Fears of overpopulation are pervasive in American society. From an early age we are taught that the world is overpopulated and that population pressure is responsible for poverty, hunger, environmental degradation and even political insecurity. If we don’t get population growth under control now, the argument goes, our future is in danger.
References
- The population ‘explosion’ is over.
For a review of population dynamics, see Mary Lugton with Phoebe McKinney, Population in Perspective: A Curriculum Resource, Amherst, MA: Population and Development Program, Hampshire College, 2004, http://www.populationinperspective.org, and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, “World Population Prospects, the 2004 Revision,” February 24, 2005.
- The focus on population masks the complex causes of poverty and inequality.
Population in Perspective, Section Four, “Population and Poverty,” and Betsy Hartmann, Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control, Boston: South End Press, 1995. - Hunger is not the result of ‘too many mouths’ to feed.
Population in Perspective, Section Two, “Population, Food and Hunger.” and Frances Moore Lapp�, Joseph Collins and Peter Rossett, World Hunger: Twelve Myths, New York: Grove Press, 1998. - Population growth is not the driving force behind environmental degradation.
Population in Perspective, Section Three, “Population and the Environment.” On military and environment, see Joni Seager, “Patriarchal Vandalism: Militaries and the Environment,” in Jael Silliman and Ynestra King, eds., Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on Population, Environment and Development, Boston: South End Press, 1999, 163-188. On the positive role many poor people play in protecting the environment, see James K. Boyce and Barry G. Shelley, eds., Natural Assets: Democratizing Environmental Ownership, Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2003. On gender and biodiversity, see Patricia L. Howard, ed., Women and Plants: Gender Relations in Biodiversity Management and Conservation, London: Zed Books, 2003. - Population pressure is not a root cause of political insecurity and conflict.
Betsy Hartmann and Anne Hendrixson, “Pernicious Peasants and Angry Young Men: The Strategic Demography of Threats,” in Betsy Hartmann, Banu Subramaniam and Charles Zerner, eds., Making Threats: Biofears and Environmental Anxieties, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005, 217-237. For more on the youth bulge, see Anne Hendrixson, “Angry Young Men, Veiled Young Women: Constructing a New Population Threat,” Corner House, Briefing No. 34, December 2004, http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk. - Population control targets women’s fertility and restricts reproductive rights.
See Reproductive Rights and Wrongs; Amy Oliver and Diana Dukhanova, “Depo-Provera: Old Concerns, New Risks,” DifferenTakes, No. 32, Population and Development Program, Hampshire College, Spring 2005, http://popdev.hampshire.edu/projects/dt; Rajani Bhatia, “Ten Years after Cairo: The Resurgence of Coercive Population Control in India,” DifferenTakes, No. 31, Spring 2005, http://popdev.hampshire.edu/projects/dt; and Kay Johnson, Wanting a Daughter: Needing a Son, Minneapolis: Yeong and Yeong, 2004. - Population control programs have a negative effect on basic health care.
Sarah Sexton, Sumati Nair and Preeti Kirbat, “A Decade after Cairo: Women’s Health in a Free Market Economy,” Corner House, Briefing No. 30, June 2004, http://thecornerhouse.org.uk; John Cleland and Steven Sinding, “What would Malthus say about AIDS in Africa?” The Lancet, Vol. 366, Issue 9500, Pages 1899-1901 (November 26, 2005); UNAIDS: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, http://www.unaids.org/en/Regions_Countries/Regions/SubSaharanAfrica.asp. - Population alarmism encourages apocalyptic thinking that legitimizes human rights abuses.
John Dryzek, “Looming Tragedy: Survivalism,” in The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, 23-44; Susan Greenhalgh, “Science, Modernity and the Making of China’s One-Child Policy,” Population and Development Review, Vol. 29, No. 2 (June 2003), 163-196; Larry Lohmann, “Malthusianism and the Terror of Scarcity,” in Hartmann et al, eds., Making Threats, 81-98. - Threatening images of overpopulation reinforce racial and ethnic stereotypes and scapegoat immigrants and other vulnerable communities.
Elynor Lord, “The Huntington Challenge: Why “The Hispanic Challenge” Should be Discredited,” DifferenTakes, Fall 2004, http://popdev.hampshire.edu/projects/dt; Adam Werbach, “Hostile Takeover: Anti-Immigration Coalition Seeks Control of Sierra Club,” In These Times, March 9, 2004; Binta Jeffers, “Population Control Imagery: Stopping the Blame,” computer graphic presentation, Committee on Women, Population and the Environment, forthcoming 2006; Jael Silliman and Anannya Bhattacharjee, eds., Policing the National Body: Race, Gender and Criminalization, Cambridge. MA: South End Press, 2002; Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty, New York: Pantheon Books, 1997; Elizabeth L. Krause, “Dangerous Demographies: The Scientific Manufactureof Fear,” Corner House, Briefing No. 36, July 2006, www.thecornerhouse.org.uk. - Conventional views of overpopulation stand in the way of greater global understanding and solidarity.
See Jael Silliman, Marlene Gerber Fried, Loretta Ross and Elena R. Guti�rrez, Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, Boston: South End Press, 2004; Adam Werbach, “End of the Population Movement, The American Prospect, October 5, 2005; and “Call for a New Approach” in Silliman and King, eds., Dangerous Intersections, xx-xxi.
