Conversation with Somebody Who Does Not Think Human Overpopulation is an Issue

This is a fictional conversation with a person who does not think human overpopulation is an actual thing.  In reality I think the non-believers really don't want to hear anything we have to say.  They are either in denial out of fear that this is an actual concern, or they want to have lots of children and do not want to consider that doing so might be one of the worst things for the planet.

Them "Prove to me that humans are overpopulated.".

Me "Look around you, what do you see?"

Them "I see the city, the buildings."

Me "Right, so what was there before?"

Them "It was farm."

Me "Right, and what was there before it was a farm?"

Them "It was a forest I guess..."

Me "Right, and that proves we are overpopulated.  At one time all this land was a forest, nature lived here.  We had species here that are now extinct, such as the passenger pigeon.  There was a swamp with animals, there was a forest, and from year to year things pretty much stayed the same.  Then we overpopulated where we (humans) were living and we needed food, so we cleared the area and made it into a farm to grow food for ourselves.  Where did nature go?  Then our population grew more and we needed to fill in the swamp and take over the farm to turn it into a city."

Them "But we still have lots of open spaces where we could fit more people."

Me "Don't you get it?  Every time we fit more people, we displace nature, we displace trees, we displace birds, we displace deer, cougars, and everything else that lived here before."

Them "We can fit all the people on the earth into the state of Alaska and each person would have 2000 square feet of space!"

Me "So go live in Alaska and hope your 2000 square feet of space is not on a mountain, and good luck growing enough food for yourself in that space, as well as housing yourself, and disposing of your waste."

Them "Well we would have to grow food elsewhere and dispose of waste elsewhere."

Me "So what was the point of saying we could all live in Alaska if you have to grow food elsewhere and dispose of waste elsewhere?  If we have to do that then we are not just living in Alaska and you still forget that a lot of the space you mention is not inhabitable at all."  Pause "You are forgetting that the human population does more than just take up space...  we deforest areas for things we think we need, such as coffee, gold, and diamonds.  We deforest space so we have lumber for houses and to make way for more and more farm land, and our pollution has rendered some areas uninhabitable for humans or other animals.  We have reached a point where we rely on non-renewable resources and are consuming renewable ones at a rate faster than they can be renewed." 

Them (getting defensive) "Well, if we are overpopulated you should just fix it by killing yourself."

Me "Saying we are overpopulated does not mean we need to resort to killing ourselves or killing others, we just need to be more responsible and not have kids when we are young, and not have more than one child per couple, and even that is growth as our children do not replace us when we are still alive."

Conversation ends.. I have been blocked.. hung up on.. or walked away from.

Typically people who think that human overpopulation is not an issue do not want to take into account that other species have a right to live here (on the planet) too.  They tend to think that "food" is the only issue in regards to concerns about human overpopulation.  They often have very little worldly experience, and refuse to consider what might happen in the future due to population concerns. 

Shocking Photos that Prove Human Overpopulation

These are photographs that I have taken in the area around me.  The prove that there is a concern with human overpopulation, but if you do not understand the connection I will explain it below.

What do you see when you look at these photos?  Do you see farm land?  I would assume you do, but are you aware that only a few years ago this farm land was forest?  I was able to see some older aerial photos of the area which showed a lot more trees and a lot less open farm land. 

If the planet was not overpopulated the forests would be preserved, thriving, and being the lungs of the planet and the home of wildlife.  Instead we rape the forests for wood or chop them up and burn them to make room for agriculture to grow food for people or food for livestock.

The trees in the distance of both of these photos are not forests, rather they are rows of trees about 30 feet wide, not much more; a poor replacement for all the trees that used to cover the land.

Now I know there are some people who do not see this as an indication of human overpopulation but I ask "When does it stop?"  At what point do we say "Ya, enough trees have been chopped, it cannot all be farm land, we need forests?"  To me the fact that we are not sustainable and are still cutting trees to make more farm land is proof that we are overpopulating the planet.

I only had one child, that was plenty for me.  I live rurally and am allowing trees to reclaim part of the area in front of my house which was once known as a "lawn".  We need to stop the destruction of our environment and the only way to do that is to slow our population growth. 

I am Tired of the Ignorant who Deny that Overpopulation is a Problem

I read a news article on concerns of the growing human population and the problems of the human impact on the planet, mostly as related to the fact that we are at risk of overpopulating ourselves to extinction.

One person commented "Humans are too small of a species to cause any real impact to the planet", or something to that effect. I wonder how anyone can be so ignorant.

Anyone my age (I am nearly 50) has seen the world's population more than double and should be aware of the problems that have developed as a result (including urban sprawl).

Anyone who thinks humans do not impact things has never heard of the dodo bird, passenger pigeon, quagga, Tasmanian tiger, and so forth.

We know that cats are overpopulated.. humans are too.

Anyone who thinks humans cannot cause change has never been in a plane flying over a clear cut area, never seen an open pit mine, and has probably not heard of what we did to the Aral Sea.

It just boggles my mind how anyone can think humans are not damaging the earth.  These people are either ignorant or in denial, I assume they put their heads in the sand so they can justify living their life of excess, greed, and waste.

I think people just find it easier to deny these things than to admit that humans are not living in harmony with nature, we are not being sustainable. People do not want to change their ways so they simply deny that we are hurting the planet.

