Stopping population growth

In today’s Dagens Nyheter http://www.dn.se/debatt/med-dagens-fodelsetal-ar-vi-snart-134000-miljarder-1.1060811, four scientists make the case that it is unsustainable and inconsequent  that the developed world should continue to aim for population growth in order to stimulate economic growth, while claiming that global overpopulation is a serious issue.

They are right. We have to break free of the logic which requires continued population (and economic) growth in order to avoid the costs of an aging population. Maintaining population growth in developed countries only makes the problem even worse in the future. We are currently overusing our global ecosystem resources by roughly 40% according to WWF.  http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/footprint/ The overuse per capita is naturally highest in developed countries.

The author’s of the DN article propose “institutional reforms” which will lead to voluntary reduction of the number of children, also in developed countries. This is certainly needed – but it is not only a question of a changed behaviour among the fertile population. It is a bigger challenge to reform the financial system to make it less dependent on steady economic growth at 3% or more. We will likely have to adapt to a contracting economy, and this will certainly be painful. It will hit on businesses, pensions, jobs, and consequently, on government. This is something I will write more about another day.

Some blog’s commenting the article claim that the problem of the increasing global population is all in the developing countries. Although the problem is much bigger in many developing regions (in particular in West Asia, South Asia and Africa) the claim is false. Our global overshoot in ecological footprint is a problem everywhere. Fortunately, population growth is slowing down rapidly in most parts, which is illustrated very good by professor Hans Rosling http://www.gapminder.org/videos/what-stops-population-growth/. What he also shows is that there is a very strong inverse correlation between population growth rate and health.

What this means is that the fastest way to stop population growth is to stimulate rapid development of economy and health in the poorest areas of the world.