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[Original citation: Seely, Ron. "Expert points at portents of overpopulation in U.S." Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 19, 2001. Reprinted by permission of author and publisher.]
Expert Points at Portents of Overpopulation in U.S.
by Ron Seely
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI) Published on April 19, 2001 © 2001- Madison Newspapers, Inc.
When most of us think about population issues, we think not of our own country but of those distant places where children with blank faces and swollen stomachs beg for food.
Certainly, those countries are where the effects of exponential population growth are the most cruel and the most visible. In Africa, one in five children die of malnutrition before they reach the age of one. And in India, 2.5 million people live their entire lives in the streets. But here in America, there are signs that our growing numbers - and our stubborn reluctance to acknowledge population as the most crucial of issues - have caused changes in the way we live and on the landscape that are disturbing portents of the even more crowded world that is sure to come.
David Paxson is president of World Population Balance, an educational non-profit organization, who brings an almost religious zeal to rekindling interest in overpopulation as a pressing issue. Wearing a "Where's Waldo?" tie that was crowded with people and toting a bag full of props to illustrate population growth, Paxson came to town this week to deliver a program for the Madison Audubon Society and to conduct workshops in area schools.
With Earth Day at hand, Paxson's visit was timely. And his message comes at an important time in the evolution of overpopulation as an issue of national and world concern. Strangely, Paxson pointed out, concern about excessive population growth has been on the wane because of a mistaken belief that a slowdown in some countries in the rate of growth means no more worries.
That, Paxson said, is preposterous, a dangerous myth perpetuated by those who don't understand the math of how populations increase. It's true, he added, that the rate of growth in some countries, even some developing countries, has slowed.
"But what people need to understand," Paxson said, "is that there are about 800 million people in those countries where the rate of growth has stabilized. That leaves 4 to 5 billion people or better who live in countries that are rapidly growing in population."
This translates into some ugly numbers. In many of these countries, populations will double in less than 30 years. In Africa, the population is expected to double in 25 years. So, in African nations such as Mali, formerly French Sudan, the problems related to population growth will only worsen. Already, nearly 30 percent of the children born in Mali never reach their fifth birthday. Half the people live in poverty. The life expectancy for men is 44 and for women, it's 48. With all of these grim statistics, the average number of children per mother - 7.3 - shouldn't sound so shocking, but it is.
Part of Paxson's message, however, is that we don't need to travel to Africa to see how overburdening the Earth with human beings can lead to a lesser life. Getting stuck in traffic used to never happen in Madison. It does now. The availability of groundwater in this part of the country used to be taken for granted. It no longer is. In Brown County, where the aquifer has dropped, the result has not only been less water but also arsenic in the drinking water supply. Water problems are one of the most obvious effects of having too many people, Paxson said. In the water-hungry Plains of the United States, the aquifers are recharged at the rate of about one-half inch a year. Yet we're removing up to 5 feet of water per year.
Everywhere in the country, Paxson said, the surge of people across the landscape is forcing us to cut down our forests, build homes and stores on valuable farmland, drive more cars that hasten global warming, and crowd out other species. "What we're doing," Paxson said, "is unsustainable."
None of this will come as news to many in Wisconsin, where environmental leaders such as former Gov. Gaylord Nelson and UW-Madison's Hugh Iltis have been eloquently sounding the alarm about overpopulation for years. And listed prominently as a member of the board for World Population Balance is George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo.
But with another Earth Day approaching Sunday, it is still a good idea to think anew about where population should reside on our list of environmental issues. "It's not simply the number one environmental issue," Paxson said. "It's way beyond that."