Population control advocate visits Palo Alto Population control advocate visits Palo Alto (September 28, 2005)

Crush of people leading to greater problems, he argues

by Kenneth Seli

If it were up to John Seager, the world would be a lot less crowded..

Seager, the president and CEO of environmental advocacy group Population Connection, said many global problems have a direct correlation to recent population booms.

"It is literally impossible to not find a story about the impact of population in the news today," said Seager who sees a connection between changing weather patterns, availability of resources and fuel usage among other issues.

Currently, Seager is touring the West Coast, which included a stop in Palo Alto, to meet with supporters in California.

"They are of a globalist perspective," Seager said of the region. "They understand how connected the planet is today."

It is the boom of people on earth since the technological revolution that most concerns the members of Population Connection, Seager said.

James Holland Jones, assistant professor of anthropological science at Stanford University, said the current population of the earth experienced a population doubling in the mid to late 20th century from 3 billion to 6 billion people.

"The shortest doubling time of the world's population was in 35 years around the mid to late 20th century," Holland said.

Seager said Population Connection was formed because of the expected growth of the earth's population in relation to natural resources available .

Formerly known for most of its 35 years as the Zero Population Growth movement, the group seeks to educate the general populace on the benefit of a stable "replacement rate," in which a woman gives birth to two children, therefore replenishing the population without significantly adding onto it, Seager said.

The organization also supports the use of birth control and family planning.

Not everyone, however, feels the issue is so black and white.

William H. Durham, chair of anthropological sciences at Stanford University, said the population boom does play a major role in the world's condition. However, other factors also come into play.

"Growth and uneven consumption is growing faster than population growth," said Durham who points to increases of technology that burn through energy and resource supplies. "You have to be more concerned with institutional inequality because it has to do more with scarcity of resources." Despite such factors, however, Seager said he is confident global environmental problems can be better addressed once population is under control.

"I'm wildly optimistic," Seager said. "When the right ingredients are in place, change will happen virtually overnight."

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