Basic Principles of Deep Ecology – #4 Decrease of the human population

Today we are going to discuss the "Basic Principles of Deep Ecology", developed by Arne Næss and George Sessions. I am going to talk about Principle 4: "The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease."

Here I turn to late Hans Rosling who explains population growth, and how the only way to make this growth decrease is by getting rid of poverty:




A longer version of this argument gives some telling visualisations and a story to be told about sustainable growth:

In 1960 there were approximately 3 billion people in the world:

By 2010 we passed 7 billion:

In 2050 there will be at least 9 billion:

And by the end of the 21. century there will be somewhere between 10 and 11 billion people. Even though the birth rate goes down to sustainable levels this increase will come.

In other words there is no future where Næss' and Sessions' Principle 4 is anywhere close to relevant. It just won't happen without a series of really, really huge catastrophes. 

However: "As many ecologists have pointed out, it is also absolutely crucial to curb population growth in the so-called developed (i.e., overdeveloped) industrial societies. Given the tremendous rate of consumption and waste production of individuals in these societies, they represent a much greater threat and impact on the biosphere per capita than individuals in Second and Third World countries."

We should focus on how to bring people out of poverty without consuming nature. This can only be done by massive turn towards sustainable and cheap energy. At the same time the standard of living in the richest countries should be lowered. I do not believe the latter will be possible, but the increase in living standards must be slowed down. At the same time we also need to look for sustainable energy – in our case society might actually benefit from this energy being much more expensive than what is needed in less wealthy parts of the world.

We should focus on Principle 6: "Policies must therefore be changed. These policies affect basic economic, technological, and ideological structures. The resulting state of affairs will be deeply different from the present." and Principle 7: "The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality (dwelling in situations of inherent value) rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will be a profound awareness of the difference between big and great."