The Ecology Book

250

A FINITE WORLD

CAN SUPPORT ONLY

A FINITE POPULATION

OVERPOPULATION

I

n 1968, two scientists in the

US issued dire warnings about

overpopulation. Ecologist

Garrett Hardin predicted that

Earth’s resources would soon be

used up and environmental damage

would increase. In The Tragedy of

the Commons, he cited examples

of several major global crises that

had been caused by overpopulation:

the destruction of fish stocks by

overfishing; the draining of lakes

by over-extraction of groundwater

for irrigation; deforestation; pollution

of air, land, and sea; and species

extinction. Hardin himself proposed

a controversial solution to the

problem of overpopulation, arguing

that the government should deny

welfare assistance to people who

bred “excessively,” to prevent

further births. Biologist Paul Ehrlich

similarly advocated population

control in The Population Bomb,

with warnings that human numbers

would soon reach a point where

mass starvation would ensue.

Growth and decline

For most of human history, the

world’s population had grown only

slowly. It began to increase more

rapidly in Western Europe and the

United States in the early years

of the Industrial Revolution, when

British economist Thomas Malthus

warned of a future famine. His

fears, however, proved premature

because food production increased

more quickly than many expected.

Life expectancy also fell in the new

industrial cities, due to infectious

diseases. It rose again with better

Ragpickers Court (1879) by William

Allen Rogers shows a poor Italian

neighborhood in New York City. Such

overcrowding allowed diseases to

spread through poverty-stricken areas.

IN CONTEXT

KEY FIGURE

Garrett Hardin (1915 –2003)

BEFORE

1798 Thomas Malthus

forecasts that continued

population growth will exhaust

global food supplies by the

mid-19th century.

1833 In Two Lectures on the

Checks to Population, British

economist William Forster

Lloyd discusses overpopulation,

using the example of common

land, which is less productive

if too many cattle graze it.

AFTER

1974 A United Nations

conference in Bucharest

creates the UN’s first World

Population Plan of Action.

2013 British social geographer

Danny Dorling outlines in

Population 10 Billion why it is

unlikely the world’s population

will ever reach that number,

contrary to UN estimates.

US_250-251_Overpopulation.indd 250 12/11/18 6:25 PM