“Overpopulation” is a Flawed Concept

Overpopulation can only occur if living beings outgrow their resources. If we’re the slightest bit clever about how we feed and house—not to mention clothe, educate, heal and support — people, humans could multiply tenfold without a planetary blink.

Apollo 11 astronauts took this photo of Earth on July 20, 1969. NASA/Flickr

The gross misconception that too many of us have, with regard to population and resources, is that we will run out. What we fail to realize is that this assumes a future population will do things the same way that we do today.

We are projecting—without a second thought—that human beings will continue to conduct “business as usual” without the kind of evolutionary behavioral adjustments that a larger population necessitates, and from which we would also benefit immensely, now.

I’m referring to things that will stop us from treating the planet as though it is an infinitely disfigurable asset.

To fix the problem of adverse human impact, we would need to stop:

• clear-cutting the planet’s remaining forests (33% are gone already)
• emptying the oceans of fish (we cull 1–2.7 trillion of them each year)
• sucking the last drop of…