Quotes on Overpopulation/Relate to Overpopulation
“change in perspective will naturally lead us to begin to control our populations, save our forests, re-create community, and reduce our wasteful consumption” (Hartmann, 3).
“indigenous tribes of… did not overpopulate or destroy their world, even though.. more resources than they [actually] used” (Hartmann, 3).
“when enough people change the way they view things, solutions become evident, often in ways we couldn’t imagine” (Hartmann, 3).
“mammals- including humans- become less fertile and death rates increase when there is not enough food to sustain a local population” (Hartmann, 9).
“because there was more food, there could be more humans, and the human populations started growing faster” (Hartmann, 10).
“By making more croplands available, they were able to produce more food for humans, and the population of the world went from 500 million people around the year 1000 to the first billion living humans in 1800” (Hartmann, 12).
“The planet’s human population grew beyond the level that the Earth could sustain if humans were using only local “current sunlight” as an energy and food source” (Hartmann, 13).
“the availability of a fuel leads to a population that depends on it and will suffer if it is taken away” (Hartmann, 13).
“While it had taken us 200,000 years to produce our first billion people, and 130 years to produce our second billion, the third billion took just 30 years” (Hartmann, 14).
“In 1960, world human population hit three billion” and “It took just fourteen years, from 1960 to 1974, for us to grow to four billion humans worldwide” (Hartmann, 14).
“We added another billion in just thirteen years, hitting five billion in 1987, and our next billion took only twelve years, as the world’s human population hit six billion in 1999” (Hartmann, 15).
“By the fifth billion, in 1987, humans became the most numerous species on Earth” (Hartmann, 15).
“Around 1990, we became the most numerous mammalian species on the planet, outnumbering even rats” and “there is now more human flesh on the planet than there is of any other single species” (15).
“We now consume more than 40 percent of the world’s total “net primary productivity” (NPP)” (Hartmann, 15).
“We consume more than 50 percent of the planet’s available fresh water. This means that every other species of plant and animal on the planet must now compete against one another for what little we’ve left” (Hartmann, 15).
“In less than a tenth of a percent of the total history of humanity, we’ve experienced over 90 percent of the total growth of the human population” (Hartmann, 15).
“At the current rate of growth, we would hit 10 billion people in 2030, 20 billion by 2070, and 80 billion by 2150” (Hartmann, 15-16).
"But nobody expects this rate to continue: there simply isn't enough food that can be produced" (Hartmann, 16).
"the fact that our current growth rate cannot continue is not in dispute" (Hartmann, 16).
"created this overcrowded world of overtaxed resources by consuming ancient sunlight" (Hartmann, 16).
"without oil and coal, however, the other five billion would starve" (Hartmann, 16).
"we'll be adding another billion humans to the planet over the next dozen years, while China, India, Mexico, and the rest of the Third World are industrializing" (Hartmann, 19).
"our planet's use is increasing far faster than "current rates of consumption," and our reserves will not last as long as the optimists are suggesting" (Hartmann, 19).
"obviously a collision coming between our growing population, with its increasing consumption of dwindling supplies of ancient sunlight, and our ability to sustain that population" (Hartmann, 19).
"even in alternative energy sources are developed, they may actually worsen the problem (by adding more people) if our culture doesn't change along with them" (Hartmann, 83).
"the most populous nation on Earth had to import food to feed herself, and it sent shocks through the world's grain markets" (Hartmann, 89).
"China's need for imported grain will grow from a few million tons to over 200 million, and perhaps as much as 300 million tons [over the next 20 years]" (Hartmann, 89).
"When China becomes hungry over the next few years, her need for food will rock world food prices" (Hartmann, 89).
"Food may well become the commodity that's scarce long before oil dries up" (Hartmann, 89).
"the decline of [many] civilizations [are] linked in the historical record to their population outstripping their available fuel" (Hartmann, 108).
"now that we have all these people dependent on a particular fuel, what happens when it runs low?" (Hartmann, 109).
"in places like Haiti, where exploding populations have collided with limited fuel supplies and led to widespread poverty and hunger" (Hartmann, 114).
"every "modern" civilization over the past seven thousand years has been crippled and then destroyed by a shortfall in their primary fuel supply. Our civilization may or may not elude the same fate" (Hartmann, 115).
"even that "poverty-level" rate of resource consumption is something the planet cannot sustain without our burning up carbon fuel resources that will be exhausted within a generation or two" (Hartmann, 119).
"Perhaps it's too late... to avoid all (italicize all) of the damage, [but] we can plant the seeds of a positive and hopeful world" (Hartmann, 119-20).
"there were 3,038,930,391 humans on Earth. That year saw the addition of 40,622,370 people-each one requiring three meals a day, several gallons of water a day from drinking and bathing, and a place to live" (Hartmann, 139).
"struggled to keep up with and meet the needs of these 40-plus million new Earth citizens, in 1961 another 56,007,855 more people were born than died" (Hartmann, 139).
"in 1962 we increased the world's population by another 69,393,370" (Hartmann, 139).
"1963 saw another 70,987,231 humans competing for food, water, shelter, and heat of our planet" (Hartmann, 139).
"the three years between the time John Kennedy was sworn in [until] the day he was shot... more people than the entire population of the United States were added to the world" (Hartmann, 140).
"today there are about twice as many people on Earth as in 1960" (Hartmann, 140).
"Cycles of boom-and-bust... are normal (italicize normal) for population-dense [city-states]" (Hartmann, 193).
"the most powerful and wealthy individuals aggregate and consume more and more of the resources available to the city-state, [leaving] less and less for those on the bottom" (Hartmann, 199).
"they [tribes] simple don't overpopulate, and nobody knows exactly why" (Hartmann, 207).
"in most tribal cultures, women hold positions of status and power equal to that of men" (Hartmann, 209).
"tribal populations are stable in a way that reflects the available resources in their environment" (Hartmann, 209).
"While it is true that these countries and others have succeeded in stopping [runaway growth] of their population... they are still [consuming vastly more resources than they produce]" (Hartmann, 210).
"all city-state governments dependent on oil and/or growth are inherently unstable in the long run" (Hartmann, 210).
"If things don't change soon, it will grow and consume until there is nothing left to consume, and then our culture and our ecosystems will collapse, leaving billions of starving humans, polluted soil, air, and waters, and millions of dead species in its wake" (Hartmann, 212).
"we can change direction and create a sustainable and livable future for at least a portion of the planet" (Hartmann, 212)
Question #2: Cite any solutions to the problem or issue.
"We can begin to use our remaining oil to help us develop the next energy solution" (Hartmann, 231).
"Conservation is something we can all begin now, and this will the rate of planetary deterioration" (Hartmann, 231).
"populations are exploding in almost every nation of the world where women are dominated. The men [are] making the decisions, and one of the male values is "Have sex whenever you want, with whomever you want" (Hartmann, 272).
"nations where women have relatively equal position and power with men, there are lower birth rates, often equal to the point of zero population growth" (Hartmann, 272).
"we must [rediscover] where the point of "enough" is" (Hartmann, 278).
"let's use what energy resources we have to develop renewable alternatives" (Hartmann, 293).
"True and lasting solutions will require that a critical mass of people achieve an Older Culture way of viewing the world" (Hartmann, 352).
"change your ways of living and consuming" (Hartmann, 356).
