Population Policies the U.S. Needs
What You Won’t See or Hear on World Population Day
Today, July 11, is World Population Day – as declared by the United Nations in 1989. But don’t look to the U.N. for honest assessments of the size of Earth’s human population. Declaring the world is “overpopulated” – or even declaring that population growth is a problem and that population contraction is a wise goal – is in some circles considered not politically correct. I (and many others) have been calling bullshit on that for 20 years.
We’re in ecological overshoot, busy decimating Earth’s critical life-supporting ecosystems, and that’s a product of the size of our global economy and global population. According to Global Footprint Network data analysis, we in the U.S. are demanding about five times the ecosystem services that can be sustainably met by our biocapacity. So the U.S. plays a huge role in overshoot.
In order to get the nation out of ecological overshoot, we need to stop pursuing population growth and adopt a population policy that will voluntarily and ethically contract our population. This is, of course, in addition to policies to reduce our material and energy consumption. This is all part of my proposed national project to end overshoot – The Bright Future Project.
I recently invited a few of the experts I would appoint to a President’s Council on Population Policy, to make a start at sketching out the needed policies. After a century mistakenly celebrating and pursuing population growth, we need to turn things upside down, root out pronatalist policies, and implement policies that encourage and reward small-family choices.
You can also listen to this conversation by searching for Dave the Planet wherever you get your podcasts.
We’re publishing this episode of the Dave the Planet podcast in observance of World Population Day. World Population Day has been the day most news media ignore the topic of human overpopulation, just as they do the other 364 days of the year. It’s the day the United Nations tap-dances around the subject, as well. One discussion point in this conversation is the need for open, honest conversation acknowledging the overpopulation and ecological overshoot crises. I promise to do that if elected U.S. President.
Here are the expert advisors convened for this workshop to begin crafting 21st century population policy:
Phil Cafaro
Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University
Senior Researcher, The Overpopulation Project
Author:
How Many Is Too Many? The Progressive Argument for Reducing Immigration into the United States
Life on the Brink: Environmentalists Confront Overpopulation
Carter Dillard
Policy Director and Board Member, Fair Start Movement
Author: Justice as a Fair Start in Life: Understanding the Right to Have Children
Trevor Hedberg, PhD
Assistant Professor of Practice, W.A Franke Honors College, Philosophy Department, University of Arizona
Author: The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation: The Ethics of Procreation
Karin Kuhlemann
Sustainable population scholar
Author:
Overpopulation, Or the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Population Governance
The Right to Procreate and the Legitimate Scope of Anti-natalist Policies
UK-based Attorney
I first wrote about the need for much more enlightened population policy in Insist That Public Policy Respects the Rights of Children and Women: Exploiting Women and Children to Drive Growth is Wrong on Many Counts
The advisors and I didn’t finalize specific policies during this week’s conversation, but we asked all the right questions and examined the critical issues, a major step in developing population policy. Watch the population policy page at my presidential campaign website for updates.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of ecological overshoot, a good primer is this episode of the Conversation Earth syndicated radio series I produced and hosted:
Welcome to Overshoot: Have a Nice Day
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