POPULATION: THE GREAT TABOO

Why Talk About Population

Human population is growing now like never before. We are now adding one billion people to the planet every 12 years. That's almost 4 times the population of the United States.

So many problems, from the starving populations of third world countries, to the depletion of our resources, to Americans stuck in increasing lines of traffic, have their roots in this growing population.

But right now, no matter where you are in America, you can't discuss human population growth without running afoul of some major taboos.

Does a growing population really help any of us?

It's hard to think of a current problem which will be solved more easily by adding another 3 billion people to our population. For just one example, one billion people, one out of every six people alive, go to bed hungry. It would be easier for food production technology to catch up if our population stopped growing or even started backing down, perhaps to the 3 billion level of 1960.

How about our resources?

So many basic resources are strained by our current population: water, air quality, oil, the ozone layer. We are straining our forests' ability to process greenhouse gases and protect us from global warming. We are straining our ocean's ability to breed fish for us, space to grow crops and forests for lumber. Even the earth itself has limits: most people don't realize that in many regions good growing soil is limited to the top 6 inches of topsoil and that heavy crop growing is depleting this.

How about other species?

We are in the midst of one of the greatest extinctions of other species in the history of the planet. The last one of this magnitude was over 60 million years ago, when the dinosaurs became extinct. Yep, we're the cause of this one, as we either kill them off outright, or cover over their living space with houses, roads and development. Did God give us dominion over this beautiful garden that we might destroy it, or that we might take care of the glory of creation? It's our choice.

Bringing it back home -- Overcrowding

If you live in a growing metropolitan area, you notice the cost of housing rising significantly - also the length of your commute, and the distance you must travel to enjoy natural open spaces.

All these problems have at their source the huge and ever-growing human population. Yet almost no one talks about this, or discusses the most basic question that we as a species could ask: What is the right number of people to be living on our fair planet?

Instead, some people say there's nothing we can do about it, or that we must all reduce our consumption, or that we must crowd into ever-bigger cities. But wouldn't most of us prefer to stop population growth, and enjoy a freer and less restricted life?

So rather than ask how we might accommodate additional billions of people, we could be asking:

Will the addition of another 3 billion people competing for land and resources do anything to improve the lives of people living now?

Will the lives of those 3 billion additional people be anything as enjoyable, prosperous, and free as those of their parents?

How can we effectively and non-invasively control population growth?

However, there is a "perfect storm" of reasons why nobody wants to discuss these questions. Questions of racism, sexuality, religion, greed and fear get in the way. But the problems caused by population are growing more severe, and things are only going to get worse until we address the root cause. Read on to see how population has become a taboo topic, and share with us your ideas on what we can do to help stabilize human population on this planet.