In Australia, as in many countries, there appears to be almost universal acceptance of perpetual population growth. Population growth is seen as: Desirable because it is the path to economic prosperity. Inevitable. A requirement for supporting refugees. None reflect reality. So why is it, that so few contemplate a finite population target, given we live on a finite planet?
Humanity has just experienced a population explosion. Whether you believe we are overpopulated or not, the facts are that we have just had a population explosion. Over two centuries of population peaking at 50x higher than the long term population growth, and peaking at 100x higher during the baby boom. Yet the explosion occurred with women having less babies than ever before, even during the baby boom, and is ending all by itself. So what caused the boom, why a population explosion when birth rates are falling? Will our population grow until we are living life like battery hens?
The Myth: Starvation will provide a warning of overpopulation. The Truth: In nature, we define overpopulation as when sustaining the population results in damage to the environment. Plagues are a problem were before the plague population starts to starve. Starvation will be a consequence only when overpopulation has resulted in environmental collapse that will result in a rapid population collapse. Starvation is useless as an indicator, by the time there is starvation all environmental food reserves have been consumed, and catastrophe is then unavoidable.
Human birth rates are falling at a rate that has some fearing population collapse, but could this a natural biological repose to threats of overpopulation, rather than any cause for alarm? This raises the question as to what controls population in other species and, why is overpopulation rare? Would all species not population controlled by predators just multiply like bacteria in petri until dish resources are all consumed, or does nature, and even potentially humans, have other mechanisms to constrain population at a more optimum level? In practice, resource constraint and predation alone as population control would for many species would result in repeated huge population swings, so logically, there must be more. Analysing population mechanisms in other species may provide some interesting insights and possible answers to at least a large part of what is happing with birth-rates that will determine whether our future is population is one of: continued growth, collapse, or stability, on a planet where population of all life is not growing.
