Re: population: real problem, or capitalist plot?

On Tue, 30 May 2000, Andrew Wayne Austin wrote:

> Richard,
> 
> Prove that the planet is "overpopulated." But first, define
> "overpopulation."
> 
> Andrew Austin
> Knoxville, TN


All that is required to prove that the planet is overpopulated by humans
is the most cursory examination of any of the voluminous publications of
the Worldwatch Institute.  

This is true, again, even if your only concern is the welfare of humans.
Just to mention one of a practically endless list of indicators, fresh
water is running out, and this will increasingly cause wars.  The state of
the art of understanding why agriculture/class society/"civilization" came
about in  the first place was environmental "circumscription" (Carneiro).
Fertile  areas gave rise to overpopulation, stressing resources,
necessitating a revolution in subsistence technology.  (See also Esther
Boserup on population pressure as the driving force behind changes in
social structure, summarized in Sanderson "Macrosociology.")  This led to
a "spiral," and continues right now.  But this time, if we resort again to
a techno-fix making possible ever greater numbers, we will regret it.
Unless you prefer to live among concrete and cockroaches.
 
If your concern goes beyond humans to other forms of life and the
ecosystem in general, then the crisis is far more severe and urgent.

As Herman Daly, the advocate of steady-state economics, puts it, we no
longer live in an "empty earth," as it was, more or less, when modern
economics (and Marxism) was devised.  We now live on a "full earth" --
full of humans, in a race to exhaust the planet's "natural resources."

Of course there are those on the humanist left who deny any problem
with the human population level (again, ignorance of basic biology)
and seem to agree with the right-wing humanists who promote the slogan:

WE'LL MINE THE "EARTH FIRST!", AND THE OTHER PLANETS LATER.     


RH