My dear daughter,
You might hear overpopulation is a big threat to the world, but it’s not true.
We get that a lot in overcrowded, densely populated cities like São Paulo, but the rest of the country, for example, is a demographic wasteland.
The 20th century witnessed a very accelerated population growth, especially after World War II. Contrary to popular belief, the growth is already decelerating and the global human population is predicted to reach its peak in the next 20 or 30 years, around 10 billion people.
That population size isn’t a major pressure on natural resources per se. The food we produce nowadays is enough to feed two Earths. Science has greatly improved agricultural yield. In fact, wasted food (food which is thrown away, not consumed by humans) would be enough to feed the entire planet. It’s much more of a political and economical issue than production capacity.
It’s also possible to produce sustainably. Wherever production isn’t sustainable, there is a greedy financial group behind, or an oligarchy, or both.
The entire population alive today could fit a city the size of the American state of Texas, with a population density similar to that of New York. And all the energy required to sustain civilization could be produced by a not so huge solar power plant in the Sahara desert, for example.
Our major problems are consumerism and fossil fuel power plants. We have had the knowledge to deal with both for decades, but people preferred to act as spoiled children and turn a blind eye, hoping the problem would just go away and that nobody would have to deal with it in the very near future. That future has arrived.
Love,
Dad
Aspergers Dad 