Monthly Archives: July 2010

In a sobering assessment of those two trends, William P. Butz, president of the Population Reference Bureau, said that “chronically low birthrates in developed countries are beginning to challenge the health and financial security of the elderly” at the same time that “developing countries are adding over 80 million to the population each year and the poorest of those countries are adding 20 million, exacerbating poverty and threatening the environment.

Souce: NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/world/30population.html?ref=todayspaper

In the late 1800s, biologist Thomas Malthus made predictions about overpopulation stating that people would outstrip their resources. Though his predictions were slightly incorrect he was correct in one sense, overpopulation does lead to problems later. With overpopulation comes several problems.

1. Resource Wars: People will fight over food and water. If this report is correct, than that means that more people will outstrip their resources. This does not lead to all out war, but it does lead to conflict. This occurs in third world nations where this trend is is rising.

2. Overcrowding: The biggest problem in countries like China is the obvious overcrowding of cities. This not only has bad environmental consequences, such as more pollution, but it also means less room for people to have apartments and other precious items for survival. This also affects transportation, the crowding on trains, and creates traffic problems.

3. Economic Problems: There is an interesting dichotomy between overpopulation and falling birthrates. In regions like Europe, the population is falling. With increased social programs this leads to less people to pay for them because of less birthrates. In developing countries overpopulation is leading to all the problems mentioned above and an even greater impossibility to start social programs. So in a way the problems are related in either direction.

All of these are problems that lead to instability of a nation, especially in those that are already the most vulnerable.

Further Reading:

Foreign Affairs article on Overpopulation – must pay for it
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65735/jack-a-goldstone/the-new-population-bomb