We originally published this NPG Position Paper in 1999. We have published it again because we believe that the problems it addresses are still very much with us, and that our recommended solutions are as pertinent now as they were then.
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We believe that the optimum rate of population growth is negative.
We believe that the optimum rate of population growth for the United States (and for the world) is negative, until such time as the scale of economic activity – and its environmental effects – is reduced to a level that would be sustainable indefinitely. We are convinced that if present rates of population …
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Click here for a downloadable, printable PDF version This paper was originally published in July 1992, some 22 years ago when our population was 256 million. In that short space of time our population, now 320 million, increased by 64 million, an astonishing 25% growth in a little over two decades, or roughly 30 million per decade. The problem is …
Continue ReadingDownload a printable PDF version here New Census Bureau Projections: U.S. Population Will Add 97 Million by 2060 Even with the death rate rising more than 20 percent by 2045, America will still add over 97 million people by 2060. The latest population projections by the Census Bureau show more bad news for Americans concerned with population growth: our nation …
Continue ReadingDespite global media attention on the problem, there is still no acknowledgment of the clear solution: widespread access to contraception, and smaller family sizes.
On October 27th, two biologists at Australia’s University of Adelaide shocked the global media with their article “Human population reduction is not a quick fix for environmental problems,”…
Click here for a downloadable, printable PDF version We originally published this NPG Position Paper in 1999. We have published it again because we believe that the problems it addresses are still very much with us, and that our recommended solutions are as pertinent now as they were then. Executive Summary Since NPG was founded over a quarter century ago …
Continue ReadingClick here for a downloadable, printable PDF version We originally published this NPG Position Paper in 2002. We have published it again because we believe that the problems it addresses are still very much with us, and that our recommended solutions are as pertinent now as they were then. Executive Summary Economic growth in a finite world, which is …
Continue ReadingThirty four years have passed since, in 1980, NPG published a 62 page booklet that I had written titled, Urgently Needed Now: A National Policy to Reduce U.S. Population. In that small booklet I tried to explain why we at NPG believed that such a policy was urgently needed. …
Continue ReadingExponential growth is the steady growth of anything by a fixed percentage over a period of time. Compound interest on a savings account is a good example of exponential growth. The late Professor Albert A. Bartlett said “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” We fully agree. I often wonder if the …
Continue ReadingNo, it cannot. It is obviously not possible for our U.S. population to keep growing indefinitely. But we can, and do, pretend that it can, and, most unfortunately, our national immigration policy is based on that mistaken belief. But pretending does not make it so. …
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