These overpopulation quotes will inspire you. Overpopulation is the condition of having a population so dense as to cause environmental deterioration, impaired quality of life, or a population crash.
A collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging overpopulation quotes, overpopulation sayings, and overpopulation proverbs.
Famous Overpopulation Quotes
- “Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn’t matter if someone dies.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “In the last 200 years, the population of our planet has grown exponentially, at a rate of 1.9% per year. If it continued at this rate, with the population doubling every 40 years, by 2600 we would all be standing literally shoulder to shoulder.” ~ Stephen Hawking
- “Population growth is the primary source of environmental damage.” ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau
- “Overpopulation in various countries has become a serious threat to the health of people and a grave obstacle to any attempt to organize peace on this planet” ~ Albert Einstein
-
“Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today” ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau
- “I believe that human overpopulation is the fundamental problem on Earth Today” and, “We humans have become a disease, the Humanpox” ~ David Foreman
- “Futurists don’t consider overpopulation one of the issues of the future. They consider it the issue of the future.” ~ Dan Brown
- “There are substitutes for oil; there is no substitute for fresh water.” ~ Paul R. Ehrlich
- “Democracy cannot survive overpopulation.” ~ Isaac Asimov
-
“In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation.” ~ Prince Philip
- “Cannibalism is a radical but realistic solution to the problem of overpopulation.” ~ Prince Philip
- “Overpopulation is perhaps the biggest problem facing us, and immigration is part of that problem. It has to be addressed.” ~ David R. Brower
- “Isn’t it sad that you can tell people that the ozone layer is being depleted, the forests are being cut down, the deserts are advancing steadily, that the greenhouse effect will raise the sea level 200 feet, that overpopulation is choking us, that pollution is killing us, that nuclear war may destroy us – and they yawn and settle back for a comfortable nap. But tell them that the Martians are landing, and they scream and run.” ~ Isaac Asimov
-
“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” ~ Kenneth E. Boulding
- “I am convinced that some political and social activities and practices of the Catholic organizations are detrimental and even dangerous for the community as a whole, here and everywhere. I mention here only the fight against birth control at a time when overpopulation in various countries has become a serious threat to the health of people and a grave obstacle to any attempt to organize peace on this planet.” ~ Albert Einstein
- “The hungry world cannot be fed until and unless the growth of its resources and the growth of its population come into balance. Each man and woman-and each nation-must make decisions of conscience and policy in the face of this great problem.” ~ Lyndon B. Johnson
- “The human overpopulation issue is the topic I see as the most vital to solve if our children and grandchildren are to have a good quality of life.” ~ Alexandra Paul
- “We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren’t enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage.” ~ Mikhail Gorbachev
-
“We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domesticated plants and animals, but we have been rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves.” ~ Arnold J. Toynbee
- “Short of nuclear war itself, population growth is the gravest issue the world faces. If we do not act, the problem will be solved by famine, riots, insurrection and war.” ~ Robert McNamara
- “We already have the statistics for the future: the growth percentages of pollution, overpopulation, desertification. The future is already in place.” ~ Gunter Grass
- “This growing poverty in the midst of growing population constitutes a permanent menace to peace. And not only to peace, but also to democratic institutions and personal liberty For overpopulation is not compatible with freedom.” ~ Aldous Huxley
-
“We’re too many people; that’s why we have global warming…on a voluntary basis, everybody in the world’s got to pledge to themselves that one child is it.” ~ Ted Turner
- “We must alert and organise the world’s people to pressure world leaders to take specific steps to solve the two root causes of our environmental crises – exploding population growth and wasteful consumption of irreplaceable resources. Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today.” ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau
- “Overpopulation is the problem of the third and fourth World; over-consumption is the problem of the West. The average American child this year will consume as much of the world’s resources as twenty children born in India. Deliberate and calculated waste is the central aspect of the American economy. We over-eat, over-buy, and over-built, spewing out our toxic wastes upon the earth and into the air.” ~ Richard J. Foster
-
“You look at the large problems that we face – that would be overpopulation, water shortages, global warming and AIDS, I suppose – all of that needs international cooperation to be solved.” ~ Molly Ivins
