The Problem of Overpopulation in Kasun

In her article “The Unjust War against Population”, Jacqueline Kasun argues that in spite of a commonly argued position, overpopulation is not a threat to humanity. In her argument she provides shocking statistics relating to the earth’s potential agricultural output, such as that fact that “it would be possible to feed…more than twenty-two times as many [people] as now exist, at a Japanese standard of food intake” (406). While I believe that her argument may face additional difficulties, here I pose an objection relating to the focus of Kasun’s argument, which I believe to be wrongly directed.

If we concede Kasun’s argument that the earth is for all intensive purposes capable of providing humankind with food for thousands of years, or even the position that humankind will never run out of resources (a stronger claim than that argued by Kasun), we would still be left with the fact that these resources are not equally distributed. We can see this in the world today; places where starvation is rampant are in a meaningful sense ‘overpopulated’.

Indeed, as Kasun argues, these cases may well be attributed to other factors. Dr. David Hopper, whom Kasun quotes, writes, “The world’s food problem does not arise from any physical limitation on potential output or any danger of unduly stressing the environment. The limitations on abundance are to be found in the social and political structures of nations and in the economic relations among them” (406). But even conceding this point, it cannot be denied that there are ‘overpopulated’ areas, if we simply take this to mean that there is not enough food for the people living there. So, while overpopulation ‘shouldn’t be’ or ‘doesn’t have to be’ a problem, it still is a problem, regardless.

While it may not ultimately solve this problem of unevenly distributed resources in the way that destroying oppressive political and social structures might, counteracting overpopulation would still meaningfully contribute to this end. So, we could say that while correct, Kasun’s argument is at the same time misdirected. Even if she does set straight misunderstandings regarding the earth’s potential carrying capacity and what this means for the future of earth, we maintain that overpopulation is a problem.