SREL Reprint #1835

Human population control: the missing awareness

Gary K. Meffe

University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802, USA

Introduction: In March 1993, Anne Ehrlich, David Ehrenfeld, and I published an editorial in Conservation Biology called "Human Population Control: The Missing Agenda" (Meffe et al. 1993). In it, we lamented that human population growth, though "... the most severe problem faced in human history, and the one most likely to result in breakdown of both normal ecosystem function and social structure," was trivialized or ignored by much of modern society and was therefore the missing agenda. Human population control has even been a "politically incorrect" topic and taboo in some circles. Because awareness is the first step to solving any problem, we suggested that conservation biologists have an obligation to lead the way in breaking out of this medieval thinking by promoting the population agenda and its possible solutions, largely through public education and advocacy. One of the most powerful and readily available institutions for doing this is the university, a traditional bastion of contemporary thinking and foresight. One might then surmise that citizens of the university (students and the professorate) would be well-versed in the population problem and its ecological effects, and be primed to take on the role of agenda promotion. Is that in fact the case?

SREL Reprint #1835

Meffe, G.K. 1994. Human population control: the missing awareness. Conservation Biology 8:310-313. 

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).