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The Inside report

A new report, "Lighting the Way: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future," has been posted online by the 7-year-old InterAcademy Council, composed of more than 90 national academies. Also see "Panel Urges Global Shift On Sources of Energy," from the New York Times.

Predictably, the report calls for using energy more efficiently, putting a price on carbon emissions, and developing green energy sources. It is most notable, however, for failing to identify the underlying cause of our overwhelming environmental and resource problems -- the size and growth of our world population.

It exemplifies, in short, the failure of the scientific community to recognize that overpopulation is the primary, central and most important cause of our environmental problems. If that is acknowledged, then it follows that those problems cannot be solved unless we halt and eventually reverse world population growth so that, after an interim period of negative growth, our population can be stabilized at a sustainable level, far smaller than today's.

World population is now 6.6 billion, and continues to grow rapidly by about 75 million a year. It is expected to reach 9.2 billion by mid-century even though it already far exceeds the long range carrying capacity of our planet's resources and environment. That growth is not inevitable and we must do everything within our power to prevent it. Beyond any doubt, the most vitally important issue facing us is to decide at what level to stabilize the size of our population.

The scientific community, of course, is not alone in its failure to recognize that population size and growth are the central problems confronting us. That issue is also ignored by almost all segments of our society, including, to mention a few of the most important, our Federal government, the academic community, the major environmental organizations, the mass media, and the current crop of presidential candidates. They are all shamefully derelict in their duty, and, as our population continues to grow rapidly, it is more and more difficult to fathom why they are (with many notable individual exceptions) steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the presence of the elephant (overpopulation) in the room.

In the meanwhile, the elephant itself is clearly on a rampage, charging about hither and yon, demolishing the furniture (our environment and resources) and threatening to destroy the entire house. No matter, it continues to be systematically ignored as if it did not even exist.

A statement issued 15 years ago offers a ray of hope that all progress on these issues is not irretrievably lost. The following is a joint statement issued in February 1992 by the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London when world population was 5.5 billion compared with our present population of 6.6 billion heading toward over 9 billion by mid-century: "If current predictions of population growth prove accurate and patterns of human activity on the planet remain unchanged, science and technology may not be able to prevent either irreversible degradation of the environment or continued poverty for much of the world."

Recommended reading: "Scientific American and The Silent Lie" by Prof. Albert A. Bartlett.