- “Overpopulation in the United States will become THE single greatest issue facing Americans in the 21st century. We either solve it proactively or nature will solve it brutally for us via water shortages, energy crisis, air pollution, gridlock, species extinction and worse.” ~ Frosty Wooldridge
- “Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutan shave been living for hundreds of thousands of years in their forest,living fantastic lives, never overpopulating, never destroying the forest. I would say that they have been in a way more successful than us as far as being in harmony with the environment.” ~ Jane Goodall
-
“The planet on which we live is poorly organized, many areas are overpopulated, others are reserved for a few, technology’s potential is only in part realized, and most people are starving.” ~ Friedrich Durrenmatt
- “The biggest obstacle was mixing abortion with overpopulation. These are two things that have nothing to do with each other.” ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau
- “Environmental degradation, overpopulation, refugees, narcotics, terrorism, world crime movements, and organized crime are worldwide problems that don’t stop at a nation’s borders.” ~ Warren Christopher
- “Shouldn’t we be against procreation at this point in time? With overpopulation and the strain on the resources on this planet? Shouldn’t we reward people who don’t spawn?” ~ Bill Maher
- “My country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims.” ~ Brigitte Bardot
-
“I do not want to speak about overpopulation or birth control, but I think education is the way to give new impetus to the poverty question.” ~ Harri Holkeri
- “Many problems that challenge us today can be traced back to a profound tension between what is good and desirable for society as a whole and what is good and desirable for an individual. That conflict can be found in global problems such as climate change, pollution, resource depletion, poverty, hunger, and overpopulation.” ~ Martin Nowak
- “For Al Gore and Paul Ehrlich and Co., whatever the problem, the solution is always the same. Whether it’s global cooling, global warming, or overpopulation, we need bigger government, more regulation, higher taxes, and a massive transfer of power from the citizens to some unelected self-perpetuating crisis lobby.” ~ Mark Steyn
- “Acknowledging the physical realities of our planet does not mean a dismal future of endless sacrifice. In fact, acknowledging these realities is the first step in dealing with them. We can meet the resource problems of the world – water, food, minerals, farmlands, forests, overpopulation, pollution – if we tackle them with courage and foresight.” ~ Jimmy Carter
- “Solving the population problem is not going to solve the problems of racism, of sexism, of religious intolerance, of war, of gross economic inequality. But if you don’t solve the population problem, you’re not going to solve any of those problems. Whatever problem you’re interested in, you’re not going to solve it unless you also solve the population problem. Whatever your cause, it’s a lost cause without population control.” ~ Paul R. Ehrlich
-
“Fretting about overpopulation is a perfect guilt-free – indeed, sanctimonious – way for “progressives” to be racists.” ~ P. J. O’Rourke
- “Social mores change with time, like fashion – who knows where it might all end up? I especially like the idea that waste, impoliteness and overpopulation become “abominations,” although I’m not sure recycling one’s aunt will ever truly catch on.” ~ Jasper Fforde
- “We must not put pressure on people, but by providing information on the population and the environment, and appropriate contraception for everyone (and by their own example), doctors should help bring family size into the arena of environmental ethics, analogous to avoiding patio heaters and high carbon cars.” ~ John Guillebaud
- “The writer has a grudge against society, which he documents with accounts of unsatisfying sex, unrealized ambition, unmitigated loneliness, and a sense of local and global distress. The square, overpopulation, the bourgeois, the bomb and the cocktail party are variously identified as sources of the grudge. There follows a little obscenity here, a dash of philosophy there, considerable whining overall, and a modern satirical novel is born.” ~ Renata Adler
- “It is obviously easier, for the short run, to draw cheap labor from adjacent pools of poverty…than to find it among one’s own people. And to the millions of such prospective immigrants from poverty to prosperity, there is, rightly or wrongly, no place that looks more attractive than the United States. Given its head, and subject to no restrictions, this pressure will find its termination only when the levels of overpopulation and poverty in the United States are equal to those of the countries from which these people are now so anxious to escape.” ~ George F. Kennan
-
“Must we wait for selection to solve the problems of overpopulation, exhaustion of resources, pollution of the environment and a nuclear holocaust, or can we take explicit steps to make our future more secure? In the latter case, must we not transcend selection?” ~ B. F. Skinner
- “To bring about destruction by overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished values, there is no need to do anything. We need only do nothing except what comes naturally and breed. And how easy it is to do nothing” ~ Isaac Asimov
- “The next most dangerous thing [after nuclear proliferation] is probably… global warming, and then, right behind that are overpopulation — we need to get serious about family planning-and trying to alleviate poverty, to get clean, renewable energy, probably with solar panels to the billion and a half people in the world who don’t have access to electricity.” ~ Ted Turner
