Environmental Philosophy and Ethics

2. Population and Political Economy

2. Paul Ehrlich

  • Professor of Biology, Stanford University.
  • Author of The Population Bomb (1968).
  • The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds (1988).
  • The Population Explosion (with Anne Ehrlich) (1990).

3. Ehrlich: The Population Bomb

  • The Population Bomb (1968)
  • "Too many cars, too many factories, too much detergent, too much pesticide . . . too little water . . . all can be traced easily to too many people." (p. 67)

4. World Population

  • 10,000 B.P. 5 million people in world
  • 1 AD. 200 million
  • 1650. 500 million
  • 1850. 1 billion
  • 1930. 2 billion
  • 1999. 6 billion
  • 2011. 7 billion
  • 2016. 7.4 billion
  • 2024. 8 billion

5. Population Growth: 1AD - 2000

6. Population

  • World: 
    • 1950: 2.5 billion
    • 1998: 5.9 billion; 1.4%/yr
    • 2016: 7.4 billion; 1.07%/yr
  • U.S. 
    • 1950: 157 million
    • 1998: 273 million; 0.8%/yr
    • 2016: 324 million; 0.77%/yr
  • China: 
    • 1950: 554 million
    • 1998: 1.2 billion; 0.9%/yr 
    • 2016: 1.38 billion; 0.53%/yr 
  • Russia: 
    • 1950: 102 million
    • 1998: 147 million; 0.3%/yr
    • 2016: 143 million; 0.04%/yr

7. Thomas Malthus

  • English economist and parson, 1766-1834.
  • An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798 (later editions 1803-26).
  • Population unchecked increases in a geometric ratio (2,4,8,16 . . .); subsistence increases in an arithmetic ratio (1,2,3,4 . . .).
  • Positive checks: war, famine, pestilence, misery and vice.
  • Poor laws support and foster large families.

8. Population Doubling Times

Annual Increase (Percent)
  • 0.5
  • 1.0
  • 1.5
  • 2.0
  • 3.0
  • 4.0
Doubling Time (Years)
  • 138
  • 70
  • 46
  • 35
  • 24
  • 17

9. The Population Explosion, 1990

  • Paul and Anne Ehrlich.
  • 1990. "The Population Bomb was for Lisa, this is for Lisaís daughter, Jessica."

10. Optimum Human Population, Ehrlich and Ehrlich, 1994

  • Function of the desired quality of life.
  • Minimal physical ingredients of a decent life for everyone.
  • Basic human rights in the social sphere.
  • Large enough to foster cultural diversity.
  • Large enough to stimulate cultural creativity.
  • Small enough to ensure biodiversity.
  • Optimum number of people=1.5 to 2 billion.

11. Population Rise: 1950-2050

12. World Population Growth Rate

  • 1960. 2.1% growth per year. Doubling rate: 33 years.
  • 1990. 1.8% growth rate. Doubling rate: 39 years.
  • 1998. 1.4% growth rate. Doubling rate: 49.5 yrs.
  • 2010. 1.1% growth rate. Doubling rate: 63 yrs.
  • 2016. 1.07% growth rate. Doubling rate: 64 yrs.
  • Global annual increment peaked between 1985 and 1990 at 87 million people per year.
  • 1990-95. 81 million persons per year.
  • 2016. 79 million persons per year.

13. Growth Projections: 1950-2050

14. Fertility Decline: 1950-2050

15. Barry Commoner

  • State University of New York, Stonybrook, 1917-2012.
  • The Closing Circle (1971).
  • The Poverty of Power (1976).
  • Making Peace with the Planet (1990).
  • David Kriebel, ed. Barry Commoner's Contribution to the Environmental Movement (2000).

16.  Demographic Transition

  • The point at which death rates and birth rates are approximately equal.
  • Population growth levels off and stabilizes.
  • Populations of most developed nations are now stable or in decline.
  • Populations of most developing nations are continuing to grow in absolute numbers.

17. Population Growth Rate: 1950-2025

18. Death Rates

Europe and N. America
  • 1850. 30/1000
  • 1900. 24/1000
  • 1950. 16/1000
  • 1985. 9/1000
  • 2006. 8/1000
Developing Countries
  • 1850. 38/1000
  • 1900. 33/1000
  • 1950. 23/1000
  • 1985. 10/1000
  • 2006. 9/1000

19. Birth Rates

  • Europe and N. America
    • 1900. 32/1000
    • 1950. 23/1000
    • 1985. 14/1000
    • 1998. 10/1000
    • 2006. 9/1000
  • Developing Countries
    • 1925. 43/1000
    • 1950. 37/1000
    • 1985. 30/1000
    • 1998. 15/1000
    • 2006. 14/1000

20. Population Stabilization: 1950-2050

21. Feminism

  • Gabriela Coalition, Philippines.
  • Equal access to education and employment.
  • Equal pay for women.
  • Healthcare, daycare, eldercare.
  • Social security; old age security.
  • FINRRAGE: Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering. Safe contraceptive technologies.
  • Freedom of choice. Safe abortion.

22. Capitalism

  • Karl Marx, 1818-1883, Germany.
  • Dialectical materialism: production vs. politics/ideas.
  • Reserve army of labor keeps wages down, accumulation up.
  • Capitalism produces abundance and scarcity.
  • Socialism provides for basic needs and social justice.

23. Globalization

  • Expansion of First World capitalism into Third World economies.
  • Developed countries extract natural resources and labor from developing countries.
  • Post-World War II economic development.
  • Bretton Woods institutions (New Hampshire, 1944): World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
  • Free trade and weak environmental regulation.

24. Political Economy

  • Center economies (First World of Europe and North America) exploit peripheral economies (Third World of former colonies and southern hemisphere).
  • Economic surplus extracted (natural resources and cheap labor) to create consumer goods for First World countries and Third World elites.
  • Pollution, toxics, depletion prevent Third World development without dependency.

25. Rosemary Radford Ruether

  • Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley; Claremont College.
  • Integrating Ecofeminism: Globalization and World Religions (2005).
  • Corporate globalization.
  • Corporations buy land, water, and forests; patent seeds, plants, and DNA.

26. Joel Kovel

  • Bard College, emeritus.
  • Editor emeritus: Capitalism, Nature, Socialism (journal).
  • Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, N.Y. 1998.
  • The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? (2002).
  • Capitalism expels by-products of production into ecosystems.

27. Brian Tokar

  • Institute for Social Ecology, Vermont.
  • Earth for Sale: Reclaiming Ecology in the Age of Corporate Greenwash (1997).
  • Grassroots green movements: Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Third World Network.
  • Must reverse corporate greenwash, i.e., pretensions to green approaches by corporations.

28. Natural Capitalism

  • Paul Hawkin, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins.
  • Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (1999).
  • Ecosystem services: regulating atmospheric gases, processing wastes, maintaining nutrient flows, storing and purifying water.
  • Natural capitalism: maintaining and increasing natural resources and ecosystem services.

29. Herman Daly

  • Former World Bank Economist.
  • Steady State Economics (1977).
  • Editor of Economics, Ecology, Ethics: Essays Toward a Steady-State Economy (1980).
  • For the Common Good (1989), with John Cobb.
  • Beyond Growth: Economics of Sustainable Development, 1996.
  • Ecological Economics, 2005.

30. Steady State Economics

  • An economy with constant stocks of people and artifacts; no/low-growth in population, energy, and materials.
  • Low levels of matter and energy throughput; i.e. conservation of renewable resources and energy; reuse of non-renewable resources.
  • Growth in culture and quality of life.
  • Economic services in steady-state relationship to ecosystem services.