“A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.” Garrett Hardin
We now live in a world that is so polarized that it’s hard to navigate complex issues with tools of nuance and well-established evidence. It is even more challenging to have difficult discussions when we can all live in our own ‘news’ bubbles and miss out on the kind of truth which is always more complicated than presented on bumper stickers and sound bites.
It is an either/or landscape and rarely a narrative that can accommodate two seemingly opposing truths. We want to know if something or someone is good or bad and the answer is often YES. As Ken Burns in this latest documentary, “The US and the Holocaust” articulated, some of our most favored heroes were also virulent antisemites.
Fortunately, several thought leaders are trying to carve out a new way forward. Andrew Yang and Christy Todd Whitman have actually formed a political party called ‘Forward’, trying to chip away at the entrenched two-party system with more moderate views. Author and podcaster Sam Harris suggests we discard the duality of the right and the left framework and create what he calls the “Radical Center.” In 2017 Harris posted a definition of Radical Centrism on Reddit, “Being a Radical Centrist is not about hitting the middle of both sides. It's about being open to ideas from either side and not wasting time with unpractical discussions… The "radical" in the term refers to a willingness on the part of most radical centrists to call for fundamental reform of institutions. The "centrism" refers to a belief that genuine solutions require realism and pragmatism, not just idealism and emotion. Thus, one radical centrist text defines radical centrism as "idealism without illusions.”
It is time to bring this concept to the overpopulation beast. We are all victims of overpopulation’s reach, every single one of the 8 billion we are just about ready to ‘welcome’ to our rapidly overheating planet. We all suffer because of our numerical success. Whether you have to walk more miles to access fresh water or spend much of your week in a traffic jam, we experience overpopulation’s wrath every day and it’s just getting warmed up, literally. The more people, the more carbon and we are learning to recognize climate’s calling cards in the reports of melting of glaciers, rising oceans and longer and longer wildfire seasons.
Human rights, especially for those with the least resources and respect, is also vital for a world that is worth occupying. Each person no matter their ethnicity needs to have his/her humanity respected. Hatred of the other, based on made up nonsense of inferiority has no place in a world I want to live in. So how do we reconcile these two truths? As individuals we need respect but as a whole, our species is just too big. We have become a force which acts like a bulldozer, mowing down forests and creating pollution in our wake. We begin this arduous task by unbolting the doors to difficult discussions. We elevate the significance of ecological understanding through an ethical lens with no hatred in our hearts.
To even mention the word population is to raise concerns and accusations of racism from the fringe on the left. In contrast, those on the right chomp at the bit to advocate for more border control to support their despicable supremacist diatribes. As I wrote in a piece last year; “The Right drives me nuts and the Left Drives Me Crazy.” Mention how we mostly grow in the US and other developed countries immigration, and watch the doors close to all but xenophobic discussions, leaving me politically homeless.
That is why I am creating a new acronym for myself. I am calling myself a D.A.R.E. activist. That stands for Degrowth Anti-Racist Environmentalist. I am not an advocate that we de-grow the human enterprise because I hate people, I am an advocate for lower population numbers because I love people. I am not against immigrants; I am for them. I want tightly controlled borders not because I hate those desperate to come here, but because I love them, empathize, and understand their predicament. BUT at the same time, I also realize that the US has its limits especially in a climate changing world. To invite people into your home you had better be prepared to give them all that they need. We can no longer guarantee there will be an America left when we go so far over our carrying capacity, especially our water supply. I can sympathize with all wanting to come here, recognize the way many have even been victims of US policies and still want to control the number of people let into a country with ailing economic and ecological systems. We can look to finance more home-grown solutions. I also love those citizens who have been struggling for years in the US and adore the natural landscapes we still have left, without any bigotry towards those who are knocking on our doors. As a D.A.R.E. activist I can straddle that fine line because to do anything else is to give in to either the jaws of hatred or the poison of creating further ecological and economic instability. Neither choice is acceptable to me.
I would love to have the power to bring women’s empowerment to country’s lacking in awareness and birth control like the NGO Population Media Center is doing all over the world. Bringing down fertility rates also must happen in humane and voluntary ways. Nature is already aggressively ruthless when large families try to eke out a living in water and food deprived landscapes, our solutions cannot add to that ruthlessness. Those solutions must be discussed with all consequences on the table. The forecasted growth in the US, now topping 333 million, is not due as much to high fertility as it is to high immigration rates. Something, theoretically at least, much simpler to solve. Solutions start at home whether we are trying to fix potholes as Garrett Hardin talked about or population growth. While I am busy inventing acronyms, I have one more. In the name of all that is sacred, water, land, freedom, job security, wildlife, lower crime rates, less homelessness and more, we must become “H.E.R.B.alists ‘too. That is, we must rally to demand Humanely and Ecologically Restrained Borders. When we recognize that taming the overpopulation beast must be done where and when we can, and without an ounce of hatred in our hearts we will be on the right track, the one that runs right down the middle.