To Mankind.

The Issue of Over-Population has become Critical.

By Richard Ingham  –  Wed Nov 18, 2009

"PARIS (AFP) – Braking the rise in Earth's population would be a major help in the fight against global warming, according to an unprecedented UN report published on Wednesday that draws a link between demographic pressure and climate change.

"Slower population growth... would help build social resilience to climate change's impacts and would contribute to a reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions in the future," the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) says.

Its 104-page document emphasises that population policies be driven by support for women, access to family planning, reproductive health and other voluntary measures.

By Professor Emeritus Albert A. Bartlett, Chair of Physics, University of Colorado-Boulder.

A population growth rate less than or equal to zero and declining rates of consumption of resources are a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for a sustainable society.

Unsustainability will be the certain result of any program of development, that does not plan the achievement of zero (or a period of negative) growth of populations and of rates of consumption of resources.  This is true even if the program is said to be sustainable.

Every year new population figures are published for countries and a total population figure for the earth. These figures are taken as a trustworthy source of population numbers. But are the numbers accurate enough or are the sources for the population figures accurate and up to date. In 2010 the CIA published new population figures in their CIA World Factbook and concluded that the estimated total population number in July is 6,768,181,146. The important issue to remember with this figure is that it is an estimate and not a true figure. It is impossible to have a true population figure due to the fact that every second the population number changes, which is mostly a rise in numbers. Thus when a census is taken or population data is combined the number of counted human beings within the figures has changed.

From the CIA World Factbook it is stated in the following:

"Population: This entry gives an estimate from the US Bureau of the Census based on statistics from population censuses, vital statistics registration systems, or sample surveys pertaining to the recent past and on assumptions about future trends. The total population presents one overall measure of the potential impact of the country on the world and within its region."

We can clearly see that the total estimated population figure given is in fact a combined figure from various sources, which includes population censuses, registration systems, sample surveys and assumptions. Therefore a true population figure at any given time is impossible to calculate, due to the huge gap for errors when taking data from various sources and even more so when making assumptions. Another problem is that all these different censuses were made at different times. This gives us for every year in a chronological timeline wrong data points, whether underestimated or overestimated, of the global population. Scientifically to make assumptions on any given resulting figure is not only unscientific but also erroneous as a truthful result can never be found.

Through the cause of overpopulation, respectively the increasing human numbers on earth which cannot be sustained naturally and balanced by the laws of nature, the effects this is causing to the environment can be clearly seen. The irresponsibility of the earth human in regard and towards the planet is destroying the environment due to the extent that flora and fauna species are becoming endangered and extinct. The damaged caused by overpopulation may take centuries and millennia to repair and re-grow if this is possible at all.

The damage caused by overpopulation to the environment is due to over consumption, urban sprawl, clearing of land for mass farming of animals used for food and crop growth, mining , pollution, climate change cause by pollution - deforestation - radiation - oil contamination and the reduction of oxygen in the atmosphere, just to name a few. In fact there are many different damaging effects to the environment which all have their roots solely in overpopulation.

The following is a visual presentation of the destruction to planet earth by human actions to try and sustain the increasing human numbers.

In a follow-up to several recent initiatives by assemblies of scientists and scientific academies, most notably one taken by the Royal Society of London and the US National Academy of Sciences that resulted in a joint statement, "Population Growth, Resource Consumption, and a Sustainable World, '' issued in February 1992 (see Documents, PDR, June 1992), representatives of national academies of science from throughout the world met in New Delhi, 24-27 October 1993, at a ''Science Summit'' on World Population. The participants issued a statement, signed by representatives of 58 academies. The statement offers a wide-ranging if ex cathedra-style discussion of population issues related to development, notably on the determinants of fertility and concerning the effect of demographic growth on the environment and the quality of life. It also sets forth policy propositions, with emphasis on contributions that ''scientists, engineers, and health professionals'' can make to the solution of population problems. The statement finds that ''continuing population growth poses a great risk to humanity, '' and proposes a demographic goal, albeit with a rather elusive specification of a time frame: "In our judgement, humanity's ability to deal successfully with its social, economic, and environmental problems will require the achievement of zero population growth within the lifetime of our children. '' The text of the academies ' statement is reproduced below.

