Opinion: Overpopulation is overhyped
Sir David Attenborough watches too much TV. The man the British have dubbed a “national treasure” is scheduled to celebrate his 87th birthday this year. He has spent most of his life bringing the outdoors indoors and into our living rooms. Even if you don’t recognize the name you have probably heard the voice through any number of wildlife programs, most famously the “Life” series from the BBC, where he has worked full-time since 1952.For a man that has produced countless wild interactions with animals across this planet and has even received America’s grandest honor of comedic impersonation, his latest comments to the Radio Times out of the U.K. may appear troubling.“We are a plague on the Earth,” Attenborough said. “It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us…”If these comments sound familiar, they should. Humans seem to be continuously underestimating our will to survive and our technological capabilities while simultaneously underestimating how much land is really still out there. Any person that has driven across the U.S. or even from one city to the next in Ohio would be able to tell you there is plenty. Though with 80 percent of the U.S. population living in urban areas, fears of overcrowding are easy to develop. When you live in a concrete jungle it’s not hard to forget that real jungles still exist.The comments from Attenborough stirred up so much discussion that Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and a professor at Copenhagen Business School, decided to speak out, calling Attenborough’s views “outdated.”In an interview with the Radio Times, Lomborg said that the “idea that we cannot support the population is entirely neglecting the advancement of technology we have found to utilize land and resources much more effectively…humans are part of nature and also have a space here – even if you look at it only from a biodiversity point of view.”Lomborg is correct. Attenborough’s views seem to show a lack of understanding of the steps the human race has taken to secure our collective futures. New technologies, though sometimes controversial, are continuously being developed to ensure our survival.Genetically modified crops (GMCs), precision farming and modern industrial production allow food to be produced at enormous levels due to technological developments. And despite the controversies surrounding GMCs and Genetically Modified Organisms, they are proof that our scientists are hard at work to solve the potential issues coming from our planet’s population growth.Humans for the most part live in equilibrium with nature. The advanced scale of our development and expansion is perhaps no more impactful on a comparative level of existence to the tent caterpillar, which devours leaves and trees in order to grow much like we do to expand, or to the plant known as Kudzu, an invasive plant species that climbs over trees and shrubs at such a rapid pace that the shade produced by it's own leaves kills its "victims"To liken human beings to a plague as Attenborough did is an irresponsible comment and shows a blatant disregard for our species. A plague terminates all it touches with extreme prejudice. But despite our wars, despite our guns and despite the darkest points of human actions and existence, the human race as a whole is a beautiful product of collective brilliance.For the most part, we do not destroy nature, we exist among it. We use what it naturally creates to do magnificent things like discover new lands and simpler things like creating lifelong friendships in the cozy confines of a tree house.When you spend your entire life gazing into the eyes of a camera as Attenborough has, it could be easy to forget the magnificent accomplishments your viewers’ eyes and minds are capable of as your life is built around the magnificence of our furry friends as opposed to our neighbors. Though even they know…too much TV can make us all a little crazy.
