UK “OVERPOPULATED” BY 70 PER CENT

http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.release18Feb08.htm


If the UK had to provide for itself from its own resources, it could support a population of only 17 million – 43 million less than its latest official population figure* - according to new research by the Optimum Population Trust.

Even if the UK dramatically improved its sustainability with a 60 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050 - the target set by the present Government - UK “overpopulation” would grow from 43 to 50 million, the research shows. This is because projected population growth of 17 million**, taking the country’s population to 77 million by 2050, would cancel out the sustainability benefits of carbon savings.

The sustainability of human populations: How many people can live on Earth? ***, published today (Monday February 18), is based on a new analysis of biological capacity and ecological footprinting data. It suggests that in 2003, the last year for which comprehensive data are available, total world population was 6.3 billion but the sustainable figure was 5.1 billion. Global overpopulation was thus 1.2 billion.

However, as standards of living rise across the Earth and human footprints grow, the number of people the planet can support will diminish. The paper suggests that although the UN forecasts a world population rising to 9.2 billion by 2050, the Earth’s long-term sustainable population is in the 2-3 billion range.

For the UK, a sustainable population is estimated at between 17 and 27 million – less than half the current total and between a third and a fifth of the 85 million who will be living in the country in the last quarter of this century, according to the most recent Government projections**.

The size of the discrepancy between the UK’s actual population and the number of people it could support sustainably is a result of its affluence combined with a high population density, the paper says. The wealth and population density of the UK mean that its ecological footprint is 3.5 times greater than its biocapacity. If the whole world consumed and generated waste like the UK, it would require 3.5 (an additional 2.5) planets to sustain the human race.

To live sustainably, the current UK population of 60 million would have to reduce its average individual footprint by more than 70 per cent. This would mean Britons living a lifestyle similar to citizens of countries such as China, Paraguay, Algeria, Botswana and the Dominican Republic.

Even a zero-carbon Britain would have a maximum sustainable population of 40 million if it refused to change its lifestyle and its non-carbon footprint therefore remained unaltered. “In reality,” the paper argues, “a ‘zero-carbon’ UK could never reach sustainability without population reduction: the lifestyle reductions demanded would be too great.”

The world was living within its ecological means until the 1980s, when it went into overshoot, the study says. Population growth is now the main cause of increasing overshoot, which will be running at almost 100 per cent by 2050: humanity will then be using up, annually, the equivalent of nearly two Earths. Currently, overshoot is 25 per cent, which means humanity requires one and a quarter Earths for its needs.

The paper argues that the strain placed on the global ecosystem by such demands means that the UN’s forecasts of a world population of over nine billion by 2050 are unlikely to be realised. Instead, resource wars and starvation “threaten the worst population crash in the history of humankind.”

It adds: “There is an urgent need for national strategies on sustainable population not only in the UK but in all countries. Politicians need to demonstrate courage and leadership on this issue: they must persuade their nations to accept the necessity of smaller families and provide the means for people to reduce their family size.”

The study’s author, Dr. Martin Desvaux, an ecological researcher, said: “There has been much discussion recently of overcrowding in the UK and whether there is an ideal number that the country could support. This study is an attempt to put a figure on that, based on the best biocapacity and ecological footprint research available. It shows how far the UK is from genuine sustainability and what a fundamental role human numbers play in the whole survival equation.”

Valerie Stevens, OPT chair, added: “Politicians from all parties have been showing more awareness of population issues over the last year or two and we hope this study will contribute to their thinking. Taken with the latest national population figures, published last October, it demonstrates the extent of the UK’s overpopulation and the threat this poses to our environment and quality of life. It also shows how desperately we need a national population policy.”

NOTES:

*The population of the UK was 60.6 million in mid-2006, according to figures published last August by the Office for National Statistics.

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

6. HOW CAN PEOPLE BE HELPED TO HAVE SMALLER FAMILIES?
Firstly, by giving everyone access to family planning and reproductive health services - in the case of young people, in a moral framework of sex education. In developed countries research has led to an increasingly wide choice of contraceptive methods. But worldwide, 350 million of all couples do not have access to this full range. Some still want large families, yet large-scale surveys have shown at least half wish to prevent another pregnancy. Every minute in the world 380 women become pregnant, and of those 190 did not plan to do so, according to the UNFPA [2002]. Since every minute a woman dies through unsafe induced abortion or childbirth (600,000 a year), the same figures suggest that half are being killed by pregnancies they would have avoided if they only had the contraceptive choices women in developed countries take for granted. The devastation caused by HIV/AIDS is another central argument for prevention through good, comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care: which, regardless of the issues of numbers and sustainability, should be fully funded, as a human right and a key intervention for improving the health of women, their partners and their children. Condoms and pills are as much an emblem of sustainability as bicycles and windmills. See Population, fertility and birth planning


http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.earth.html

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

The entire planet has too many people and frankly the sooner the governments and environmentalists get some guts and encourage/force people to stop breeding the better for other species and for people too.

As for the UK, our stupid government can stop handing out incentives and money to people to breed and stop so many benefits for breeders. They can also stop encouraging so many immigrants, too.
There are two words to describe the UK - FULL UP!

Thanks for posting, Merc. This succinctly sums up of the problem of overpopulation nicely. I'm forwarding this on to everyone I know.
I love that OPT states that bc methods are an emblem of sustainability.
You goddamn right!