While you read about every kind of disaster from Haiti to India, from Mexico to Sudan—few understand the ramifications of continued human overpopulation growth. Mostly, they avoid it! However, as human overload grows more serious within the United States, more and more people consider its accelerating consequences as a systematic global predicament.

Population expert Jason Brent, “The Future of Mankind—A Few Simple Rules” states the obvious in his latest essay on humanity’s future.

What does an overpopulated world look like Mr. Brent?

“Since the earth is finite in size, both economic and population growth must cease,” said Brent. “No power on earth or in the heavens will permit infinite growth on the finite earth. Nothing humanity can do or say will permit infinite growth on the finite earth. New technology, recycling, environmentalism, and even a possible second or third green revolution will not permit either the economy or the human population to continue to grow. Any person who advocates economic growth or economic stimulation may be causing the short term destruction of humanity as no person knows the level of economic activity which will cause that to happen. In addition, no person knows the level of economic activity which will permit the long term survival of our species.

“For the last several hundreds of years, and probably, at least, since the start of agriculture and civilization every aspect of society has been designed for "more" and designed for "growth". Since growth will cease and "more" cannot continue, every aspect of society must be reevaluated and reconsidered. There is a strong probability that every aspect of society will have to be drastically modified to conform to the new paradigm. Every aspect of society includes, but is not limited to, religion, government, charity, justice, morality, life, and death.

“Both the economy of the world and the human population grow in a compound/geometric/exponential manner and not in an arithmetic manner. Compound/geometric/exponential growth is the most powerful force in the universe, it overwhelms everything. Nothing can withstand the power of that type of growth. At a compound growth rate of one-half of one percent (0.005) per year something will double about every 140 years; at one percent(0.01) it will double about every 70 years; at two percent (0.02) it will double about every 35 years; and at three percent (0.03) it will double in slightly less than 24 years--for the purpose of simplicity I will use 24 years.”

Number of years at the percentages set forth above

0.005 0.01 0.02 0.03

Two times as large 140 70 35 24

Four times as large 280 140 70 48

Eight times as large 420 210 105 72

Sixteen times as large 560 280 140 96

Thirty-two times as large 700 350 175 120

One thousand times as large 1,400 700 350 240

One million times as large 2,800 1,400 700 480

One billion times as large 4,200 2,100 1,050 720

“While the following statement cannot be proven with absolute certainty, it is as close to an absolute certainty as any statement ever made by any human being---humanity will destroy itself before the economy or the human population grew by a factor of 32 and that would take between 120 and 700 years depending on the annual growth rate,” said Brent. “A very strong argument can be made that the resources of the earth cannot and will not support the current human population for a period of 500 years at the current usage by humanity of the earth's finite resources. Choose any growth rate you desire and you can easily determine when humanity will destroy itself, if either economic or population were to continue to grow.

“Ultimately the level of the human population will be determined by level of the renewable resources the earth can provide to humanity on an annual basis for an extended period of time as modified by the energy received from the sun. Humanity can use its collective intelligence to increase the efficiency of usage of the resources provided by the earth and humanity can increase the resources provided by the earth by using the energy received from the sun. However, neither of these will permit infinite economic or population growth on the finite earth and ultimately humanity must realize that its population level will be determined by the annual amount of resources the earth can provide for an extended period of time. In my opinion (and I am stating it very clearly to be my opinion) the earth cannot support more than 300-500 million human beings for any period of time greater than 500 years. I want to make it absolutely clear that my opinion is not based on any mathematical calculation. Rather my opinion is based upon a review of the problems presently facing our species.

“Population growth can be reduced to zero or made negative by three and only three ways--a) By violence, starvation, rape, disease, ethnic cleansing and other horrors after humanity has exceeded the carrying capacity of the earth; b) By the voluntary action of all of humanity (and by all of humanity I mean every group, nation, race, religion, and even every family and person) for as long as humanity inhabits the earth; and c) By coercive population control. Since population growth will cease humanity must choose the method it will use to reduce population growth to zero or make it negative, either by making a choice or nature will make that choice and that choice will be by "a" set forth at the beginning of this paragraph.

“Population growth will not be reduced to zero or made negative by each male fathering only one child and each female giving birth to one child. Rather, population growth will be reduced by humanity being divided into two groups-- a) Those that reproduce and b) Those that die before reproducing or are not permitted to reproduce. Never once since life began on the earth has population been controlled by each male fathering only one child and each female giving birth to one child. In every single case, without even one exception, over the last 3.6-4.0 billion years population growth for every living species has been reduced by dividing the population into the two groups described in this paragraph. The only choice humanity has is to determine how the division into two groups will be made. If humanity does not use its collective intelligence to make that division, nature will make it by violence and the other ways described in "a" in paragraph 5 above.

“There are two and only two times at which population growth can be reduced--a) After birth; and b) Before birth. Population growth will be reduced after birth when humanity exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet and at that time it will be reduced by the horrors described in "a" in paragraph 5 above. Population growth can be reduced before birth by artificial birth control and abortion. Abortion is required, since even the best methods of birth control sometimes fail and/or are not used properly. The rhythm method demanded by the Catholic Church is not birth control. It is called Vatican Roulette for a very good reason--its failure rate.

“In the event that population growth is reduced by the horrors set forth in "a" in paragraph 5 (violence, starvation, rape, disease, ethnic cleansing, and other horrors), in all probability humanity will be unable to ever, or at least for thousands of years, restart civilization. This will be caused by the fact that humanity has used up all of the resources necessary to restart civilization prior to the violence or as part of the violence. Humanity will return to the animal state--birth, eat, reproduce, defecate, and die.”

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