To the Journal editor:

On Jan. 27, John Stossel wrote an op-ed attempting to present the positive side of overpopulation.

In the article, he claims that innovation prevents our growing population from destroying nature. He tries to argue that our 8 billion people consume sustainably and that women having fewer babies hurts the world.

As a younger man, I had the wonderful opportunity to live and work in the Netherlands. The country of the Netherlands is about the same geographic size as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The U.P., however, has just over 301,000 people, while the Netherlands accommodates a population of 17.5 million.

I am grateful that I live where I do, here in the U.P. I very much enjoy our sparsely populated, lightly developed, forested surroundings. It provides a quality of life that is difficult to duplicate.

From 2001-17, the U.S. lost 24 million acres of wilderness to energy, agriculture, and housing development (Reuters, Aug. 6, 2019). Of all the land in the country, only 5% remains designated as wilderness, of which, only 2.7% is located in the lower 48 states, with the remaining majority located in Alaska (Congressional Research Service, July 29).

A global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystems, authored by 145 experts and scientists from 50 countries, concluded that 1 million species are at risk of decline and extinction due to deforestation, pollution, poaching, climate change, ocean acidification, dead zones, micro-plastics, and overfishing.  You can read about it in the Smithsonian Magazine or National Geographic News, dated May 6, 2019.

The two plagues of our planet are overpopulation and overconsumption. By 2060, the U.S. population is expected to reach 404 million. This year, India is expected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country, at 1.4 billion people.

Then China’s economy (GDP) is expected to overtake the U.S. by 2035 (Forbes, Dec. 6). If everyone on this planet wanted to consume like the average American, we would need over four more planet earths (University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems).

Technology will not save the day. We need to live more sustainably in order to preserve what we value. I am grateful for the slowdown in population growth, at home and abroad. If countries like our own seek a younger population to support the old and to contribute to society, let us welcome the eager migrants knocking at the door.