7.5 billion People — That’s a lot!

It defies common sense to imagine that the planet can support an infinite number of people, growing ceaselessly forever. It has to stop somewhere if the earth as we know it can continue to exist.

As the inimitable Yogi Berra once said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” And indeed it is. Some guesswork is always involved and surprises crop up that change the course of events.

Yet, it is probably clear to most of us that the world is likely to become an increasingly and unpleasantly crowded place as we move along through the 21st century. About 7.5 billion people share the earth with us right now, in 2017. That’s around twice the number that was here in 1970, 47 years ago. Roughly every 13 years since 1960, about a billion more people have come onboard, and this pattern continues. And we didn’t even arrive at our first billion until 1804, after existing for 75,000 years or so. The more folks we have, the more we’re going to get. It can’t go on and on like that forever.

We are victims of our own success in terms of population. Better nutrition, a more stable food supply, cleaner water, good sanitary practices, and our astounding progress in controlling disease and infection over the past 150 years have all played a role in providing a longer healthier life to many millions. Although, of course, there are those who still live in dire poverty in our country, along with millions in Third World countries. As we forge our way into the future, surely we want everyone to have these basics, and like to think of our great-grandchildren as leading happy and meaningful lives in an environment not radically different from what we have now. Even if we are clever enough to figure out how to produce enough food and maintain clean water and air, as well as decent health care for all those people, it is hard to imagine how life could seem peaceful and rewarding in the remarkable crowding that will occur.

About 45 years ago, a group called ZPG (Zero Population Growth) was at the forefront of the many groups then trying to get messages out, hoping to change the world for the better. At the time, their main recommendation was that couples have no more than two children — one to replace each partner. Such a group still exists, under the name Population Connection, but their message no longer seems front and center. This may be partly because growth rate in the US itself has slowed down. And rates of growth do tend to do this when people are better off economically and better educated. But so far, little is happening that would turn the tide, especially since population grows apace in other parts of the world. Several years ago China, with over a billion people, tried to cut back on growth by limiting family size to just one child. Such a policy would not be possible in the USA, even if it were desirable. In any case, concern about overpopulation is not just about us, but about the entire planet we all share.

The most sensible thing we can all do is to back programs that help with family planning, here in the U.S. and abroad — as a nation, we can’t afford to stop financing these. The United States needs to be an active supporter of birth control all around the world. In areas of the earth where people can’t afford to pay for such services, they need to be readily available and free of charge. Many people in our country are against this and tie it to religious issues, but it’s vital to give serious thought to what will happen if population continues to double every 50 years or so. Even though the exact consequences of billions more on earth can’t be certain, it is certain that there will be billions more if we don’t make a concerted effort to find ways to curb growth.

While scientists work on how to deflect an asteroid if it were to head straight for the earth, we all need to work on how to deflect runaway population growth before it becomes a disaster. It defies common sense to imagine that the planet can support an infinite number of people, growing ceaselessly forever. It has to stop somewhere if the earth as we know it can continue to exist.