This article was originally published by me on Bubblews.

Is There a Conspiracy to Depopulate the Earth?

As humans, we control the population of many species on the planet, except our own. However there are people that suggest there are conspiracy theories in regards to depopulating the planet to a certain extent, in other words, killing off some people.

If you grew up in the 1970's you may remember a show called "Logan's Run" in this show human population was being controlled with a lottery type of system that involved killing off people who reached a certain age. Other shows and movies have suggested a similar fate in the future if we do not control the growth of our population now. What is fascinating is that when Logan's Run first came out human population was roughly 4 billion, and is now over 7 billion, and growing. We have done very little to prevent a future of problems.

Stop breeding like rabbits!  ©

Some depopulation ideas are, as mentioned, simply killing off people who are older, other ideas are more random, such as introducing a virus to kill off some people, and it has been suggested that the HIV/AIDS virus was designed just for that purpose.

Of course, I am not suggesting we do kill off masses of people, I am only pointing out that there are some people who are suggesting this, or are suggesting that governments of the world are considering doing this (many conspiracy theories about New World Order include reducing the population to 5 billion). Even the United Nations has said that human over population is a real concern. Many population experts suggest 5 billion is sustainable (we know 7 billion is not because we are consuming renewable resources faster than they can be renewed, this is only balanced by the fact that people in undeveloped nations are living well below what those in developed nations are consuming). The infamous Georgia Guide Stones and some others, suggest that 500,000,000 is sustainable, and not any more.

I personally have been concerned with human over population, probably since watching Logan's Run, and only had one child (when I was 30), partially because I do not want to reach a point where these scenarios become real. I do not want to be killed later in life just to make room for more people.

Anyone who thinks these conspiracy theories might be real should make sure they are not part of a contributing force; either not have kids, have kids later in life, and/or limit themselves to one child only. Yes, one child is growth, until you (or your partner) dies, you have added one person to the planet, there are now 3 rather than 2.

The Root of Many Activist Issues is Human Overpopulation

I am a member of a great activist type site, Care2.

On Care2 people can find activist petitions to sign, they can vote up causes they believe in and can even make their own petitions. One thing I have noticed though is that many of the petitions have a similar root problem.

• One of the petitions calls to stop clearing part of the rain forest to make way for a place to produce and process palm oil
• One petition calls for stopping the round up and potential slaughter of wild horses in the United States.
• There are petitions against killing seals, dolphins, and wolves.
• There is a “Save the Rain Forest Frogs” petition!
• You can find petitions against cruelty to pigs, dairy cows, and battery hens.
• Another petition demands a halt to an oil pipeline, another asks to prevent a gold mine in a nature sensitive area.
• There are petitions to end urban sprawl.
• There are petitions to end GMO crops and various "Cheats" farmers use to produce food.

Of course I do sign petitions that I support, and you can pretty much find petitions for anything. 

You name it there is probably a petition for it, but if you look at all of these petitions they are just addressing a small part of a greater problem. It would be better to address the driving force behind the problems that these petitions try to solve.

In some cases there is a place to make a comment, and I try to make a comment reminding others that if you want change, it is not the problem itself you have to consider but why the problem has developed in the first place.

Why do we need more palm oil? Growing human populations.

Why are wild horses being rounded up? To make room to graze cattle to feed the growing human population.

Why are rain forest frogs at risk? Because more people means more trees are needed, and more land must be cleared to grow crops.

Why are seals and dolphins being killed? Because they eat “our” fish, we need fish to feed the ever expanding human population.

Why are wolves being killed? Because they threaten livestock, the same livestock we want to kill to feed our own population.

Why is there cruelty to livestock? Because people want to eat, more people means shortcuts are taken to warehouse more livestock animals on less land, and transportation is pushed to get the animals to where they need to go while reducing costs.

Why do we need an oil pipeline? A growing, and greedy, consumer driven population demands more oil.

Why do we need another goldmine? Again because more people are demanding more gold, and nations need income from gold to grow.

Why are cities expanding? Urban sprawl is the result of continued growth.

Why are farmers using GMOs and other "cheats" to produce food? A rapidly growing population means farmers have less land on which to grow food, and are pressured into producing more food in less time.

As you see nearly every problem faced by the world today is human overpopulation and population growth. Some people ignorantly think that if they have 2 kids they have maintained a steady population; but 2+2 = 4! If you have two kids you have doubled your immediate population, doubled the needs of your family.  Chances are that your kids may have kids again before you have even died...

Two good ways to reduce the population growth are for couples to put off having children until they are in their 30’s and to restrict themselves to one child only.

Most governments do not like this, they want more people, more workers, more consumers, more soldiers, and more tax payers. Governments are not looking out for the future of the planet, only for the future of themselves.

The human population has more than doubled in the past 45 years. Huge natural areas have vanished forever. We are using renewable resources up faster than they can be renewed. We are killing other species only for our own continued survival and continued rape of the planet.

China is not everyone’s favorite country, and is often linked to animal cruelty, but at least they were smart enough to see the problems with unchecked population growth.

Other Reading:
About Care2 and How You Can Earn Credits to Spend on Things You Care About!

Thomas Malthus, the Man Who Warned the World About Overpopulation.