This last year I was a religious education teacher for 6th graders at my parish. Our topic for the year was the Holy Bible. Near the beginning of the year we were looking at the book of Genesis and God’s first commandment to Adam and Eve. Genesis 1:22 “and God blessed them, saying, “Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth.” One of the kids asked “What about overpopulation, there won’t be enough to eat, there won’t be enough room to live or food to eat. I told the kids that we must trust God at all times and I would get back with them the next week with facts to discuss the topic of “over-population”.
Fact 1. There is an estimated 57,500,000 sq miles of Land Surface on planet earth. There are an estimated 7 Billion people on earth rounding up about 300 million of the current estimate to the nearest Billion. This means that there is 0.008214 sq miles/person on planet earth and if 1 sq mile = 27,878,400 sq feet then even with inflated population numbers there is still 229,001 sq ft per person on planet earth. To put this in physical terms that we can possibly relate to you could fit everyone in the world in the state of Texas and gave them equal room to live, even if all the rooms were connected everyone would still have 1070 sq ft per person. The world is far from over populated from a land perspective.
But what about food?
Fact 2. The following is from the Handbook on Population, Sassone, 1998 par. 203 “There appear to be no insurmountable resource and technology constraints at the global level that would stand in the way of increasing world food supplies by as much as required by the growth of effective demand.” And, “…global food production has evolved to a stage where sufficient food is produced to meet the needs of every person on the planet.”
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, world food supplies exceed requirements in all world areas, amounting to a surplus approaching 50% in 1990 in the developed countries, and 17% in the developing regions. “Globally, food supplies have more than doubled in the last 40 years … between 1962 and 1991, average daily per caput food supplies increased more than 15% … at a global level, there is probably no obstacle to food production rising to meet demand,” according to FAO documents prepared for the 1996 World Food Summit. The FAO also reported that less than a third as many people had less than 2100 calories per person per day in 1990-92 as had been the case in 1969-71.
At present, farmers use less than half of the world’s arable land. The conversion of land to urban and built-up uses to accommodate a larger population will absorb less than 2% of the world’s land, and “is not likely to seriously diminish the supply of land for agricultural production,” according to Paul Waggoner, writing for the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology in 1994.
In Conclusion: Do we trust God and His commandments to us? Or do we do believe alarmists who raise false arguments to help support the supposed need for abortion and contraception. God has given us the Catholic Church, which has spoken with authority on these issues yet our world, and even some Catholic laity, prefers to chart their own course in life.
Dear Lord Jesus help us trust in You. Helps to live our lives in accordance with Your will and direction. Increase our trust in Your Catholic Church and its teaching. Amen
Over Population Myth
Fact 1. There is an estimated 57,500,000 sq miles of Land Surface on planet earth. There are an estimated 7 Billion people on earth rounding up about 300 million of the current estimate to the nearest Billion. This means that there is 0.008214 sq miles/person on planet earth and if 1 sq mile = 27,878,400 sq feet then even with inflated population numbers there is still 229,001 sq ft per person on planet earth. To put this in physical terms that we can possibly relate to you could fit everyone in the world in the state of Texas and gave them equal room to live, even if all the rooms were connected everyone would still have 1070 sq ft per person. The world is far from over populated from a land perspective.
But what about food?
Fact 2. The following is from the Handbook on Population, Sassone, 1998 par. 203 “There appear to be no insurmountable resource and technology constraints at the global level that would stand in the way of increasing world food supplies by as much as required by the growth of effective demand.” And, “…global food production has evolved to a stage where sufficient food is produced to meet the needs of every person on the planet.”
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, world food supplies exceed requirements in all world areas, amounting to a surplus approaching 50% in 1990 in the developed countries, and 17% in the developing regions. “Globally, food supplies have more than doubled in the last 40 years … between 1962 and 1991, average daily per caput food supplies increased more than 15% … at a global level, there is probably no obstacle to food production rising to meet demand,” according to FAO documents prepared for the 1996 World Food Summit. The FAO also reported that less than a third as many people had less than 2100 calories per person per day in 1990-92 as had been the case in 1969-71.
At present, farmers use less than half of the world’s arable land. The conversion of land to urban and built-up uses to accommodate a larger population will absorb less than 2% of the world’s land, and “is not likely to seriously diminish the supply of land for agricultural production,” according to Paul Waggoner, writing for the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology in 1994.
In Conclusion: Do we trust God and His commandments to us? Or do we do believe alarmists who raise false arguments to help support the supposed need for abortion and contraception. God has given us the Catholic Church, which has spoken with authority on these issues yet our world, and even some Catholic laity, prefers to chart their own course in life.
Dear Lord Jesus help us trust in You. Helps to live our lives in accordance with Your will and direction. Increase our trust in Your Catholic Church and its teaching. Amen