It seems noteworthy to me that the places which are doing best economically are those with the highest population densities—places like New York City, Tokyo, Honk Kong. The places which do worst are those with unsustainably low population densities. I can think of any number of small Kansas towns which are all but defunct because of declining population. The U.S. grew economically as a result of the population boom following WW-II.
Now, the trends are clear. Fertility rates are declining everywhere. Economic decline will inevitably follow.
Resources are never static. Populations which depended on hunting and gathering thought that the land couldn’t support much more of them either, so did early subsistence farmers. Resources increase by innovation, creativity, and invention, and those things are accomplished by the ultimate resource—human beings.
In any case, we will soon be looking back wonderng why we ever worried about population growth, as we are faced with a shortage of people.
“Fertility rates” are decling everywhere. What does that mean? Less sperm & eggs. Less potent sperm & eggs. Less sexual activity. Or, widespread contraception, sterilization & abortion.
Resources increase by innovation, creativity and invention. What does that mean? Could you restore the “Sahara Forest”? “What?”, you say to the logger applying for a job. "Don’t you mean the “Sahara Desert”? He replies, “Well it is now? Do I get the job?”.
You say, “Well, what we really need is turn the Sahara Desert into a Sahara Forest?”. Farmer says, “No problem. I’ll need a large amount of petrol for fertilizer to renew the soil, since it is unsuitable agricultural land without our innovative, creative invention of fertilizer based on this non-renewable resource. After we get it back into a proper forest, we will have to harvest more reasonably so that our consumption demanded by high population doesn’t overtake our supply by sustainable forestry without reliance on non-renewable resources.”
Well, we’ll need population to implement these plans whose issues are posed by population concerns.
My point in all these arguments is that I disagree that there isn’t a brick wall in term of overpopulation, but more importantly, population growth must match the supply & demand requirements. That is, I disagree that there is no need for the concept of population control. The argument should be the ethical means of achieving those ends.
We have that answer, which is the Church’s concept of “responsible parenthood”. I disagree that potential overpopulation is a myth, and suggest that the Church recognizes this fact. If one reads Humanae Vitae, one realizes that one of the serious reasons to ethically limit family sizes that is cited is the consideration of “society” along with spouses, family and Church.