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Overpopulation Quotes

Browse 90 quotes about Overpopulation.

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Overpopulation Quotes

“What do you see happening to the idea of dignity to human species if this population growth continues at its present rate? It's going to destroy it all. I use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom, go to the bathroom any time you want, and stay as long as you want to for whatever you need. And this to my way is ideal. And everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the Constitution. But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.”

DignityPopulationOverpopulationDemography
Author:Isaac Asimov
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“There is no explosion in human population, there's only explosion in selfishness, recklessness and indifference. If we could just overpower these primitive tenets, earth could sustain not seven billion, but seventy billion lives quite majestically. A society that has no grip over its selfishness, has to focus on population control.”

CapitalismSocialismSelfishnessSocial IssuesSocial StudiesOverpopulationEconomic DisparityPopulation ControlMaterialistic SocietyPopulation Explosion
Book:The Gentalist: There's No Social Work, Only Family Work
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“Whether we accept it or not, this will likely be the century that determines what the optimal human population is for our planet. It will come about in one of two ways: Either we decide to manage our own numbers, to avoid a collision of every line on civilization's graph - or nature will do it for us, in the form of famines, thirst, climate chaos, crashing ecosystems, opportunistic disease, and wars over dwindling resources that finally cut us down to size.”

ReligionPoliticsBreedingPopulation GrowthOverpopulation
Book:Countdown: Our Last Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
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“European colonists cleared or damaged bush because they did not value it and introduced to more than sixty-five per cent of the continent mono-cultures of non-Australian species they did value... it is our southern Eurasian ancestors... who are actually nomads because we overpopulate... damage land in the process, then wage wars on neighbours to take their land in order to continue to over-populate, and on it goes.”

PoliticsSustainabilityAncestorsColonizationOverpopulationEuropean HistoryAustralian HistoryUnsustainableIntroduced Species
Author:Michael Archer
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“History is a treadmill turned by rising human numbers. Today GM crops are being marketed as the only means of avoiding mass starvation. They are unlikely to improve the lives of peasant farmers ; but they may well enable them to survive in greater numbers.”

HistoryOverpopulationAgricultural RevolutionGenetically Modified Organisms
Book:Perros de paja: Reflexiones sobre los humanos y otros animales
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“The Environmental Movement’s Retreat from Advocating U.S. Population Stabilization (1970–1998): A First Draft of History by Roy Beck and Leon Kolankiewicz The overwhelmingly non-Hispanic, white leadership of the environmental movement may have felt it was defensible to address population growth as long as the great bulk of this growth came from non-Hispanic whites, which it did during the Baby Boom. But the situation changed dramatically after1972. From that year forward, the fertility of non-Hispanic whites was below the replacement rate, while that of black Americans and Latinos remained well above the replacement rate. To talk of fertility reductions after 1972 was to draw disproportionate attention to nonwhites. Certain minorities and their spokespersons—with long memories of disgraceful treatment by the white majority and acutely aware of their comparative powerlessness in American society—were deeply suspicious of possible hidden agendas in the population stabilization movement. As the Reverend Jesse Jackson told the Rockefeller Commission, “our community is suspect of any programs that would have the effect of either reducing or levelling off our population growth. Virtually all the security we have is in the number of children we produce.” And Manuel Aragon, speaking in Spanish, declared to the Commission: “what we must do is to encourage large Mexican American families so that we will eventually be so numerous that the system will either respond or it will be overwhelmed.” During the twenty-six years after 1972, the non-Hispanic white share of population growth declined significantly from the 1970 era. Thus, by the 1990s, a majority of the nation’s growth stemmed from sources other than non-Hispanic whites (especially Latin American and Asian immigrants and their offspring). Environmentalist leaders—proud and protective of their claim to the moral high ground—may have been reluctant to jeopardize this by venturing into the political minefield of the nation’s volatile racial/ethnic relations through appearing to point fingers at “outsiders,” “others,” or “people of color” as responsible for America’s ongoing problem with population growth.”

ImmigrationOverpopulationEthnic PoliticsZero Population Growth
Author:Roy Beck
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“Population momentum is a consequence of the demographic transition. Population momentum explains why a population will continue to grow even if the fertility rate declines. Population momentum occurs because it is not only the number of children per woman that determine population growth, but also the number of women in reproductive age. Eventually, when the fertility rate reaches the replacement rate and the population size of women in the reproductive age bracket stabilizes, the population achieves equilibrium and population momentum comes to an end. Population momentum has implications for population policy for a number of reasons. 1. With respect to high-fertility countries (for example in the developing world), a positive population momentum, meaning that the population is increasing, states that these countries will continue to grow despite large and rapid declines in fertility. 2. With respect to lowest-low fertility countries (for example in Europe), a negative population momentum implies that these countries may experience population decline even if they try to increase their rate of fertility to the replacement rate of 2.1. For example, some Eastern European countries show a population shrinkage even if their birth rates recovered to replacement level. Population momentum can become negative if the fertility rate is under replacement level for a long period of time.”

OverpopulationDemographic WinterSub Replacement Fertility
Author:Wikipedia: Population Momentum
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“The greatest threat to Mankind, and all of life on this beautiful Planet, is not Climate Change, Over Population, Terrorism, Racism, Resource Scarcity or some Deadly Disease. No, the greatest threat to Mankind is the same today as it was over a thousand years ago; We are ruled by Parasitical Psychopaths who plunge us into war, manipulate us against each other, and flood our minds with fear, hate, bigotry and ignorance with every chance they get.”

