UK Scientists Urge Politicians to Act on Overpopulation

Scientists estimate that food and energy production will have to increase by 50 per cent and water availability by 30 per cent to meet the demand caused by the extra 1.5 billion people living on Earth in the next two decades – an increase of nearly 10,000 people per hour.

Many countries have already significantly exceeded their capacity to be self-sustainable in providing their people with food, water and land without having to import resources. According to a research charity, the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), 77 out of 130 countries that have been studied can be classified as “overpopulated” based on the fact they are consuming more natural resources than they are producing and depend on other countries for the difference.

Britain’s “ecological footprint” shows that it comes 17th in the league table of overpopulated nations, which are dominated by the high-consuming countries of the Middle East and Europe.

Roger Martin, of the OPT, said that if Britain had to rely on its biological resources, its sustainable population would be about 15 million rather than the present 60 million.

“Some people may argue that in a world of international trade, national self-sufficiency doesn’t matter,” Mr Martin said. “We think that’s a very short-sighted view. You don’t have to be a little Englander or an eco-survivalist to conclude that in an era of growing shortages – food, energy, water – being so dependent on the outside world puts us in a very vulnerable position.

“Overpopulation is a much used and abuse word, but we believe the index helps to anchor it firmly in the realm of sustainability; of people living within the limits of the place they inhabit.

“I think the index also clarifies what we really mean by sustainability and how important human numbers are to the concept.”

Our ecological footprint

*One measure of the environmental impact of human population is called the “ecological footprint”. It was developed more than 15 years ago by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, at the University of British Columbia in Canada. It is a measure of the demand placed on the biosphere by human activity, calculating the amount of biologically productive land and water area required to produce all the resources that an individual, population or activity consumes, and also to absorb the waste they generate, given prevailing technology and resource management. The “footprint” is measured in global hectares, or average world productivity, allowing one area or population to be compared with another.

Independent UK