Priscilla P. Wood @PriscillaPWood: Is the world overpopulated?
ANSWER:
NO!
Here’s a funny quote:
In his 1968 work The Population Bomb, Ehrlich stated:
“The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines–hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.”
People thought the world was overpopulated in 1970 and we’d run out of food in 10 years. Now we are 2x bigger. the world will never be overpopulated. In developed countries 2 people on avg have 1.5 children. As the global economy develops more and more countries will enter the first world. First world countries have fewer and fewer children as infant mortality rates go down.
Technology constantly improves the seeds and fertilizers we use to plant food. Nobody in 1970 expected the amazing inventions that has increased food output.
The only thing that stops people from eating even in the most starved countries is not a lack of food but a surplus of government corruption at every level. But this changes the more we have the freedom to trade with these countries.
The world will never be overpopulated. This is why it’s important to not read the news. Every day the news says we’re overpopulated, we’re going broke, we’re burning up, we’re killing each other.
We’re not.
Here’s a fun statistic. If you take every family of 4 in the world (all 7 billion people) and give them a 66′ x 66′ plot of land you would fill up….Texas. And the rest of the world would be vacant.