Population Ecology
Population ecology is a branch of ecology that deals with the dynamics of populations and how they relate to their environment.
Population is of great interest to the field of Deep Ecology due to our culture's belief that we are separate from nature and somehow different from all the other animals. Because of this we think that humans are exempt from basic biology that applies to all other species.
The current population crisis is caused by our ignorance of how human population is affected by our relationship with our environment and specifically our food supply. Understanding this will provide you with great insight as to how to solve the overpopulation issue. It is a necessary understanding if we have any hope of creating a better future.
Human Population Growth Is Determined By Food Supply
Humans don't breed like rabbits. Rabbits don't even breed like rabbits. The human population, just like every biological species is determined by the availability of food. The more food there is the more people there will be. The less food there is the less people there will be. People will dispute this but history and ecology beg to differ.
Feeding The Hungry By Increasing The Food Supply Doesn't Work
Every year we try and feed the hungry by increasing the food supply, yet every year we have more starving people. The reason for this is that the extra food does not go to the starving millions, the extra food goes to fuel the population explosion. This just leads to more starving millions. It is basic ecology - if you increase the food, you increase the population.
A Negative Feedback System - The Way A Population Controls Itself
Negative feedback systems are brilliant methods of control. More food leads to more feeders. This causes food to drop and then feeders to decline. As feeders decline then food increases. More food leads to more feeders. But our culture has found a way to temporarily break the systems controls. This has caused our population explosion and is free falling towards catastrophe.
You Are What You Eat - Humans Are Made From Food
The phrase "you are what you eat" is just relevant to dietary choices. It has ramifications for how we thing about population systems as a whole. Humans eat food therefore we are food. If we are food then there is no way that our population could ever outstrip our food resources. Therefore if we want to control population all we have to do is control food supply.
Thomas Malthus - The Father Of Our Population Misconception
Thomas Malthus is the foundation thinker of our culture's population ecology. His fear was that human desire to procreate would lead to a situation where population growth outstripped our ability to feed ourselves. Malthus was unaware that this is a biological impossibility. His error has caused major misconceptions about population that we still hold today.
World Population Growth And Its Social Effects
As world population growth has taken off at an exponential rate so too have social issues as a result of overcrowding. First came war, crime, economic instability and political corruption. Then poor health, sanitation issues and disease. People felt lost and afraid, so then came salvationist religions. Now the population is now completely apathetic and disoriented.
Criticism Of Deep Ecology And It's Population Strategy
Understandably when you say that population reduction is a good idea people think you want to commit wanton genocide. But our population can go down the same way it came up, just in reverse - by gradually reducing the food supply. We have to get a hold on our population and social means are not working. If not we will overrun the earth.
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