If someone asks you what is the planet's most dangerous problem, your immediate answer should be overpopulation. There are simply too many people and nowhere near the resources to adequately sustain the current population, much less the population of one, five or ten years down the road.
Here's a cheerful thought. At some point, nature will rise up and correct the human population problem as we reproduce like cancer cells, and I don't necessarily want to be around when that happens, either by an unstoppable global pandemic or some other worldwide calamity. The climate crisis is probably first in line to wipe out large sections of the human population, mostly in densely populated third world coastal nations. Ultimately, though, the planet will be just fine without us, but unless we intend to curb our population growth and the accelerated doubling time (the rate at which the human population doubles) nature will do it for us.
In America, however, everything is fine and dandy. It feels like we're shielded from the overpopulation crisis, which is probably why no one here really talks about it in spite of its critical importance. Actually, the only people talking about population in America are conservatives who are worried that we're not having enough babies -- arguing that we need to increase our birth rate and population.
Ross Douthat posted a column in The New York Times yesterday perpetuating this ridiculous argument. [continue reading...]