An ecological deficit is when the ecological footprint of a population exceeds the biocapacity of the area available for that population. A national ecological deficit means that the nation imports biocapacity through trade, depletes the national ecological wealth or emits carbon dioxide waste into the atmosphere. An ecological reserve exists when the biocapacity of a region exceeds the ecological footprint of its population. (See: footprintnetwork.org)

Apart from Russia, the ecological reserves of the other large areas still green on the map are being rapidly destroyed by the population explosion there and by immigration. In just over half a century, the ecological reserves of Argentina and Sweden have halved, those of Canada have fallen to 1/3, Brazil, Bolivia and Mongolia to 1/4, Australia and Colombia to 1/5, Peru and Namibia to 1/6, Madagascar to 1/7, Congo and Angola to 1/10, and all of these only because of population growth, since the per capita ecological footprint has not increased.

Since intensive agriculture about 10,000 years ago, larger populations have meant greater power, so population boomers (half a millennium ago, e.g. Western Europeans, until the 20th century) usually swarmed over and destroy areas with populations that were in balance with nature.

The rapidly worsening overloading of the Earth is now threatening the very existence of humanity and all living things. The only chance is to reverse the population explosion, liberate women. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth..” (Gospel of Matthew 5,5) But where the population is finally declining, the invasion and exploitative pressures of the still exploding majority of the world threaten.

How can a non-overpopulated region protect the ecological values of its territory from the aggressive, population exploding majority of the world?

Machines and weapons can change the balance of power so that population size is not such a decisive factor. This eased the power push for reproduction in the 19th century. Until then it was in the interests of all kinds of power to overproduce people, to have lots of vulnerable and therefore cheap workers, birthing machines and soldiers. The “surplus” did not cause much trouble for the powers, it was destroyed by famines, epidemics, wars.

The abundance of fossil energy has brought such “development” in health, agriculture, etc., and thus an accelerated population explosion, that overproduction has become a threat to the powers that be. (More and more rebellion of slaves, revolution, freedom struggle, workers’ movement, women’s movement, unemployment, etc.) Therefore, overpopulation has long ceased to be an interest, but the brainwashing and heartwashing that has been forcing religious-cultural-social reproduction for millennia is deeply rooted in the collective psyche. Therefore, humanity is too slow to wake up to the devastating consequences of overpopulation. Fortunately, more and more enlightened groups of global capital (e.g. Gates, Warren, Rossmann) are putting interests of longer-term survival ahead of the short-term profits from the population explosion, and therefore support the human right to contraception.

The last hope for wildlife, and thus for humanity, lies in those areas that are not yet ecologically overburdened and can protect themselves from overpopulation (caused by population growth and/or immigration), and from the exploitative onslaughts of the world’s overpopulated majority.

Population explosions are always aggressive, since their main purpose is to produce human material (slaves, cannon fodder, birth machines), to take over as much of the future generations as possible and as quickly as possible (i.e. the race for population).
– Aggressive first and foremost with their own daughters and women, whom they keep in breeding stock, otherwise they would not be able to explode,
– secondly, agressive with their children and their poor, whom they keep in slavery, otherwise they would not be able to supply the exploding population,
– thirdly, agressive with the wildlife in their territory (“Get rid of anything you can’t eat or that doesn’t feed your food” – Daniel Quinn),
– fourthly, agressive with other peoples from whom they want to plunder new resources to exhaust.

The first point can save the life on earth: liberating women by the secret weapon of contraceptives (IUD, implant, inject) that can be hidden from those who force reproduction. Support the professional organisations that help hundreds of millions of people without contraception!

Gyula I. Simonyi

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As the United States’ leading grassroots organization seeking to stabilize global population through education about population challenges and advocacy supporting U.S. investment in voluntary domestic and international family planning programs, Population Connection will launch a project aimed at illuminating the link between empowering women and girls and addressing climate change while mitigating its harmful effects on the world’s most vulnerable populations.

A generous pool of donors, led by James R. Bennett of Arkansas, has stepped forward to provide initial funding for this project. Major activities will include a speakers series; outreach on campuses and through digital media; and the addition of new, downloadable college-level materials available to those interested in the links between population growth, reproductive health, social justice, and environmental challenges—with a particular focus on climate change.

Growing Populations, Growing Carbon Footprints

Global warming poses unprecedented threats to humanity. Little has been done to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions despite 40 years of scientists’ warnings, with C0₂ emissions soaring from just over 10 gigatons per year in 1979 to nearly 35 gigatons per year today. While wealthy nations must account for historical emissions and the highest current per capita emissions, research indicates that slower future population growth “could reduce global emissions by 40% or more in the long-term.”

As people in low-income countries achieve improvements in standards of living, those countries’ carbon footprints will grow—both from a necessary rise in per capita emissions and from population growth.

Nearly half of the world’s pregnancies are unintended, and 214 million women in the developing world want to prevent pregnancy but aren’t using modern contraceptives. To lessen the impacts of global population growth on carbon emissions and biodiversity loss, we must implement human rights-based policies to extend family planning and reproductive health care to people worldwide—including in the high-emitting United States, where 45% of pregnancies are unintended.

Now is the time to ensure voluntary family planning options for all, and to provide universal education for girls. Together, these interventions to ensure the full autonomy of girls and women could have a greater impact on carbon emissions than any other, single tactic.

Population Connection draws the links between global population growth and the countless environmental challenges facing us—we educate people of all ages and motivate them to take action. We’ve made steady progress over the past 50 years, educating young people on population concepts and advocating for expanded access to voluntary family planning programs for people everywhere. Nearly 100 countries have achieved replacement rate fertility since our founding in 1968—up from four countries at that time.

But we must accelerate our progress to solve the climate crisis.

Population Connection’s campaign will bring population stabilization into the public discourse about climate change mitigation and adaptation, adding momentum to achieve a dramatic increase in access to family planning and reproductive health care programs for people around the world. In this way, we can lessen the impacts of global population growth on C0₂ emissions and biodiversity loss, while increasing vulnerable populations’ capacity for climate change adaptation and resilience. For more information on this project, please contact Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) Specialist Hannah Evans.

Shauna Scherer, Vice President for Marketing and Development

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