• Question: How do we solve the population problem? What is it doing to the world?

    Asked by anon-193530 to Morwenna, Jamal, iainstaniland, Heidi, Emma, Carl on 12 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Emma Crawford

      Emma Crawford answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      I think we can solve overpopulation by dramatically reducing births around the world.

      There are two ways population can decline. One way is to take no action so that nature inhumanely does it – through more famines, resource wars, droughts, misery, suffering and early deaths. No compassionate person wants to see that.

      The other way is to reduce human population humanely. And there is only one way to do that: voluntarily and dramatically reducing births so that total numbers drift back down to a truly sustainable level.

      Population growth is driving many overwhelming problems on the planet such as over consumption, depletion of resources,loss of species and poverty.

    • Photo: Carl Heron

      Carl Heron answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      We could try, via international action, to redistribute wealth so that everyone on the planet has the means to thrive. That might sound idealistic but I would try to tackle wealth inequality first.

    • Photo: Heidi Gardner

      Heidi Gardner answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      That’s a difficult question! As Emma said in her answer we can either leave it to nature, which isn’t a very compassionate option, or we can try to take action to reduce births around the world. That sounds like a better option, but that can be really difficult too – sometimes initiatives like trying to reduce births can impact different groups of people more than others, and that can be really unfair if it means that one group of people can’t have children and another can. I think it’s important that we figure out a way to use the world’s resources more effectively for the people that are here, and for me that means eating less meat (maybe even going vegan if you can), reducing the amount of waste that you produce, and trying to live as sustainably as possible.

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