Debunked Myths

The specter of a 'population bomb' and global famine, predicted by Thomas Malthus in the 18th century and revived by Paul Ehrlich in the 1960s, has driven generational anxiety. The core fear was that human population would grow exponentially while food production could only increase linearly, leading to inevitable collapse. However, these dire predictions haven't materialized as expected.

While global population has grown dramatically, the growth rate has been slowing since the 1960s due to increased education for women, access to family planning, and economic development. More significantly, the 'Green Revolution'—advances in agricultural science including high-yield crops, fertilizers, and irrigation—caused food production to soar, consistently outstripping population growth.

The primary problems today aren't global shortages but distribution inefficiencies, food waste, and poverty barriers. The overpopulation myth persists because it presents a simple, apocalyptic narrative that seems intuitively correct when we see crowded cities. It fails to account for human ingenuity and the demographic transition where societies naturally move toward lower birth rates as they develop. Our challenge is no longer sheer numbers but creating equitable and sustainable systems to manage the abundant resources we already produce.