d love to recommend an investment to my clients that had only one down year every 100 years! Unfortunately, as you will read later on, perpetual population growth does not make America richer. As America paves over its farms and wetlands, as it pollutes its air and water, as it degrades the quality of its schools, as it increases the cost of housing, as it…. Well, you name it. Ultimately, America’s population growth is a good investment for only a few. Meanwhile, it makes most Americans economically poorer.
Lessons from China and India
What can Americans learn from China’s population growth? While census numbers from China are always a bit suspect, China’s population was approximately 600 million in 1970, when the Chinese government decided something had to be done about its rapidly growing population. China contains approximately the same land area as America, so the numbers are particularly relevant.
China’s leaders used their Communist Party control over housing, employment and salaries to institute three reproductive norms: (1) late marriage, (2) longer spacing between births and (3) fewer children—two children for urban families and three children for rural families. In 1979, rules were changed to promote only one child per family.
How successful has China’s drive to reduce its population been? The good news is, China’s population is now projected to decline. The bad news is…not until 2050, when it is projected (with fingers crossed) to decline to 1.4 billion. When will China’s population return to the 600 million that troubled its leaders so long ago? Not during my lifetime and, if you are old enough to read this book, not during your lifetime either.
What can we learn from India’s population growth? To begin with, India has about one-third the land area of America. Yet, it has a population of more than 1 billion. Does India have a problem and does India know it has a problem? You bet! But India has a democracy and their politicians—like our politicians—have never really put their arms around their problem. The result: in 2050 when China’s population is projected to be in decline, India’s population is projected to be over 1.5 billion… and growing!
What lessons can America learn from China and India? First, America will eventually break its addiction to rampant population growth…it is simply a matter of time. Eventually, population growth becomes so disastrous that a nation’s leaders, whether autocratic or democratic, must acknowledge the problem and make some gesture toward addressing it.
Second, in a democracy, it is likely to take longer to effectively address a population growth problem than in a dictatorship. India learned that giving away free portable radios for having vasectomies wasn’t enough….
Finally, even when population reduction measures are imposed autocratically upon a nation, it takes many generations before positive results are seen—several generations during which quality of life declines and during which human life may be devalued.
Recycling
According to an Associated Press article by Jim Wasserman, even as government, industry and the public move toward a recycling society, population growth is overwhelming that progress and overwhelming our capacity to handle our waste. For example, in 1991, California dumps accepted approximately 36,500 tons of trash. Still, ten years later, despite the fact that recycling, diverting and composting had increased significantly, trash delivered to dumps increased. Dramatic early drops in annual landfill tonnage were overtaken by waste from millions of new residents.
While there may always be more we can do to reduce per capita waste, so long as we have a rampant increase in the number of “capitas” (people) in California as well as the rest of America, waste will continue to increase and to become an increasing problem.
Solitude
Optimists like to believe science will find ways to solve all problems created by rampant human population growth. Food shortages? Science will find ways to make food out of bacteria. Energy shortages? Science will find ways to turn air into energy. Water shortages? Science will find economical ways to make ocean water potable. There is one shortage caused by human population growth even optimists admit science will have a hard time replacing: Solitude!
Population Press quotes John Stuart Mill writing in 1848 when world population was just over 1 billion:
“It is not good for man to be kept at all times in the presence of his species. Solitude, in the sense of being often alone, is essential to any depth of meditation or of character; and solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur, is the cradle of thoughts and aspiration which society could do ill without.”
Perhaps one day science will produce solitude chambers that people will be able to enter and take walks in virtual woods, climb virtual mountains, survey virtual desert vistas and study virtual creatures in virtual tide pools.
For now, there are still many who would like their descendants to be able to take walks in real woods, climb real mountains, survey real desert vistas and study real creatures in real tide pools—and to not have to make reservations a year in advance to do so.
Excerpted from The Population Fix by Edward C. Hartman (Think Population Press). © 2006 by Edward C. Hartman. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Available at independent bookstores and Rayve Productions: 800.852.4890. For more information, visit ThePopulationFix.com.