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Beyond Population Stabilization: The Case for Dramatically Reducing Global Human Numbers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

J. Kenneth Smail
J. Kenneth Smail*
Affiliation:
Kenyon College, USA
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Abstract

There is a growing tension between two apparently irreconcilable trends: (1) demographic projections that world population size will reach 10 to 11 billion by the middle of the next century; and (2) scientific estimates that the Earth's long-term sustainable carrying capacity (at an “adequate to comfortable” standard of living) may not be much greater than 2 to 3 billion. It is past time to develop internationally coordinated sociopolitical initiatives that go beyond slowing the growth or stabilizing global human numbers. After “inescapable realities” that humans must soon confront, and notwithstanding the considerable difficulties involved in establishing “global population optimums,” I conclude with several suggestions how best to bring about a very significant reduction in global population over the next two to three centuries. These proposals are cautiously optimistic.

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Type
Roundtable Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , September 1997, pp. 183 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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