Overpopulation facts - the problem no one will discuss | Alexandra Paul | TEDxTopanga

Actress Alexandra Paul discusses her lifelong concern about human overpopulation and the fears we all have about discussing the issue.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

I grew up in the 1960s,

watching those TV commercials
with those starving kids in Africa

who stared vacantly at the camera
with sad eyes and distended bellies.

And in sixth grade,

my glee club teacher, Mr. Collins,

had us change the words
in this song we were singing -

(Singing) "Three billion
people in the world" -

to

(Singing) "Four billion
people in the world."

And I was shocked.

I couldn't believe
that the population was so big.

And I was even more shocked

because no one else in the class
seemed at all disturbed by this fact.

A couple of days later,
I told my friend Suzy Hollander

that because there seemed to be
too many people in the world

for it to handle,

that I wasn't going to have any kids.

And she looked at me, and she replied
that she was going to have three.

And I felt pretty alone in my beliefs.

And 37 years later,

I still feel pretty alone in my beliefs,

and I'm still shocked that not more people
are disturbed by population growth.

And I think it's because as a species
we've decided not to talk about it,

to kind of tuck it away.

So I'm here to untuck it.

Modern man first showed up
on earth 200,000 years ago.

And by 1850,

we had reproduced so successfully,

there were 1 billion people on the planet.

That means it took 200,000 years for us
to put the first billion people on earth.

The next billion came in 100 years.

200,000 years to get to the first billion;

100 years to get to the second billion;

now, we add 1 billion people
to the planet every 12 years.

And in 2011, the world population
reached 7 billion people.

Now, this surge in growth

came about because of improvements
in agriculture and medicine,

because as a species,
we are a biological success story.

Survival of the fittest -
we have survived!

And we're also a religious success story:

we have gone forth and multiplied.

(Laughter)

But now we have to stop,

or it will be our downfall.

And just to give you an idea
of how fast population grows:

Bangladesh had a hurricane
that killed 139,000 people.

How long did it take Bangladesh to replace
those deaths with 139,000 new births?

Two and a half weeks.

Now, the world population
is growing at just 1% a year,

which might not sound like very much,

but 1% of seven billion
is actually a big number.

It means that every day
we add 220,000 people to the planet -

every day.

And this is unsustainable,

which means that at some point,

the world population
is going to stop growing.

The question is how?

Will it stop growing because of famine,
disease, a war over resources?

Or will it stop growing because
people choose to have smaller families?

And by "smaller families,"
I mean one-child families.

This is where people start getting nervous

talking about overpopulation
and population issues

because they're scared

that I'm going to take away
their rights to have children.

But I don't want
to take people's rights away;

I want to give people rights.

Forcing people to have
fewer children does not work.

In fact,

the fastest and most efficient way
to stabilize the world population

is to send girls to school
and to empower women

and to give everyone access to
and education on birth control.

And those are good things.

And as a culture,

we need to emphasize the benefits
of having a one-child family

so people will choose to have fewer kids.

Because for thousands of years,

we've been inculcated with this ethic
that big families are happy families

and only children are lonely children.

Couples like myself and my husband, Ian,
who have chosen not to have kids

were child-less instead of child-free.

And myself, several times,
I have been accused of being selfish

because of my decision
not to have children.

And all this made sense

when it was important for us
to procreate for our survival.

But now?

For our survival,
we have to not procreate.

And we have to change and rewire
our biology and our culture

to recognize the benefits
of a one-child family

because right now,
mostly what we see is the negatives.

For example,

when a country's population falls,

there's all this economic doom
and gloom in the media

because capitalism
is based on eternal growth.

Capitalism depends upon
more and more consumers.

So yeah - when population lowers,
the economy will suffer.

But it will suffer less

than if there's no more oil
and food and water

because there are 10 billion people
on the planet in 40 years,

which is what the UN is projecting.

Now, you might be thinking,

"Okay, this population issue
sounds troublesome.

But we should be having the babies.

We're smart and we're educated
and we listen to TED Talks

and we can afford kids and heck -

our offspring, they might save the world!"

Even my mom says,

"Oh Alexandra,
you'd be such a good mother!

And your kids, they'd be wonderful!"

And they might be wonderful,

but they would also be wasteful

because North Americans
use 32 times the resources

as someone from a developing country,

so it's even more important
that we have smaller families.

For example,

someone in the United States, on average,
uses 176 gallons of water a day

compared to the average person
from Africa who only uses 5 gallons a day.

And it's not just vis-à-vis
poor countries either.

We here in the United States,

we use twice the energy as someone
from France or England or Japan.

There are a lot of countries
that have a higher fertility rate

than we do here in the United States,

but we all have to aspire
to a one-child family,

especially those of us living here.

Maybe you're thinking,

"Well, don't worry, Alexandra -
technology will save us."

Yes, it's possible that we might be able
to eke a few more years of resources

because of some new
inventions or technologies.

But in the end, even if we can
feed and house 14 billion people,

what would their lives be like?

The population is going to
have to stop growing at some point,

so why not stop now

instead of wishing that some
invention or technology will save us

that doesn't even exist yet
and we're not even sure works?

So for everyone to have quality of life,

the number of humans on earth
needs to go down.

And I believe that it needs
to go down to 2 billion people,

which sounds radical

because there are 7 billion people
on the planet today.

But it's actually the world population
of just 80 years ago.

So let's change our idea
of what the ideal family looks like -

one is a beautiful number.

And let's not be afraid
to talk about overpopulation.

Because it is not about
taking rights away from people;

it is about giving opportunities to women,
children, and future generations.

And lastly, let's be part of the solution

and choose, from now on,

to bring forth no more
than one child ourselves.

Thank you.

(Applause)