Dangers of Overpopulation

The human population explosion and its steady erosion of the Earth’s ability to sustain life have been unfolding before our eyes for decades. At the same time, virtually everyone now could have access to safe means to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Meanwhile the death rate for adults is expected to remain at about 1% a year, but eventually the number of adult deaths (now about 40 million a year) would catch up with the lowered number of births as the “baby boom” generation ages.

The big question is how many young children will be forced to die a slow death from malnutrition, viruses or parasite infection before that balance is reached. It is a cruel irony, but their mostly preventable deaths (now estimated at 10 million to 14 million a year) are at once a major reason for having a large family in the Third World and at the same time one of the brakes currently slowing the reproductive cycle (the others are contraception and abortions), and delaying the day our species runs permanently short of food and water.

Within 20 years, the “right to life” may be limited to the healthy and the wealthy, unless we are wise enough to make two-child families the worldwide norm.

BARRY E. SHANLEY

Montrose