Dave Foreman’s new book stands out from most writing on overpopulation by focusing on the devastating impact our population explosion is having on plants and animals. Overpopulation is bad for humans, he writes, “but it is much worse news for other Earthlings . . . who are taking a far worse beating than we are for our devil-may-care childishness and greed. Long ago we overshot Earth’s carrying capacity for keeping wild things hale and hearty.”
Man Swarm and the Killing of Wildlife is a brusque antidote to those who suggest the overpopulation problem is largely about access to dwindling water, farmland and other resources. Yes, we can find new rivers to dam and more wilderness to farm as our population soars past 7 billion — but that isn’t the solution, writes Foreman; it’s the problem. Writing from an ecocentric perspective, Foreman makes a plea to reduce not just our growth rate, but our current population size to make room for all the other creatures that have called Earth home for millions of years.
While we don’t agree with Foreman’s proposal to limit immigration, we do think Man Swarm is an interesting contribution to the conversation about one of the least-addressed environmental crises of our time.
You can find out more and order a copy here
