Population is important to talk about. There are a lot of false conceptions about the concern of overpopulation, and the best way to counteract false information is to widely spread accurate information- especially at times when the subject is not front and center of everyone’s minds and thus controversial by nature.
A lot of people do cite the environment as a reason why population growth scares them. As climate change continues to exacerbate due to our failure to keep our emissions under control, anything that threatens to add to our emissions threatens the stability of the whole planet. With that in mind, hearing that the world is continuing to add to the number of people seems concerning. It’s increasingly cited as a reason why people are wanting to avoid having children.
Any decision a person makes in that regard is entirely up to them. But when it turns into rhetoric that’s anti-kids in general, things start to get dicey. And when you start to look at where the population is growing, and in whose direction these fears are being directed, you can quickly see where things have the potential to go really wrong.
An environmental topic that’s getting so much attention is important to talk about, but it’s also important to make sure we’re well informed going into such discussions. Here are three important things to keep in mind.
Fears of overpopulation have been used to stoke ethnic violence
This isn’t anything new. Fascist regimes from the World War 2 era, and even earlier have justified their violent policies and attempts to exterminate entire groups of people by claiming that there are too many of them. That they will quickly outnumber the dominant population, unless something is done.
Oftentimes, this is paired with language like ‘swarm’ or ‘infestation’ used to dehumanize the population to which fear is being directed. Many will often talk about the ecological damage that this poses to the nation. What happens as a result is the over policing of minority areas, militant border controls, and a surge in racist behavior and attitudes.
The people behind mass shootings in recent years have often cited the environment and population as reasons to justify their actions, from Buffalo, New York to Christchurch, New Zealand.
Why does this matter? When talking about population and addressing these concerns, we need to ensure that we’re not furthering or fueling rhetoric that can have such horrific outcomes.
The fastest growing countries are the lowest emitters
Where is population growing the fastest?
This year, the top ten fastest growing populations are as follows: Syria, South Sudan, Niger, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Benin, Uganda, DR Congo, and Chad. You know how much these countries contribute to global carbon emissions? Hardly anything.
These countries put such a low burden on the environment that they don’t even have an overshoot day (the day on the calendar when a country has consumed more resources than a planet can put out over the course of a year.) In contrast, Canada and the US reach their overshoot day on March 13.
Why is this important? Because the environment and climate change are frequently cited as reasons why population is getting out of hand. When that happens, inhumane and often-violent policies meant to curb population growth are directed at groups of people where it is growing the fastest. It’s important to note that if we all adopted their lifestyle, we wouldn’t be in such a problematic position. More of our efforts should be spent towards adjusting our consumption habits and the production processes taken to meet those demands.
Population tends to decrease as quality of life increases
There is a humane way to help bring down population levels, and it’s actually a very humane way: eliminating poverty. All throughout the world, one of the most consistent trends has been that as you improve people’s income and quality of life, people tend to have fewer children per household. In Burundi, the average household consists of 6 people, while in Norway, this number is barely over 2.
There are all kinds of reasons these happen. Social improvements are strongly linked to opportunities for women, and educated girls tend to have children later. They also have fewer children, and can provide them with healthier lives. There is less of a demand to have a large amount of children due to factors like high infant mortality as well.
While the dynamics of how this works are varied, it’s a remarkably consistent trend. From Italy to the Philippines to Poland and South Africa, you can see that declines in population growth are linked to increases in income.
What this means is that a lot of these concerns of overpopulation can be addressed by increasing opportunities and decreasing poverty. Of course, as income increases, so do carbon emissions. But, countries experiencing economic growth have a strong opportunity to make important investments in clean energy that will pay off for generations. One great example can be seen in how Kenya over the past decade has expanded electricity access for the majority of the country and how most of it is derived cleanly.
Most people who echo fears around overpopulation aren’t doing so in a sinister way, but out of genuine concern. However, knowing these details can help make a world that is a little less likely to fall for some of the harmful ways population rhetoric has been played against people in the past.