Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
The population bomb (myth) explodes
The population bomb (myth) explodes
Mar 17, 2025 5:20 AM

Topping today’s Science/Nature section at BBC News, “Population size ‘green priority'”, by Richard Black. The article focuses on the thoughts of Professor Chris Rapley, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, who contends that the “current global population of six billion is unsustainably high.” This is to say nothing of the growth rate and future generations.

Based on a column Rapley wrote for a new BBC feature, The Green Room, the article presents the view that “humankind is consuming the Earth’s resources at an unsustainably fast rate,” based on “a number of studies.”

The basis for Rapley’s concern, as you might expect, is carbon emissions, but he writes, “Although reducing human emissions to the atmosphere is undoubtedly of critical importance, as are any and all measures to reduce the human environmental ‘footprint’, the truth is that the contribution of each individual cannot be reduced to zero.”

He concludes, “Only the lack of the individual can bring it down to nothing.”

Rapley laments that there is a paucity of opportunities to discuss population growth, since it is not often discussed at global environmental summits. “Rare indeed are the opportunities for religious leaders, philosophers, moralists, policymakers, politicians and indeed the “global public” to debate the trajectory of the world’s human population in the context of its stress on the Earth system, and to decide what might be done,” he writes.

Rapley does seem to overlook the UN’s World Population Day, which is little more than a campaign for population controls. And the myth of humanity as a plague species has been fodder for London’s “The Human Zoo,” as well as happening to be the view of Agent Smith in the Matrix movies.

As we saw in a mentary by Acton research fellow Jay Richards, Rapley is certainly not alone in his concern. A letter to Richards about his book on intelligent design from a prominent scientist read in part: “Still, adding over seventy million new humans to the planet each year, the future looks pretty bleak to me. Surely, the Black Death was one of the best things that ever happened to Europe: elevating the worth of human labor, reducing environmental degradation, and, rather promptly, producing the Renaissance. From where I sit, Planet Earth could use another major human pandemic, and pronto!”

Perhaps some individuals have imbibed such a view, as birth rates in the developed world are not growing. A 2004 UN report showed that “because of its low and declining rate of population growth, the population of developed countries as a whole is expected to remain virtually unchanged between 2005 and 2050.” Most of the countries in the developed world which will account for the decline in birth rates belong to the EU. The US, on the other hand, is one of the eight nations that will “account for half of the world’s projected population increase.”

But part of the reason that Rapley’s concerns aren’t getting much attention beyond pop culture phenomena and some macabre colleagues is that the population explosion myth has been rather thoroughly debunked. The case of carbon emissions is simply the latest hook for population control advocates. For more on population and the environment, check out Acton’s policy section, which links to a number of helpful resources.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Radio Free Acton: Burt & Anita Folsom on Uncle Sam’s Subsidy Problem
On this week’s edition of Radio Free Acton,Burt and Anita Folsom discuss their latest book, Uncle Sam Can’t Count.Weexamine whether the government has a good track record in subsidizing industry and innovation, and look at some of the unforeseen consequences of subsidies in society. You can listen via the audio player below, and then be sure to check out the video of Burt’s Acton Lecture Series address as well. ...
Why Cheap Food Makes Us Richer
While it may not seem like it when you’re standing at the checkout line at the grocery store, food is cheaper now that it was half a century ago. “We are purchasing more food for less money, and we are purchasing our food for less of our e,” says Annette Clauson, an agricultural economist. “This is a good thing, because we have e to purchase other things.” A recent report published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows how the...
What Does Human Dignity Look Like?
It monplace in Christian circles, whether Orthodox, Roman Catholic, or Protestant, to appeal in public discourse to the inviolable good of human dignity. Today at Ethika Politika, I seek to answer the question, “What does human dignity look like in real life?” It is fine to talk about it in the abstract, but what does it look like on the job or as a parent? I write, Real, flesh-and-blood human persons do not evoke our respect as naturally as an...
When a Church Embraces the Power of Entrepreneurship
When we hear about church “outreach ministries,” we often think of food pantries, homeless shelters, munity events. But while these can be powerful channels for service, many churches are beginning to look for new ways to empower individuals more holistically. For some, this means abandoning traditional charity altogether, focusing their ministry more directly around recognizing the gifts and strengths of others. For others, like Evangel Ministries in Detroit, it involves a mix of many things, but with a particular emphasis...
Free-Market Federalism
“States and municipalities craft laws that reflect local cultures, and this proximity to the people has market consequences,” says James Bruce in this week’s Acton Commentary. “Let’s call it free-market federalism, the encouragement of local markets by permitting states and municipalities to frame, as much as possible, the laws by which munities engage merce.” In a spirited defense of decentralization, Abraham Kuyper argues that a central government can only supplement local governments and families. Put another way, the central government...
Are Our Rights Gifts From the Government?
In his recent announcement that he was running for president, Sen. Ted Cruz’s said “our rights e from man, e from God Almighty.” That raised some eyebrows in our secular culture. For example, Meredith Shiner, a Yahoo reporter, tweeted:”Bizarre to talk about how rights are God-made and not man-made in your speech announcing a POTUS bid? When Constitution was man-made?” The idea that the “unalienable Rights” mentioned in the Declaration of Independence e from God is considered obvious to many...
Entrepreneurial Stewardship: Employees Share Millions After Company Sold
J.C. Huizenga Photo from Mlive Employees of the Huizenga Automation Group got a great surprise earlier this week. According to Mlive, after selling pany, owner J.C. Huizenga gave away $5.75 million in bonuses to his employees at two panies that were part of the Automation Group. Huizenga acknowledged that his success was due to the work of his employees so he wanted to share his profits with them: “We all worked together at J.R. Automation and Dane Systems” and panies...
Review: Hope for the Workplace, Christ in You
Bill Dalgetty’s Hope for the Workplace, Christ in You is rich with stories of people in business who are struggling to integrate their faith and work lives. Weaving biblical parables with dozens of real life stories gleaned from his experience as president of Christians in Commerce International, Dalgetty points—usually explicitly and sometimes in a more nuanced way—to universal truths of human conscience. Dalgetty, a career attorney and executive for Mobil Corporation, is sensitive to corporate America’s overly PC culture. He...
Our American Children And Poverty
Robert Putnam says our children are in a state of crisis. Those who live in poverty or near-poverty seemed to be doomed to stay there. Those born into families with money will likely go on to enjoy the lives that money affords. His book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, follows a number of individuals, tracking a list of factors, including the ability to move up or down the economic spectrum. One pivotal factor is marriage: Highly correlated is...
5 Principles for Spiritual Discernment in the Economic Order
If there’s one area of the faith-work conversation that’s lacking in exploration and introspection, it’s the role of spiritual discernment in the day-to-day decisions of economiclife. It’s one thing to orientone’s heart and mind around thebig picture of vocation and stewardship — no small feat, to be sure — but if economics is about the intersection of knowledge and human action, what does it mean to serve a God whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts?Before and beyondourquestions about ethics...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved