New NPG Forum Paper Seeks to Understand the Prevailing Silence on Overpopulation

• NPG
• May 12, 2020
• Press Releases
• 1 Comment

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New NPG Forum Paper Seeks to Understand the Prevailing Silence on Overpopulation

Uncovering Why NGOs and Media Empires Refuse to Tackle Overpopulation Head-on

Negative Population Growth has released a new Forum paper by Michael G. Hanauer exploring mainstream silence on overpopulation. Titled “The True Environmental Disaster – The Silence on Our Growing Overpopulation: Where We Are, How We Got Here, Can We Recover and Save our Nation and Our Planet?” this paper concentrates on population growth and sustainability. Within the introduction, Hanauer deftly interweaves the current COVID-19 crisis with the environmental dangers of unchecked population growth, saying: “As of this writing, the coronavirus pandemic is ravaging wide swaths of the world. Over 100,000 lives have been lost so far, but even the worst-case scenario will not remove the environmental threat posed by growing overpopulation.”

Continuing his position, Hanauer writes: “There are many ways to slow, stop and reverse overpopulation – and most are benign and inexpensive compared to treating all the symptoms. But, the first step in solving any problem is acknowledging the problem and have discussions about it – not be silent. If people would only realize that it is people driving all those cars, eating all that fish, requiring all that housing, producing all that sprawl, releasing all that carbon and producing all that trash, it would in itself yield great benefits.”

Hanauer isolates two major forces behind population growth – special interests that control the government and media and our national culture of eternal growth. Choosing to focus on continued growth, Hanauer offers speculation as to why overpopulation continues to be overlooked, noting the many excuses, both personal and organizational, that have been shared. “Most excuses,” he states, “do not deny the massive impact of the population connection. Rather they are excuses to avoid talking “about this critical overarching issue.”

After a brief timeline of the overpopulation issue as it intersects with other national issues, Hanauer surmises, “By 2010, even talk of just global population issues became verboten by many organizations, and many abandoned most environmental problems in favor of social justice issues (which also often stem from the impacts of overpopulation!). Seeing a need for authentic sustainability or dealing with or even talking of population issues was literally censored…Powerful leadership and misguided group think succeeded in setting the stage for denial of the overpopulation problem, or excuses to bury the issue, as part of any discussion or program.”

Hanauer then delivers concise summaries of major organizations and highlights their current disengagement with overpopulation as an issue. Following up with mainstream media outlets nonexistent stance on overpopulation and also noting the government’s lack of efforts, Hanauer  believes the best way to move forward is to recognize that overpopulation is a major inhibitor of social justice, saying: “Without honest recognition of the need to discuss and address authentic sustainability and overpopulation, I believe failure (to the mission, humanity, and the Earth) is inevitable.”

In closing, Hanauer brings the overpopulation issue into focus, stating: “Population growth is crucial in its impact on virtually every problem we face, and in its major impact in ever reaching authentic sustainability. Stopping, and then reversing, population growth is a necessary part of the sustainability equation. Environmental organizations and individuals need to incorporate the population connection into their programs or all will ultimately fail.”

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One Reply to “New NPG Forum Paper Seeks to Understand the Prevailing Silence on Overpopulation”

• Daniel Cring

  May 12, 2020

  The social consequences of population pressures have not been understood and appreciated- the very symptoms of social competition prevent people from even discussing this silent pandemic. Everybody wants to be rich, but the rich don’t want the the poor to be rich. Minorities and majorities don’t want to be minorities, and religions are competing by increasing birth rates. Social distancing has been around for millennia- political and economic polarization.

  Daniel Cring
  Anthropologist