According to Dr. Charles Hall, a systems ecologist, “Overpopulation isn’t one of the problems… it’s the only problem.”

Overpopulation is the environmental problem that makes all of the other problems worse. Global warming, deforestation, waste & litter… none of these would be problems if there were only a hundred of us living on Earth. But there are more than a hundred; there are 7,250,000,000 of us, as of this morning.

It’s not a matter of if, but when. When will Earth be full? Can it support 9 billion humans or 10 billion? When will we begin to run out of resources? Garrett Hardin touched upon this in his famous essay, The Tragedy of the Commons, saying “Human population will eventually need to stop growing. And when this occurs, what will the situation be for mankind?”

Do we want to live on a planet that’s full, with barely enough food, water, and space to support us? Or instead, should we be forward-thinking and solve the problem now? The choice is ours.

June 15 – Overpopulation Notes (pg714)
June 15 – Unit 7 Study Guide (pg715)