The unrelenting stress you may experience getting to work, finding an empty park bench, or simply jockeying for a corner office, in part can be attributed to an increasing world population density. The increasing global population is infiltrating every aspect of your life, and increasing more stress as it does so.One of the ongoing tragedies of over-population on earth is the growing incidence of humankind’s capacity to neglect the plight and the dehumanization of others. Three dramatic examples illustrate this point:

1. Untold numbers of young children – street urchins – are shot to death in principle cities of Brazil each year. Local merchants employ assassins to rid the street of such paupers, beggars, and thieves. The government, at both the federal and local level, repeatedly looks the other way. The implied understanding is that there are too many homeless, unwanted children roaming the streets and that they represent a detriment to the economy, tourism, public health, and state resources.

2. As reported in Time, several million females worldwide are forced into prostitution. These women and young girls–some as young as nine years old–are often “placed” into service by their fathers or brothers. Many become the champion breadwinners of their families.

German, Japanese and, increasingly, U.S. businessmen go on business/drug/sex junkets to Southeast Asia, principally Thailand, and hence preserve a strong demand. The situation is deplorable and getting worse. These women lead wretched lives. Exposure to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are one of the many hazards they encounter. Brutality on the part of “customers,” filthy environments, ill-nourishment, and poverty of the soul doom many to a short, miserable life.

3. Ethnic hostilities around the world grab their share of headlines. Few people are willing to take action, not because the situation doesn’t merit immediate intervention, but perhaps because the number of ethnic and nationalist clashes around the globe is on the rise. Realistically, who can afford to offer their time and attention, as well as their compassion, resources, and regiments?

On any given day, a significant portion of the world’s 7.1 billion people are engaged in economic, nationalistic, or ethnic turmoil whether it’s in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, South Africa, Chad, Somalia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Kazahkstan, Russia, Azerbajian, Kirghizia, Serbia, Germany, or Northern Ireland. Who can keep up with all of the skirmishes? Who can care about them all? The harsh reality is that you don’t have the time or energy to follow all of this in the news, let alone take any meaningful action, other than perhaps to write a check for a worthy cause.

As I observed in Breathing Space, it makes little sense to intellectually resonate with the world’s challenges and problems. Pick one cause or one issue, and take some kind of action outside of your home. Action is customarily invigorating. Your ability to make a real, if minute, difference will help you feel better.

Resources Vanishing Before Your Eyes

Increasing populations don’t inherently mean mismanagement of resources and more stress felt by all, yet that has been the continuing norm. A few years ago, a statement signed by 1,575 scientists from 69 countries was sent to 160 national leaders, as reported by The Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C. Signers included 99 of the 196 living scientists at the time, who were Nobel Laureates, as well as senior officers from many of the most prestigious scientific academies in the world.

What was in the letter? It warned that, “Human beings in the natural world are on a collision course.” Political stress is apparent in the atmosphere, water resources, oceans, soil, topical and tempered forests, and living species. The scientists lamented that, “Much of this damage is irreversible on a scale of centuries or permanent.” They went on to say, “We are fast approaching many of the earth’s limits.”

Vanishing Resources: Some Grim Examples

1. Water at a Premium

• There is no more fresh water on the planet today than there was 2000 years ago. Yet, the earth’s population is more than 20 times greater.
• In 1990, 1.2 billion of 5.4 billion people had no access to clean drinking water.
• One in 15 people live in areas defined as water-stressed or water-scarce. By 2025, this number could rise to one in three people.
• Chronic fresh water shortages are expected soon in Africa, the Middle East, Northern China, parts of India, Mexico, Brazil, several former Soviet republics, and the western United States.

2. Straining the Planet

• The Earth has lost 3% of its protective stratospheric ozone, resulting in a 6% in ultraviolet radiation. Greater losses are expected.
• More people imperil many other species. The World Wildlife Federation’s endangered species includes: #1 tigers, #2 rhinos, and #3 the giant panda.
• 205 Nobel Prize winners were polled regarding the most compelling challenges confronting humanity. Of 36 completed responses, #1 was population growth, and #2 was environmental degradation.

Lester Brown, President of The World Watch Society, observes that without radical, scientific breakthroughs, large increases in crop yields that have allowed production to keep up with the forty years of rising human consumption may no longer be possible. “Human demands are approaching the limits of oceanic fisheries to supply fish, grazing lands to support livestock, and, in many countries, of the hydrological cycle to produce fresh water,” Brown observed. “As a result of our population size, consumption patterns, and technology choices, we have surpassed the planet’s caring capacity.”

The Ever Critical Masses

Some people think that war, famine, and pestilence all reduce population. “Doesn’t Nature manage things?” they ask. There is no war, no starvation–even in Somalia or Ethiopia–that can compete with a million new people every four days. Nature does not micromanage our population. The key to the quality of life for future generations is keeping population at a replacement level, the number of births equaling the number of deaths.

What About Declining Fertility Rates?

Even with fertility declining worldwide, the fertility in developing countries still averages 4.4 children per family. 30% of Latin American women, 40% of Asian women, and 50% of African women are married by age 18. According to the World Watch Institute, of all fourteen-year-old girls alive today, 40% will be pregnant by the time they are 20. About 40% of the population of developing countries is under the age of 15. With so many entering their reproductive years, population is destined to increase for many decades.

Wanted: Hundreds of Millions of Jobs

Ben Wattenberg, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, in an all-time near-sighted observation said, “Why should we worry? We’ve gone from one billion to five billion while living standards have gone up exponentially. There’s no evidence that population growth diminishes or dilutes development.”

Some 500 million people are already unemployed or underemployed in developing countries. One political leader in Mexico says that the consequences of not creating at least 15 million jobs in the next 15 years are unthinkable. Mexicans who cannot find jobs them will have three options: The United States, the streets, or revolution.

Difficult economic conditions, exacerbated by rapid population growth, have prompted millions of rural poor to migrate to cities and millions more–at a rate of ten thousand per day–to cross international borders in search of a better life. New York, which in 1950 topped the list of the ten largest cities in the world, is not likely to make the list by the year 2025.