The Great Denial
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THEGREAT DENIAL PUNCTUNNG PRONATALIST MYTHS A remarkable feature of human population growth is the abundance of people who deny that human numbers count.Across the spectrum of public opinion, there is near unanimity that the notion of overpopula- tion is either a silly fantasy dreamed up by a few ecofkeaks or a tempo- rary phenomenon, affecting only a few places in the Thirdworld, and one that will dissipate of its own accord. In the latter case, incantation of the phrase "demographic transition"is usually thought sufficient to dispel the specter. Examples abound of the mental and moral Aiction that might best be christened the Overpopulation Denial Syndrome (ODS).At the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, for example, there was consid- erable concern about population increase, partly due to the writings of ecologist Paul Ehrlich. Since then, the global population has shot up by 1.6 billion people (a 43 percent increase), yet on Earth Day 1990 there was virtual silence on the subject. The 1992 Earth Summit largely ignored population problems. Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and most mainstream environmental organizations hardly address the issue.~he~oliticalparties,"green" ones included, are silent. None of the green lifestyle guides mention over- population, even though giving birth to children is the most significant environmental choice any couple makes. Beyond silence or ambivalence lie the antiabortion groups, the progrowth economists, the right-wing "libertarians:' and the like, who militantly deny the problem.The right-wing economist Julian Simon, with his view that humans are the ultimate resource, argues that in the around the world that actively promote population growth. In 1988, for longer run,"additional people lead to less pollution."And there are reli- example, the Quebec government offered a $500 premium for the first gious baby boomers.The opposition of the Catholic Church (or, rather, child, $1,000 for the second, and $4,500 thereafter; there was a 6 per- powerful groupings within it) to "artificial" birth control is well known, cent increase in the number ofbabies born in 1989. In Zimbabwe, but other religions-including the Mormons, Orthodox Zionists, which experienced one of the highest population growth rates in the Rastafarians, and Muslims-share its commitment to procreation. world after independenq, the government's health minister attacked Unfortunately, these folk are not alone in their delusions.The family planning as a "white colonialist plot" to limit black power. scientist and former U.S. presidential candidate Barry Commoner ar- Sometimes population growth takes the form of a demographic gues chat "it is a totally spurious idea to claim that rising population race, as in the case of Israel trying to squeeze in as many Jews as pos- anywhere in the world is responsible for the deteriorating envimn- sible in order to keep pace with the rapidly growing population of . ment" (Utne Reader, January 1988).Many social ecologists, ecofeminists, Arabs within and around its borden.At other times, stabilized or even and liberation ecologists now focus on "reproductive rights," arguing falling birth rates are perceived as a sign of national weakness, a fear that a woman should have complete freedom to choose how many that often takes the form of warnings about an aging population. Oc- children she has (rather than concentrating upon, say, the provision of casionally individuals or groups take up the campaign. In the Czech free contraception and sex education).The left-wing world develop- Republic, for example, there is an anonymously financed billboard ment magazine New Internationalist evenargues that "with population campaign urging Czechs to produce more children. It depicts, erro- due to stabilize at merely twice the current numbers, there would ap- neously, the composer Bach with twenty male children. pear to be linle cause for concern" (October 1987, emphasis added). ODs sufferers cross the political spectrum: Marxists, social Third World charities like Oxfam vociferously denounce those who democrats, conservatives, and liberals share the same basic faith in dare to suggest that population growth might be a factor in the rising industrial growth.They may quarrel bitterly about the best means- level of human misery across Africa,Asia, and Latin America. collective planning versus private enterprise, for examplebut at their Many ecofeminists share this stance.The Women's Environment core lies the same vision of technoindustrial progress, and the same Network in the United Kingdom circulated a pamphlet that discusses hostility to the thesis of overpopulation. the "myth of overpopulation." Some go further. Farida Akher's Depopulating Bangladesh even suggests that there is a sinister plot by family planners to depopulate the country.Ynestra King similarly The delusions of ODs sufferers are sustained by a rich diversity of claims that "overpopulation is a hoax by wealthy, privileged white false assumptions