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Megacrisis? Overpopulation Is The Problem: by Gioietta Kuo
Megacrisis? Overpopulation Is The Problem: by Gioietta Kuo
A succinct and all-embracing article on the group. Youth unemployment is a problem not
state of the world by William Halal and Michael only in the likes of France (23%), Spain (37%),
Marien, titled “Global MegaCrisis: Four Scenar- and Italy (25%), but also in developing countries
ios, Two Perspectives,” appeared in The Futurist like Saudi Arabia (28%) and Egypt (24%).2 What
magazine for May-June 2011.1 It contains the pre- is most horrifying in the developing nations is not
diction of an impending global crisis, a perfect that the unemployment figures are high, but that
storm resulting from a congruence of the ills af- the number of young people continues to in-
flicting the world today, including climate change, crease, even in places where more than 30% of the
environmental destruction, water and food scar- national population is in the 0-14 age group.
city, and poverty, along with such cultural and Where are these young going? To swell even fur-
economic effects as financial meltdown and global ther the ranks of the 15-24 group of unemployed,
recession. The authors explore these phenomena creating still more social ills!
from different angles: Halal takes a more positive On October 31, 2011, the UN celebrated a
view based on the technology that our society has day on which the latest baby born in the Philip-
achieved, while Marien adopts a more pessimis- pines added the last person needed to raise the
tic outlook, foreseeing at best a “muddle through” total world population to seven billion. Celebrate?
attitude on the part of the majority of the world’s This is no cause for celebration, as the world is al-
less-informed people. ready overpopulated. I was aghast. Coming from
such an influential body as UN, this announce-
Reasons for the MegaCrisis ment seems to me the last nail in the coffin. Is it
As much as I admire the erudition of both possible that there is no hope for humanity?
authors, I would like to point out that they have In this article, we shall examine the pros and
not put their fingers sufficiently on the one evil cons of the overpopulation issue. As a scientist, I
that is the mother of all others: world overpopu- accept the fact that all known systems have
lation. Imagine if the world miraculously lost 20% boundaries (with the possible exception of our
of its population. Many of the problems described universe itself). That means we are bounded. We
by Halal and Marien would simply disappear. cannot possibly put nine billion people on the
For example, unemployment is already un- planet, as the UN so calmly predicts, because our
acceptably high globally, afflicting both industri- agriculture and water resources are already insuf-
alized and developing nations. Most important is ficient to meet the needs of the present global pop-
unemployment among youth in the 15 to 24 age ulation of seven billion.3 More than one billion
Gioietta Kuo, senior fellow, American Center for International Policy Studies, is a research physicist specializing
in energy problems. She has published more than 70 articles in American and European professional journals,
and many more in The People’s Daily and other widely read publications in China. She can be reached at
kuopet@comcast.net.