Today, July 11, is World Population Day: Fight Poverty, Educate Girls.  My guess is that few if any reading this article were aware that this was World Population Day.  Yet population, or rather the population explosion the world has seen in the past fifty years, is at the heart of most, if not all, the major problems humanity faces—environmental, political, and social.  If we don’t address the population problem, what we do in other areas, and right now that is pathetically small in the environmental arena, as only one example among many,  whatever we do will be of little consequence.  Curbing population growth must be central to every policy agenda around the world if the Earth and its inhabitants are to survive.

Population growth in the last half century has been staggering.  Between 1950 and 1990, the population doubled from 2.5 to 5 billion.  Another billion plus were added before the end of the century.  Estimates now suggest that before the end of the 21^st century, the Earth will have between eight and twelve billion people vying for food, water, and energy.

The last sentence should be viewed in the light of some present facts—that over a billion people now go hungry, that approximately 100,000 people die each day of hunger and hunger related diseases, that 2 billion people try to exist on $2 a day or less, and that the world’s ecosystem seems to be collapsing.  And more and more people grasping for decreasing resources can only lead to conflict.  One of the most vital resources already in short supply is fresh water, and projections suggest this resource will become even scarcer in many parts of the world in the near future.  The U.S. southwest, for one, is looking at significant shortages.

Over population is felt across the globe, but those areas with the fastest growing populations are also among the poorest.  Sub-Saharan Africa is growing the fastest, which only intensifies problems like disease, famine, and wars over resources—one example being Darfur.  Alex Ezeh, executive director of the Africa Population and health Research Centre, says, “We are looking at tens of millions more mouths to feed, children to school, and people to house in the countries that are least able to accommodate that.”

Unfortunately, family planning programs have stagnated over the past fifteen years, and eight years of the Bush policy only helped exacerbate the problem.  Mr. Ezeh says that, “If we introduce effective family planning programs now, we are able to actually forestall the continuing high rates of population growth 15, 20, 30 years from now.”

Family planning also empowers women.  Around the world each year, over half a million women die during pregnancy and childbirth, and for every death, twenty women suffer lifelong injuries and disabilities.  As Fatima Mrisho of the Tanzania Commission for Aids says about family planning, “It gives women more opportunities for development, it makes herself as an individual survive better, it makes her children survive better, but as importantly, it also improves the general condition of a country.

Of course, there has been a great taboo about speaking candidly about population growth, and the Catholic Church has worked actively against curbing population.  Yet the Earth is a finite resource that cannot support an infinite number of people.  And it is highly unlikely that some “deus ex machina” is going to appear to relieve us of making difficult decisions.  Such “magical” thinking almost guarantees a massive catastrophe where billions die, most likely within the lifetime of today’s children, and certainly in the lifetime of their children.  I wonder if that is what our legacy will be?  What will they say about the politicians who dithered and did nothing?

Jack Hart suggests five ways to help the planet, which seem appropriate on this World Population Day.

1. Eliminate the taboo that keeps us from talking about the root cause of our environmental—and many other—problems.  Concern about overpopulation is not racist, communist, sexist or biased against the Third World.  We all have a stake in this.

2. Quit mistaking per-capita pollution numbers as a sign of progress.  Let’s track the totals, of carbon dioxide and every other human pollutant.

3. Reward politicians who support population control with your votes.  Eliminate tax breaks for more than two children.  Focus foreign aid on population-control programs.  Campaign for a new worldwide ethic in favor of small families.

4. Keep your own family small.  World population will eventually level off only if we hold average births per woman to 2.06.  We’ll reduce the world population to a sustainable size only if women average no more than 1.7 children.

5. Stop treating growth as not only inevitable, but also positive.  Despite recent reports, a slowdown in metro-area housing starts is not bad news.