Is Our Planet Actually Overcrowded?
Well-intentioned friends congratulated us on the birth of our second child some years ago with the advice to not have any more since the world was already overpopulated. We obviously didn’t agree for we had five more. Since then the rant continues.
Several decades ago, Paul Ehrilich said, “It is already too late to avoid famines that will kill millions, possibly by 1975”. Another doom predictor said, “I state flatly that the hungry world will not be able to feed itself ten years from now”. This was said in 1967. Yet, the evidence declares overpopulation and its woes to be simply untrue.
Obviously the population is growing. The U.S. alone increases one person about every 16 seconds. The world is 3.5 billion people larger than it was in 1950. However, this does not mean it is overcrowded. As proof, how long would you have to drive from your present location to be in wide open places? I can do so in around 5 minutes.
In the U.S. the population density of the state of New Jersey is indeed 1171 people/mile2, yet 7 states have less than 20 people/mile2 and the same number have fewer than a million citizens. The average population density of the entire country is only 95 people/mile2. My average sized home town fits 65,400 people into 30 square miles, a density of 2160 people/mile2. The place children spend most of their time during the week, the school classroom, has a population density of a million people/mile2. In other words, to be crowded, you have to choose to bunch together. They are certainly not caused by a lack of land.
The population density of the world is presently 34 people/mile2, or a full seven and a half acres of useable land for every person on earth. Most of the world is still uninhabited. In fact, we could get the entire world population into West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri if everyone lived as close as they do in New York City, about 25,000 people/mile2. If, on the other hand, we all lived in suburbia conditions, we could put the entire world in the 48 contiguous states.
Usually countries like India (890 people/mile2) or Bangladesh (2750 people/mile2) are used as proof of world overpopulation. Of course, it is the crowded conditions that are blamed for homelessness and starvation. Yet, contrast India with the industrial giant Japan whose density is only slightly less. No, the reason for starvation is usually political unrest, war, unwise government regulations, and false religion. Truthfully, the land in most countries, including India, could sustain a much greater population.
Yet the cry continues that the world is running out of food. “We cannot long continue our present rate of progress. The first check for our growing prosperity, however, must render our population excessive” . Does this sound like the morning news? It was said in the year 1865! “Our number are burdensome to the world, which can hardly support us” . That was written by Tertullian in the second century! How comical in light of the fact that India alone has sufficient rich farmland to provide food for the entire world! And food production has increased 1000% in the last 75 years. The danger of starvation is decreasing, not increasing.
So who cares about all this? The principle is, if you cause a crisis, you can get just about anything you want. This made up overpopulation teaching has for one thing, encouraged the justification of abortion, for children are consumers of the limited resources so the fewer the better. Children become a liability, not an asset in this thinking.
The medical field is also influenced, as expressed in a leading textbook for training Gynecologists. “In the minds of many, rapid growth of population has become second only to nuclear warfare as civilization’s greatest menace. The gynecologist- obstetrician has assumed a leadership role and has recognized the necessity of controlling human fertility. . . Population growth is perforce temporary; that it will- indeed must- eventually cease, halted either by an increase in deaths or a decrease in births. There is no other way. Thus, people must come to want fewer children”. If a woman expecting her third child went to a gynecologist trained in this school, what advice do you think she would be given? In fact, at 800,000, hysterectomies are the second most common major surgery each year in the US, yet only 10% are due to cancer.
The heart of the problem is not overpopulation but lack of love for children. They are viewed as a nuisance, a hindrance to reaching our goals. However, the truth is that children are the future of any country. When they are properly trained, children both multiply their parents’ impact, and in their own way benefit the world as good citizens. Children are not the destruction of the world, but its hope.
The founders of No Greater Joy love children and set up their ministry dedicated to sharing the principles of wholesome child training tips and joyful family relationships. Visit their website for great tips today.
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