Global Resource Depletion: Is Population the Problem?

By Fred Magdoff
Monthly Review

January, 2013

Environmentalists and scientists often refer to the two different ends of the environmental problem as sources and sinks. Thus the environmental limits to economic growth manifest themselves as either: (1) shortages in the “sources” or “taps” of raw materials/natural resources, and thus a problem of depletion, or (2) as a lack of sufficient “sinks,” to absorb wastes from industrial pollution, which “overflow” and cause harm to the environment.1 The original 1972 Limits to Growth study emphasized the problem of sources in the form of shortages of raw materials, such as fossil fuels, basic minerals, topsoil, freshwater, and forests.

Today the focus of environmental concern has shifted more to sinks, as represented by climate change, ocean acidification, and production of toxics. Nevertheless, the problem of the depletion of resources used in production remains critical, as can be seen in discussions of such issues as: declining freshwater resources, peak (crude) oil, loss of soil fertility, and shortages of crucial minerals like zinc, copper, and phosphorus.

Read more HERE.

Fred Magdoff is professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont. He is coauthor with John Bellamy Foster of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism (Monthly Review Press, 2011)

A reply to Alan Thornett's review of "Too Many People?"

By Ian Angus and Simon Butler
Climate and Capitalism
January 9, 2012

[On January 2 Ecosocialism Canada re-posted an article by Alan Thornett reviewing Too Many People? Ian and Simon's response is below]

We were pleased to learn that Alan Thornett, whose record as working class and socialist leader we respect, had reviewed our book, Too Many People? Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis. We didn’t expect him to agree with all of it, but we were looking forward to an open and comradely discussion.

Unfortunately, his review misrepresents our views and issues a sweeping condemnation that ignores most of what we wrote. No one who read only his article would have any idea what the book is about.

As a result, our reply has to focus on setting the record straight, rather than, as we would prefer, on deepening and extending the debate on population and the environment.

Too many people? A critical review

By Alan Thornett
Socialist Resistance
January 2, 2012

As a long-time comrade of Ian Angus, a fellow ecosocialist, and an admirer of his work on Marxism and ecology, I am disappointed by the tone he has adopted in his new book on population Too Many People?—which he has authored jointly with Simon Butler, co-editor of the Australian publication Green Left Weekly.

The thesis they advance is that the population of the planet is irrelevant to its ecology, and that even discussing it is a dangerous or even reactionary diversion—a taboo subject. They even argue that such discussion is divisive and detrimental environmental campaigning. [page 97]

Too Many People? reviewed

By Julie Filer
Socialist Review
December 2011

Too Many People? is a compelling rebuttal of the idea that underlies calls for population control - that population growth must be halted through limiting the reproductive rights of poor black women and stopping migration to more economically developed countries.

Both authors share a passion for social change and are deeply frustrated at argument that "population control" is a means of stopping climate change.

Rather than denouncing those in the Global South and portraying them as passive victims without agency, the book calls for solidarity with the many struggles against climate change, particularly in Latin America. 

Seven billion? That's not a problem

The mistake that the pessimists make is in seeing each of us solely as consumers

By Mark Steel 
The Independent
02 November 2011

Many people seem to feel it's a disaster now there are seven billion people on the planet, but there are several arguments that can be used against this view. The most important one may be, "What a miserable, grumpy, cynical, snobbish, wretched way to look at the world. I bet you're fun when a friend has a baby. Do you send them a card saying 'With deepest regrets' and if someone's killed in a car crash send their family a balloon with a picture of a champagne bottle on the side and 'Congratulations! It's a corpse!' in bright purple letters?"

These people must wish the news would end with Fiona Bruce saying, "And finally, on a lighter note, an earthquake in Indonesia killed 50,000 people today, so at last that's knocked a bit of a hole in the world population. Good night." Presumably when they were at school they'd shout at the start of every history lesson "Can we do the plague again please sir? Oh PLEASE".

Who profits from the 7 billion population frenzy?

By Vanessa Baird
New Internationalist Blog
November 1, 2011

So, now we are 7 billion. Or maybe not.

Maybe we will be 7 billion next March – or maybe we already were last July.

Because if you read the small print from the United Nations, the week’s landmark date – October 31 – is ‘symbolic’.

But the frenzy in the build-up to the big day has had effects that should alarm anyone concerned with equality, human rights and the real causes of climate change. Even serious media outlets resorted to the 1960s language of ‘overpopulation,’  ‘explosion,’ ‘overcrowding’. Spectres of hunger, poverty and global turmoil were paraded as the products of population growth.

Satirical Tabloid Mocks Anti-Immigrant Arguments about Population and the Environment

Centre for New Comuinity
Also read Race, Migration and the Environment (pdf)

The Center for New Community, a national civil rights organization, released a satirical tabloid today titled, The Borderline.  
 
The publication mocks attempts by anti-immigrant groups to lure environmentalists into scapegoating immigrants, challenging the manufactured facts that the anti-immigrant movement uses to promote US population stabilization and control. 

 


   














Click HERE to download a PDF of the tabloid.