The New Delhi meeting was convened by a group of 15 academies "to explore in greater detail the complex and interrelated issues of population growth, resource consumption, socioeconomic development, and environmental protection.'' One of the convening organizations, the Nairobi-based African Academy of Sciences, declined to sign the joint statement, issuing, instead, one of its own. The text of this statement is reproduced below as the second Documents item appearing in this issue. Other academies that did not participate in the New Delhi meeting, or did not choose to sign the joint statement (whether for substantive or procedural reasons), included academies of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Spain, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Notwithstanding the African Academy dissent, representatives of six African national academies, among them four from countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda) were among the fifty-eight signatories.

Source: http://dieoff.org/page75.htm

by Steven B. Kurtz

Council on Global Issues
142 Balsam Avenue, Toronto, ON M4E 3C1 Canada

Overwhelming evidence has engendered a consensus among global scientists that the human population level and trend are unsustainable. Although we are part of nature, we may have some choice in the ongoing process of which our numbers are but one variable. Individual, social, and institutional factors are examined, and policy options are considered. Evidence is given debunking the claim that the rich attempt to coerce poor nations to reduce fertility.  Carrying capacity and optimum population concepts are discussed, particularly as to equilibrium potential. Prospects for pro-active success are entertained.

INTRODUCTION

"A suitable total for the number of citizens cannot be fixed without considering the land..." Plato, Laws, V

During the New Millennium, many unexpected events and conditions will undoubtedly surprise our progeny and us. Perhaps the decline of fossil energy sources will

The human population doubled from 1 to 2 billion between the years 1800 and 1930 — an unparalleled event in the planet’s history. No large mammal had ever grown to such numbers or commandeered so many resources. The impact on North America’s native species was devastating:

• Driven extinct by hunters, the last eastern woodland bison was seen in West Virginia in 1825.
• Undulata delissea, a Hawaiian plant, was driven extinct in 1865 by domestic cattle.
• The beautiful Falls-of-the-Ohio scurfpea, which existed on a single island, was drowned by U.S. Dam No. 41 in Kentucky in 1881.
• The Whiteline topminnow was last seen Alabama in 1899, its spring habitat repeatedly pumped dry by the growing human population.
• The Culebra parrot was hunted and collected to extinction in Puerto Rico by 1899.
• The Rocky Mountain grasshopper was purposefully driven extinct — a bounty was even placed on its head — by 1903.
• Merriam’s elk was hunted to extinction in Arizona in 1906.
• The Tennessee riffleshell disappeared in 1930 due to pollution and dams.

The human population doubled again by

Sir David Attenborough has called for population restraint in all the nations of the world.

The population explosion in poor countries will contribute little to climate change and is a dangerous distraction from the main problem of over-consumption in rich nations, a study has found.

It challenges claims by leading environmentalists, including Sir David Attenborough and Jonathon Porritt, that strict birth control is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The study concludes that spending billions of pounds of aid on contraception in the developing world will not benefit the climate because poor countries have such low emissions. It says that Britain and other Western countries should instead focus on reducing consumption of goods, services and energy among their own populations.

David Satterthwaite, of the International Institute for Environment and Development , a think-tank based in London, analysed changes in population and greenhouse gas emissions for all countries between 1980 and 2005.

He found that sub-Saharan Africa had 18.5 per cent of the world’s population growth and only 2.4 per cent of the growth in carbon dioxide emissions. The United States had 3.4 per cent of the world’s population growth but 12.6 per cent of the growth in carbon dioxide emissions.

Full Article - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6852853.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178

Joint International Position Statement

1. The undersigned organisations recognise the following facts:

A.  Past population growth from one billion in 1800 to 2.5 billion in 1950 to 6.8 billion today, together with rising resource consumption per head, has already:  caused climate change, increasing pollution, rising sea levels and expanding deserts; and has been largely "funded" by rapidly depleting natural capital (finite resources such as fossil fuels, groundwater, minerals, soil fertility, forests, fisheries and biodiversity) rather than sustainable natural income

B. The capacity of the Earth is

The crucial and delicate issue of overpopulation has reached the mainstream media. Finally!

On a snowy Sunday afternoon, CNN indeed brought up overpopulation and the harmful effects it has on the sustainability of the planet and on humanity as a whole.

Mr. Jack Cafferty from CNN courageously made the case for population control and many viewers agreed with his analysis:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlcJoZyG2N4

May reason and wisdom indeed prevail.

Overpopulation counter with a difference.

Some disturbing estimated figures.