Overpopulation: The Making of a Myth
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVOU5bfHrM]
Once people realize it’s not that healthy or safe, it deconstructs relationships and marriages and potentially ends pregnancies, they throw one last argument in the mix: overpopulation. Throw this on your crumbling polemical pyre, folks: threatening overpopulation is a myth. While there has been exponential population growth, especially in the last century, it is not having the disastrous effect as was predicted by chicken little butterfly specialist (yes, really) Paul Erlich in the 70′s. Mind you, none of his hyperbolic and sensationalist predictions of “The Population Bomb” have come true.
I know that people feel really strongly about this, and are really attached to the idea of overpopulation. This is fueled by heart-wrenching pictures of emaciated children in parts of the world where civil wars and genocidal dictators have taken away their access to food–not the sheer numbers of the population. For those whom this video ticks off or perhaps surprises you, I would encourage you to not only check out the Population Research Institute, but to see the documentary Demographic Winter (review forthcoming).
After you do that, you can check additional secular pieces in well known publications to confirm the crisis of rapidly declining fertility rates.
6 Responses to Overpopulation: The Making of a Myth
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Oh, I’ve been meaning to write on this, using the exact same video! I might just link to you instead!
Oh, that’s the most awesome video. I love animation like that. Will have to pass it around.
Links are always great! That’s how our search engine rankings increase! I think PRI redid their web site in the last couple months, so there’s a lot to comment on, isn’t there?
I liked it, too, Kat. Simple, clean, effective, modern. I felt like it could have been slightly more modern, and could have explained the danger of aging populations more. That’s the scariest part of this whole thing: economic collapse triggered by aging populations and not enough young people.
Oh, but if people continue to live longer, we’ll all get to have to work ’till we’re 90 to afford retirement and keep the companies running! *looking forward to 70 years of employment*
Or at the rate things are going, 70 years of unemployment. (wince.)