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U.S. High School Social Studies Textbooks: Perpetuating the Idea of Overpopulation

DifferenTakes Series
9 ~ Population Control
[PDF Version]
By Anne Hendrixson

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"Ingrained into the U.S. popular imagination is the idea that the world is overpopulated. Americans talk not so much about "population" as "overpopulation"; in the belief that the planet is burdened with too many people. ... The idea of overpopulation promotes the simple assumption that there are a finite amount of global resources spread among too many people.The reality, however, is far more complex." 

 

Anne Hendrixson is a freelance writer and activist. She is a core member of the Committee on Women, Population, and the Environment.