New NPG Forum Paper Offers a Sobering View of Our Shared Future

Environmental effects of population growth will be devastating for the planet

Alexandria, VA – Looking Ahead, the latest addition to the extensive NPG Forum series, has been released by Negative Population Growth, Inc. Authored by Peter Seidel, an environmental author and engineer, the paper delivers a profound message regarding the future of our planet if we do not soon make dramatic changes to the way we live. Seidel states: “We need to stop fighting each other, open our eyes, and see where the real danger to our future lies. It is a polluted world no longer able to provide adequate food and water in a healthy environment. We must stop destroying the life on this planet that supports us. If we don’t protect it, this may well be our demise and nothing else will matter for us.”

In further explaining the root of the problem, Seidel writes: “We have an economic system modeled to work in a world where population and access to resources are unlimited. How will the system work as demands increase, access to resources shrinks, and when there are already millions of malnourished people on our planet?”

Seidel provides many examples of the environmental damage we are inflicting on the planet, including:

“Agriculture, humans, and industry need water. Aquifers and surface water are growing scarce or being depleted, and much of what is accessible is unpalatable, and sometimes even toxic.”

“Our oceans are warming and rising and will continue to do so as long as there is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the globe continues to warm.”

“Our growing demand for fossil fuels has required us to use more energy-consuming and damaging methods for extraction, such as deep water drilling, fracking, and the mining of tar sands. These sources are not endless.”

“Our demand for wood, paper, beef, grains, and palm oil is increasingly consuming much-needed, oxygen-producing forests.”

NPG President Donald Mann praised author Peter Seidel by stating: “Peter’s perception of the environmental effects of population size and growth is unbelievably accurate. No environmental problem – in fact, to my knowledge, no problem at all – will ever be made better by adding more people to it! In order to truly protect our fragile planet from further destruction we must begin to slow, halt, and eventually reverse population growth. Unless humanity recognizes this simple fact, we are doomed to fail.” Mann continued to say: “I am honored to call Peter my friend and I will be forever grateful to him for writing this paper for NPG.”

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