- “Can you think of any problem, in any area of human endeavor, on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?” ~ Albert Allen Bartlett
- “The writer has a grudge against society, which he documents with accounts of unsatisfying sex, unrealized ambition, unmitigated loneliness, and a sense of local and global distress.” ~ Renata Adler
-
“There follows a little obscenity here, a dash of philosophy there, considerable whining overall, and a modern satirical novel is born.” ~ Renata Adler
- “‘Smart growth’ destroys the environment. ‘Dumb growth’ destroys the environment. The only difference is that ‘smart growth’ does it with good taste. It’s like booking passage on the Titanic. Whether you go first-class or steerage, the result is the same.” ~ Albert Allen Bartlett
- “It’s terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn’t even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable.” ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau
- “When faced with world problems – like hunger, overpopulation, nuclear weapons, the arms trade – you may be among those who are overwhelmed by a feeling of “Help! What on earth can I, just one person, do about this?” Take heart. That’s a sane response. It’s the basis for a whole new attitude to world problems, where change at the level of the individual is more and more recognised as essential to change in huge world systems.” ~ Scilla Elworthy
-
“When you consider the overpopulation in this world … homosexuality is completely underrated in this society.” ~ Doug Stanhope
- “I had nixed the idea of having children when I was myself a child, having learned in the 1960s that human overpopulation was literally crowding other species off the planet. Why create another mouth to gnaw at the overburdened earth?” ~ Sy Montgomery
- “I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate.” ~ Jonathon Porritt
- “Probably the single-most concrete and substantive thing an American, young American, could do to lower our carbon footprint is not turning off the lights or driving a Prius, it’s having fewer kids…we’ll soon see a market in baby-avoidance carbon credits similar to efforts to sell CO2 credits for avoiding deforestation.” ~ Andrew Revkin
- “I think about the trends at the moment in the planet and how it looks for my grandchildren. I don’t panic over it, even though rationally maybe I should. I have faith that these terrible trends will change, and they will not go to their logical conclusions of climate change, militarism, pollution, overpopulation.” ~ Robert Thurman
-
“I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible.” ~ Jonathon Porritt
- “You mean am I for it or against it? You think this is a key question I’m going to be asked on Vega, and you want to make sure I give the right answer? Okay. Overpopulation is why I’m in favor of homosexuality and a celibate clergy. A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.” ~ Carl Sagan
- “Enclosed within his artificial creation, man finds that there is “no exit”; that he cannot pierce the shell of technology again to find the ancient milieu to which he was adapted for hundreds of thousands of years . In our cities there is no more day or night or heat or cold. But there is overpopulation, thralldom to press and television, total absence of purpose. All men are constrained by means external to them to ends equally external. The further the technical mechanism develops that allows us to escape natural necessity, the more we are subjected to artificial technical necessities.” ~ Jacques Ellul
- “Homosexuality, like androgyny, might be an instinctive racial response to overpopulation, crowding, and stress. Both flourish when empire reaches its apogee.” ~ Edward Abbey
- “Our problem with limited resources is not primarily overpopulation; it is greed. Our problem with pollution is not the invention of fluorocarbons or mass transport; it is irresponsibility. The loss of an acre of forest every second, the mass slaughter of elephants for their ivory, the extinction of entire species of plants, insects and animals all over the world is not something that “just happens” because there are more of us human beings. It happens because the race of ruling beings put in charge has almost wholly lost its sense of stewardship. We have turned away from God.” ~ Winkie Pratney
-
“Women who are devoted to causes, such as overpopulation and the underprivileged [sic], are much less interested in fashion than, let’s say, those who lunch at La Grenouille and Le Cirque.” ~ Ann Landers
- “Gaia’s main problems are not industrialization, ozone depletion, overpopulation, or resource depletion. Gaia’s main problem is the lack of mutual understanding and mutual agreement in the noosphere about how to proceed with those problems. We cannot rein in industry if we cannot reach mutual understanding and mutual agreement based on a world-centric moral perspective concerning the global commons. And we reach the world-centric moral perspective through a difficult and laborious process of interior growth and transcendence.” ~ Ken Wilber
- “Each year, millions of animals are euthanized at local shelters because of overpopulation. Almost half of the animals brought into these shelters are euthanized because suitable homes can’t be found for them. Animal rescue, a cause close to my heart, can lead to the safety of millions of these lost souls.” ~ Jud Tylor
