WHAT GIVES OVERPOPULATION ITS LEGS?

• Dr. Karen I. Shragg
• December 8, 2020
• Forum Papers
• Forum Paper
• 2 Comments

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WHAT GIVES OVERPOPULATION ITS LEGS?
An NPG Forum Paper
by Dr. Karen I. Shragg
October 2020

“We need to name the main reasons why overpopulation is here and knocking at our door so loudly. If we can come to terms with how we got here, only then can we begin to untangle ourselves from its deadly grip. To keep it simplified while remaining truthful, think of the overpopulation issue like a fourlegged iron stool squishing the Earth and its potential for supporting all life forms, not just us. All of the legs of the oppressive stool of overpopulation work together to create the mess, yet they do not all get the attention they need.”

Excerpt from my book,
Change Our Stories, Change our World
(Freethought House Press: November 2020)

What more can be said about the oppression of overpopulation that I and my colleagues have not pontificated on for decades? Hopefully this cartoon I commissioned from artist Rah Lee of Singapore can help us to understand what forces have allowed us to become overpopulated in the first place. What is so significant about this illustration is that it dares to point fingers at the four main reasons we came to gain so many humans so rapidly on our planet. We must acknowledge all of the reasons behind adding 5.5 billion people in the most recent 100 years and why we continue to grow by over 80 million per year. If we do not take a deep look into this mirror, we will be unable to untangle ourselves from this unsustainable mess.

Diverted conversations about developed world consumption verses consumption in the developing world doesn’t help us address the deep entanglement of adding over 200,000 people per day to an already bloated planet. Without a doubt, human numbers are anchored to consumption, this is clear. It is even clearer how richer countries consume more resources per capita while stealing resources and opportunities from poorer ones. But sheer numbers also matter, because no matter how low we go on the energy/food chain we cannot go low enough when billions share our niche as apex predators. Many discussions and “aha!” moments need to be had, because virtually all global discussions leave out the multiplying factor: the menace of overpopulation.

To explore the four legs of what I like to call The Oppressive Iron Stool of Overpopulation, one needs to realize that they all work together to create our unsustainable numbers. Overpopulation exists because there are more successful births than deaths in the context of a landscape of limited resources. We continue to suffer the results of our success. We are witnessing the systemic failures of the pressure that is put on our biosphere by the demand of billions of us, but most of us don’t view those failures as connected to each other or to us. We are experiencing simultaneous urgent problems which can all be traced back to overpopulation and all of the reasons that cause it. From the sixth mass extinction of species around the world, to our plastic-filled oceans and resource scarcity to grinding poverty, overpopulation is rarely tagged for the guilty party it is. Media tells us separate stories: it is we who must connect the dots so that we can stop spinning our wheels and start coming up with real solutions which embrace rather than deny our biosphere’s limits… Continue reading the full Forum paper by clicking here.

2 Comments to “WHAT GIVES OVERPOPULATION ITS LEGS?”

• Lee Miller

  January 5, 2021

  I like the author’s stool but it really only has three legs as far as our planet is concerned. To reduce immigration to the US we need a multi-billion effort at family planning that reaches all nations.

• Greeley Miklashek, MD

  December 8, 2020

  Another wonderful passionate contribution by my friend and colleague, Karen Shragg, but, as is true of all overpopulation moralizing, it still lacks personal immediacy. To those of us young enough to be considering or old and desperate enough to be considering having another child, consider this first: Population Density Stress is killing Us NOW! ALL of our “diseases of civilization” are the result of long established physiological mechanisms that may be considered population regulation mechanisms and that are NEVER found in traditional living Hunter-Gatherer migratory clans/bands. In our massively overpopulated sedentary “modern” lifestyles, we are sick and dying from these “diseases of civilization. 55% of American adults already have at least one serious chronic illness requiring ongoing medical treatment to sustain life, and 80% of us over 50yo. IS THIS THE LIFE YOU WILL CHOOSE TO BRING ANOTHER INNOCENT CHILD INTO: DYING WITHOUT CONSTANT MEDICAL ATTENTION? This is the question all considering bringing another child into this world must ask him/herself, or live with the consequences of watching that child die an early, miserable, if prolonged life. Does this make the issue of a new pregnancy serious enough for you? No? Then, go right ahead and join the death spiral of our massively overcrowded “modern” humanity. Do you “feel” me? Stress R Us