overpopulation

By Ande Jacobson

We’re seeing some disturbing reports of late that are born of a faulty thesis. We’re seeing manufactured panic over birth rates declining, but there are already over 8 billion people on the planet which is unsustainable over the long haul. As I wrote in January 2023, too many people combined with humankind’s bizarre focus on infinite growth on a finite planet rather than working toward a sustainable steady state is truly a crisis. So what do we do? We create the opposite crisis over the ideal mix of people on the planet based on greed, misogyny, xenophobia, and tribalism. Instead, we should be embracing a long term decrease in the human population to reach a level that is more in tune with our global environment and conducive to long term success under more equitable and comfortable living conditions for all. Continue reading →

By Ande Jacobson

To welcome the New Year, 60 Minutes presented a sobering look at the negative impact humankind has had on our planet. Humankind has been too successful as a species. The objective measure of that “success” is that we have grown beyond the bounds of what the earth can support. There are too many people, and according to Dr. Paul Ehrlich, the problem was well in sight many decades ago. In his 1968 book The Population Bomb he put the crisis on food, forecasting that humanity would be unable to feed itself. Instead of working to control our population, we found ways to substantially increase the food supply. Now, while we may be able to produce enough food to feed our ever increasing world population, we cannot create space that doesn’t exist or provide enough fresh water. Through our exponential population growth we’ve encroached on natural habitats worldwide and exacerbated climate change. This combination has created the sixth mass extinction crisis where species the world over are disappearing destroying the ecological balance needed to sustain life, all wrought by too many humans roaming the planet. Continue reading →