HateFearIgnoranceClimate ChangeTerrorismPolitics QuotesOverpopulationDeadly DiseaseGreatest Threat
Author:Gavin Nascimento
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“Overpopulation is the problem of the third and fourth World; over-consumption is the problem of the West. The average American child this year will consume as much of the world's resources as twenty children born in India. Deliberate and calculated waste is the central aspect of the American economy. We over-eat, over-buy, and over-built, spewing out our toxic wastes upon the earth and into the air.”

WorldYearsChildrenProblemEarthBornEconomyAirWasteResourcesBuiltAspectThirdsIndiaTwentiesWestAverageToxicFourthConsumptionConsumerismDeliberateOverconsumptionOverpopulationAmerican EconomyToxic Waste
Author:Richard J. Foster
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“The hungry world cannot be fed until and unless the growth of its resources and the growth of its population come into balance. Each man and woman-and each nation-must make decisions of conscience and policy in the face of this great problem.”

MenWorldProblemFacesNationsGrowthDecisionEnvironmentPolicyBalanceConscienceMen And WomenResourcesPopulationHungryFedsPopulation GrowthOverpopulationWorld PovertyEnvironmental ProblemsWorld PopulationReproductive HealthEnvironmental StewardshipPopulation Problem
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
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“Solving the population problem is not going to solve the problems of racism, of sexism, of religious intolerance, of war, of gross economic inequality. But if you don't solve the population problem, you're not going to solve any of those problems. Whatever problem you're interested in, you're not going to solve it unless you also solve the population problem. Whatever your cause, it's a lost cause without population control.”

IfsWarProblemLostCausesReligiousEconomicRacismPopulationSolveInequalitySexismIntoleranceGrossReligious IntoleranceEconomic InequalityOverpopulationPopulation ControlLost CausePopulation Problem
Author:Paul R. Ehrlich
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“Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutan shave been living for hundreds of thousands of years in their forest,living fantastic lives, never overpopulating, never destroying the forest. I would say that they have been in a way more successful than us as far as being in harmony with the environment.”

WayYearsHas BeensSuccessfulEnvironmentHarmonyForestsFantasticDestroyingChimpanzeesPrimatesGorillasOverpopulationWoods And ForestsOrangutansFantastic Life
Author:Jane Goodall
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“Our problem with limited resources is not primarily overpopulation; it is greed. Our problem with pollution is not the invention of fluorocarbons or mass transport; it is irresponsibility. The loss of an acre of forest every second, the mass slaughter of elephants for their ivory, the extinction of entire species of plants, insects and animals all over the world is not something that "just happens" because there are more of us human beings. It happens because the race of ruling beings put in charge has almost wholly lost its sense of stewardship. We have turned away from God.”

WorldHumansProblemHappensLostHuman BeingsLossAnimalRaceMassResourcesPlantSpeciesEnvironmentalGreedInventionForestsPollutionElephantsInsectsRulingExtinctionStewardshipSlaughterTransportEvery SecondAcresIvoryIrresponsibilityOverpopulationLimited Resources
Author:Winkie Pratney
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“The next most dangerous thing [after nuclear proliferation] is probably... global warming, and then, right behind that are overpopulation -- we need to get serious about family planning-and trying to alleviate poverty, to get clean, renewable energy, probably with solar panels to the billion and a half people in the world who don't have access to electricity.”

PeopleWorldNeedsTryingNextEnergyBehindsHalfPovertyDangerousSeriousCleanAccessNuclearBillionsPlanningGlobal WarmingElectricityDangerous ThingsRenewable EnergyAbout FamilyProliferationAlleviateOverpopulationFamily PlanningNuclear ProliferationSolar Panels
Author:Ted Turner
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“Overpopulation in the United States will become THE single greatest issue facing Americans in the 21st century. We either solve it proactively or nature will solve it brutally for us via water shortages, energy crisis, air pollution, gridlock, species extinction and worse.”

StatesEnergyWaterUnitedUnited StatesIssuesAirCenturyCrisisSpeciesSolvePollution21st CenturyExtinctionShortageOverpopulationAir PollutionGridlockEnergy CrisisSpecies Extinction
Author:Frosty Wooldridge
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“For Al Gore and Paul Ehrlich and Co., whatever the problem, the solution is always the same. Whether it's global cooling, global warming, or overpopulation, we need bigger government, more regulation, higher taxes, and a massive transfer of power from the citizens to some unelected self-perpetuating crisis lobby.”

NeedsSelfProblemGovernmentHigherCitizensTaxesSolutionsBiggerCrisisGlobal WarmingMassiveAlsRegulationGoreTransfersOverpopulationPerpetuatingCooling
Book:America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It
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“Each year, millions of animals are euthanized at local shelters because of overpopulation. Almost half of the animals brought into these shelters are euthanized because suitable homes can't be found for them. Animal rescue, a cause close to my heart, can lead to the safety of millions of these lost souls.”

YearsHeartSoulHomeFoundLostCausesAnimalHalfMillionsMy HeartSafetyLocalsRescueShelterSuitableLost SoulsOverpopulationAnimal RescueClose To My Heart
Author:Jud Tylor
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“I think about the trends at the moment in the planet and how it looks for my grandchildren. I don't panic over it, even though rationally maybe I should. I have faith that these terrible trends will change, and they will not go to their logical conclusions of climate change, militarism, pollution, overpopulation.”

ThinkingShouldLooksMomentsPlanetsTerribleClimateClimate ChangeConclusionOver ItLogicalTrendsHave FaithPanicPollutionShould IGrandchildrenMilitarismMy GrandchildrenOverpopulation
Author:Robert Thurman
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