Environmental Impacts of Overpopulation
The Ethical Impacts of Overpopulation
Over the past year, you've expressed interest in the Center's overpopulation campaign, either by responding to an action alert on the issue or signing up to distribute Endangered Species Condoms. Thank you for being part of the overpopulation solution. This monthly electronic newsletter will provide you with some fascinating and helpful information about the impacts of overpopulation on endangered species and wildlands and ways you can help make a difference on this critical issue.
This 5 page essay broaches the ethical impacts of overpopulation.
"Overpopulation is a myth." You only hear this line from people who don't care about what's being lost to growth. They have economic stakes in resource consumption and are apathetic about its effects on nature. Many of them are religious and believe all this crowding has a purpose, though they never define it. They pretend that food and human welfare are the only real population issues and the ongoing destruction of nature is irrelevant. Once these biases are removed, the impacts of overpopulation are obvious. They include water shortages, wilderness destruction, the paving of farmland, species extinctions, chronic malnutrition, air and water pollution, increasing congestion (on land, air and water), a feeling that one is just a number, lack of personal service from institutions, a welfare cycle that promotes childbirth, an increasing need for prison cells, year-round schooling for lack of classroom space, etc. Where is the "myth" in all this hard reality?
The News Digest, which is on the front page of WOA!! provides a large set ofnews items in summarized form for quick scanning by the population-concernedand by those who may be just newly aware to the problems and impacts ofoverpopulation.Very good article. In this country, and maybe elsewhere, the left feels too guilty to even discuss this coming catastrophe and the right has'nt figured out that it will only bring more dreaded regulations (which we need)! Increasing regulations and restrictions need to be discussed as one of the many overwhelming impacts of overpopulation.The impacts of overpopulation to the planet are real and of great concern to Weisman, who said he believes people must do something now to contain it. Five key chapters concentrate on (1) the social and individual determinants of fertility, mortality, and migration; (2) the social and individual impacts of changing levels of fertility, mortality, and migration; and (3) the impacts of overpopulation on the environment, and how changes in the environment, in turn, impact the human condition, especially regarding migration. What gives these analyses coherence is how each emphasizes the ways in which demographic forces both reflect and limit individual choices.