Increased population means the world cannot feed itself.
The UN says that to remain healthy, the average person must consume roughly 2,000 calories per day. In 1961, 26% of the population of developing countries consumed over 2,000 calories per day. In 1989, 94% of the population of developing countries consumed over 2,000 calories per day. Further, since 1948, world food production has increased at an average of more than 2% per year while world population has grown, on average, at 1.7% per year. Inept government, wars and poor distribution are the real culprits.
Increased population lowers an individual country’s standard of living
Using figures from the most recent census, among the developing countries, Ethiopia has a population density of 43 persons per sq. km.; Nigeria, 121 persons per sq. km.; and the Philippines, 207 persons per sq. km. On the other hand, among the wealthier nations, Japan has a population of 325 persons per sq. km.; Britain 234 persons per sq. km.; and Germany has 244 persons per sq. km. To put this further into perspective, the District of Columbia has a population of 3801.1 persons per sq. km.
Increased population means a world-wide decrease in the standard of living
UNICEF uses 20 conditions to measure standard of life. These include: infant mortality rate, gross national product per person, life expectancy, literacy, food supply, clean drinking water, etc. The UN uses a different set of conditions which include: food, industrial production, commodities production, mining, manufacturing, etc., combining them with the UNICEF measures. As world population has increased, each of these UN measures of quality of life has also improved.
Increased population will deplete the world’s resources.
Most scientists will admit that the world’s non-renewable resources are finite but that it is ludicrous to think that resource depletion will ever occur. To illustrate this point one can look at world prices. The market cost of any resource is obviously determined by its availability. Since 1981, the prices of the most used resources have declined by an average of 56.7%. Governments and monopolies (OPEC) keep availability low in order to keep world prices high.
Increased population is causing the extinction of thousands of species.
In 1980, the Carter administration commissioned a report called Global 2000 Report to the President. The report, which played a great role in shaping U.S. population policies, claimed that by the end of the century, 500,000 animal species would be wiped out. As of 1990, the U.S. government reported only 7 extinct species.
Source: Handbook on population, Robert L. Sassone, 1994.
