Overpopulation is a myth, researcher says

Population expert Steven Mosher warned of a coming world crisis due to declining population growth in a speech to about a dozen students yesterday.

Invited to speak by Penn for Life as part of the group's Respect Life Week 2006, Mosher, who speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese, focused a majority of the discussion on China.

The president of the Virginia-based Population Research Institute, an antiabortion organization, Mosher began by speaking about his time as the "first American social scientist to live in rural China" as a young Stanford student in 1980.

"I got there just in time for the one-child policy," Mosher said, referring to a limit on the number of children Chinese couples were allowed to have. "I was living in rural Guangdong when the governor ordered that every village not increase their birthrate beyond 1 percent in the year 1980."

He then went on to describe an incident in which 18 pregnant women were jailed when they refused to follow the policy until they finally acquiesced and had abortions.

It was for reporting such events that he was labeled an "international spy" by the Chinese government, and he subsequently left China.

Mosher said such measures were unnecessary because "there is no such thing as overpopulation, in China or elsewhere."

He stated that food and water shortages, not just in China but around the world, were mainly the product of government mismanagement.

He then went on to talk about what he said is a "depopulation crisis" in the industrialized world.

"Italy is averaging 1.1 children per woman," Mosher said. "This is far below replacement levels."

He also cited Japan and the rest of Western Europe as having declining birth rates.

Mosher said that AIDS in Africa and a rising standard of living in Latin and South America were contributing to a slower rate of population growth in those regions.

He linked economics and population, saying that having more people enables countries to be more productive.

"You will live to see the specter of depopulation," Mosher said.

Students in the audience were receptive but skeptical on some points.

"He had some nice points about the correlation between a high population and economic growth," Wharton freshman Bohan Li said. "But I would have liked to see a more direct conversation."

Joe Gasiewski, a College alumnus, enjoyed the speech but was wary of Mosher's conclusions.

"Incredibly interesting," Gasiewski said. "Honestly, a little frightening if you accept these premises."

Comments (10)

[QUOTE id="07eba8fc-9088-44ea-a767-cb2822748c55"]So we're supposed to treat research funded entirely by an anti-abortion group as objective? If so, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Captain Obvious, Undergrad Penn[/QUOTE] Sure. Why not? I mean, research funded by pro-abortion groups are treated as objective all the time. The truth is, our planet is no where near being overpopulated. If you were to take the entire population of the planet and move them to Texas, the population density would be LESS than the current population density of New York City. In other words, there would be more people per square mile in NYC than there would be if you moved the worlds population to Texas. People are our greatest resource--it does far more harm than good to limit or reduce that resource.

so, in an economy such as america where a thing like casual sex has become an okay thing there is no such thing as unplanned pregnancies? even if in some places there is not a high brith rate in other places there is an even higher birth rate. population density is a direct result of overpopulation. you can educate all the people you want to, but education is not going to keep babies from being born. you have to be completely oblivious to not realize that there is potential of an overpopulation problem arising. i'm going to speak hypothetically for a moment... if the fatalities of every war had not happened, and they each had 2-5 children then the population of every country in the world would be massive. and with population density comes unsanitary conditions. which was a pretty big thing that unsanitary conditions started? oh yeah! the bubonic plague... with population density comes lack of resources, pollution of the environment, and disease. plain and simple, look around a bit more before you just agree with this guy, thanks.

So we're supposed to treat research funded entirely by an anti-abortion group as objective? If so, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Captain Obvious, Undergrad Penn

Growth for the sake of growth is the agenda of the cancer cell. The idea that a growth-based economy can exist forever is patently stupid, the very first thing you learn about in economics is that scarcity exists. Saying that "overpopulation is a myth" also defies the observable biological fact of population carrying capacities (although admittedly carrying capacities come about because of scarcity). What is Earth's carrying capacity for humans? I don't know what it is, but I know that it exists. cancer, student penn

cancer, if you had come to the lecture, you would have known what Mosher said and what he didn't say. Population growth creates scarcities that in turn drive technological innovation and thus economic growth. You say: "What is Earth's carrying capacity for humans? I don't know what it is, but I know that it exists." Good for you. The point is, population control policies that encourage (or require) aborting and contracepting the next generation are bad. They are bad for families, and they are bad for the economy. Look at all the problems with financing government pension plans in countries with birth rates below replacement. They're not going to be able to pay their seniors the pensions they're entitled to, thanks to a dearth of young people. Captain Obvious, way to dismiss the argument out-of-hand without even pretending to refute it. Everybody knows depopulation is a huge problem; read the March/April issue of Foreign Policy. just bein Frank

[QUOTE id="07eba8fc-9088-44ea-a767-cb2822748c55"]So we're supposed to treat research funded entirely by an anti-abortion group as objective? If so, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Captain Obvious, Undergrad Penn[/QUOTE] And you probably trust research funded by groups such as Planned Parenthood. Groups such as those have bias too.

There is no overpopulation in the world. There is a population density problem. The 3rd world is controled, if the 3rd world were aloud to industrialize in a responsible manner their populations would decrease. People think the eugenics programs died with the nazi's in WWII, they are wrong. The overpopulation myth is a program of eugenics. Its about reducing the population to garner control over humanity. There goal is to reduce the population and then use technology to create an ultimate control grid. World government run by the elites. This isn't even some wacked out theory, they admit it.... Richard Haas former head of the club of rome current head of the CFR wrote a paper saying they would use wars, disease and then climate change to achieve their depopulation goals, but hey, it wasn't on CNN so it can't be true. There is no reason for there to be starving people in the world....its a controled illusion, its the most disgusting thing ever done to humanity, and really....we let it happen.

Simple common sense says the world is not facing an over population problem. There are population density problems in certain areas, there is a food problem. These are man made however. You could easily fit the entire world population in the U.S. alone leaving the rest of the earth for sensible farming etc. over population is a myth created to feed an elitist agenda to reduce the "unwanted eaters"..its about power and control.

[QUOTE id="aa41851a-5866-4036-a713-e1c192283ca9"]Growth for the sake of growth is the agenda of the cancer cell. The idea that a growth-based economy can exist forever is patently stupid, the very first thing you learn about in economics is that scarcity exists. Saying that "overpopulation is a myth" also defies the observable biological fact of population carrying capacities (although admittedly carrying capacities come about because of scarcity). What is Earth's carrying capacity for humans? I don't know what it is, but I know that it exists. cancer, student penn[/QUOTE] true enough that overpopulatin is a real number, but with simple math and basic knowledge it can be shown that that number is no place close to where the world population is presently or going to.

[QUOTE id="07eba8fc-9088-44ea-a767-cb2822748c55"]So we're supposed to treat research funded entirely by an anti-abortion group as objective? If so, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Captain Obvious, Undergrad Penn[/QUOTE] also.....You say this comes from anti obortion agendas? Where does the overpopulation theory come from? Do you search both sides of an agenda? You can very easily link overpopulation myths to elitest think tanks like the club of rome who also refer to the common man as useless eaters. Who out right say that depopulation is an agenda to maintain power and control.

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