and non sequiturs.These misconceptions about males" (Utne Reader, January 1988). Whose Common Future?, a special population problems pop up in everyday conversation, are recycled issue of the leading green journal The Ecologist published in 1992, by commentators and analysts in the mass media, and make regular implied that overpopulation was a myth promulgated by technocrats appearances in learned textbooks. (needless to say, white and male ones). Some of the popular fallacies and half-truths underlying the syn- Add to the ranks of the pronatalists the many governments drome are based on bad ecology and a failure to take the mathematics 7he Great Denial 47 of the situation seriously. Others stem from a focus on only part of the poor countries like Bangladesh, even though there has been no general pictuebirth rates but not death rates, for example. Sometimes, blind rise in affluence. optimism leads people to treat decreases in population growth rates as Furthermore, the postwar baby boom took place during an un- if they were actual decreases in population levels. The following ten precedented increase in per capita consumption, when parents could myths are pernicious in that they do contain a measure of truth.The afford more chi1dren.A switch to smaller families took place later- pronatalist lobby uses these snippets of truth to conceal or deny more as opportunities for easily accessible education, careers, and wealth important truths. decreased. In Britain, a decreise in family size was,more pronounced among working-class than among more affluent middle-class couples Myth 1:Afluence is the answer. in recent decades. The classic myth, argued by social scientists and many others, is that More generally, there are no automxic links. In Sri Lanka, aver- the population problem will solve itselfas a result of economic and so- age per capita income is about $400 and average family size is 2.5 chil- cial changes collectively known as the "demographic transition."This dren. In Libya, average per capita income is much highe-er $3,000 theory suggests that as people become healthier and wealthier they per annum-yet most women have more than five children. In recent will parent fewer children.This, it is argued, explains the decrease in decades, France has gone hrnnongrowing to a growing demographic family size in Europe over the past two hundred years. Poverty begets situation. In Sweden, too, there are signs of a return to larger families. large families, they argue.Muence, it issaid, is the best contraceptive. Contrary to the demographic transition theory, extremely Au- No matter how popular and pervasive the theory, it is still a sim- ent individuals often parent more children than those lower on the plistic, one-sided view of reality, building unrealistic hopes of a demo- economic ladder. Britain's Queen Elizabeth is apparently the richest graphic "happy ending."The global environment simply could not woman in the world, but she and Prince Philip ignored the demo- supply the volume of resources nor assimilate the attendant pollution graphic theory and conceived four children.The late corporate raider required to generalize the level of affluence characteristic of materially Sir James Goldsmith was one of the world's richest men . and father richer countries. For example, if the world's population rises to 11 bil- of eight children. lion before stabilizing, as predicted, and if each person were to live like Finally, in the short period of two generations, improved health today's North Americans, almost half of our twenty-four key minerals and income in countries such as India andTurkey has led to faster would be exhausted within thirty-five years. Environmental degra- population growth. It may level o& but in the meantime, it will have dation and pollution would rise to catastrophic levels. quadrupled the size of these countries' p_opulations,and therefore The same story repeats itself at the level of individual countries. quadrupled every problem they face. As Garrett Hardin and other sci- Average annual income in Ethiopia today is $120; at a 3 percent growth entists have shown, increased supply of resources tends to be converted rate, it would take sixty years to raise it to $700 per annum, by which into a larger population. In the 19505, for example, land redistribution time there wouldn't be a crumb of fertile soil left in the country as a inTurkey (in itself a good thing) encouraged formerly landless peasants result of population pressure in the meantime. Con- to the demo- to increase significantly the size of their families.AmongAfiican Sahel graphic transition theory, family planning is beginning to succeed in pastoralists, deep-water wells drilled by donor countries in the 1950s The Great finial 49 and 1960s prompted larger herds of cattle and goats, earlier marriage rich localities such as Singapore, arguing that population density (because bride-prices were paid in animals and the required number does not produce ruin.Yet the populations of such places can survive became easier to accumulate), and, thereby, higher fertility.