By: Ligonite

Ligonite
Thu, 29 Jan 2015 11:15:01 +0000

Um, no. Overpopulation is not a problem. In fact, in Western nations (where the Pope’s message was mainly heard), the birth rate has fallen to such levels that countries are actually encouraging their people to have more children. The foolish Malthusian experiments of the last century have only proven the law of unintended consequences – many of our current problems are due to population distribution, not population size. As one example, the one-child policy of the Chinese has created such an imbalance in the male-female ratio that it is causing serious societal problems.

Nobody has generated a reliable model for exactly how many people the earth can sustain. Screaming that the earth is overpopulated and citing a couple of general (and essentially meaningless) statistics is no substitute for real research. This op-ed is nothing more than a cover piece for the tired old screed of “more sex, less children” – a narcissistic view which is really all about “what I want”, and has nothing to do with what may be good for society as a whole.