Overpopulation Is Not the Problem As we navigated the new millennium, humans crossed a threshold never before seen in our species. We have exceeded the 6 billion threshold. This is an impressive fact, but one that we cannot easily appreciate unless we are Bill Gates or ExxonMobil. Let's understand how incredibly large this number is. Consider that this article has approximately 9000 letters. Therefore, more than 650,000 copies would be needed to produce enough letters to represent all humans. Or, put another way, consider that if all human beings joined hands, our species would circumscribe the equator almost 14 times! And perhaps most terrifyingly, if we were all to move to Texas (the 2nd largest state in our nation), we would each only have a theoretical 35 feet by 35 feet of space to ourselves, assuming there is no room for other forms of life. or human "necessities" such as airports, lawns, and shopping malls. So now that you have an idea of ​​how big the number 6,000,000,000 is, are you even more convinced that the human population has become too large? The evidence, at first glance, seems overwhelming. The world's population has grown from 1 billion in the early 1800s to more than 6 billion today. Two nations in the world (i.e., China and India) each have more than 1 billion people. According to United Nations statistics, approximately 2 billion people (1 in 3) suffer from malnutrition and food deficiencies and more than 800 million (1 in 7) are chronically malnourished. Added to this is the fact that resources are running out and ecosystems (and their animal and plant inhabitants) are being decimated. What's worse is that, if the world population continues to grow at the rates observed in 2000, by 2100 it will exceed 24 billion people; a very unlikely event given the recent reductions in global growth rates (current projections tell us of around 12 billion). With all this evidence there is some doubt that the population has grown too much. However, even if the world's human population appears to be superabundant, “supersized,” or “gigantic,” this tendency to think of world problems as largely driven by demographic pressures, as so many thoughtful people do, has its peculiarities. serious problems and limitations. The population tells only part of the story. People are malnourished not because there...... middle of paper ......ng to continue contracting it. In another example, we know it when we find it. To the fact that our prisons are full, we do not respond that our population is too large, but rather we resign ourselves, too often, to the fact that more prisons need to be built, as long as the prisoners continue to being "produced" by our societies (through our laws, our social negligence, our vengeful nature), we will continue to need more and more prisons. Perhaps, instead of repeating that overpopulation is such a terrible problem, we should ask ourselves what the economic, political and social consequences are. There are forces around the world that encourage people to have children who are almost certain to suffer throughout their lives and, even more enlightening, why do children born today have to suffer when food is available, vaccinations are available and technology it seems so advanced. It's time to take a renewed, rejuvenated, and more fully informed look at the "population" problem. Works CitedBrower, M. & W. Leon. The consumer's guide to effective environmental choices. The Union of Concerned Scientists. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999.Cohen, J. How Many People Can the Earth Support? New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.