Population Growth Quotes

• 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

  Years, Population, Lasts

  73 Copy quote

• Population growth is the primary source of environmental damage.

  Jacques Yves Cousteau

  Growth, Environmental, Population

  69 Copy quote

• A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.

  Garrett Hardin

  Zero, Support, Growth

  Garrett James Hardin (1972). “Exploring new ethics for survival: the voyage of the spaceship Beagle”, Viking Adult

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we do not voluntarily bring population growth under control in the next one or two decades, the nature will do it for us in the most brutal way, whether we like it or not.

  Henry W. Kendall

  Two, Growth, Population

  12 Copy quote

• Population growth is straining the Earth's resources to the breaking point, and educating girls is the single most important factor in stabilizing that. That, plus helping women gain political and economic power and safeguarding their reproductive rights.

  Al Gore

  Girl, Rights, Point Break

  "Al Gore, ‘Inconvenient Truth’ Author And Global-Warming Expert, Talks About Change". Interview with Leigh Haber, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 29, 2013.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Fun, Believe, Population Problem

  "The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth" by Kenneth E. Boulding, 1966.

  93 Copy quote

  Show source

• The key thing you can do to reduce population growth is actually improve health.

  Bill Gates

  Keys, Growth, Population

  "Bill Gates' Q&A with Chris Anderson: Video unveiled". blog.ted.com. February 6, 2009.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• By improving health, empowering women, population growth comes down.

  Bill Gates

  Empowering, Growth, Population

  8 Copy quote

• '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

  Smart, Class, Differences

  15 Copy quote

• Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today

  Jacques Yves Cousteau

  Population Problem, Environmental, Today

  89 Copy quote

• Just to keep up with population growth, on average our economy needs to be adding about 125,000 jobs per month.

  Bob Beauprez

  Jobs, Average, Growth

  6 Copy quote

• We need to continue to decrease the growth rate of the global population; the planet can't support many more people.

  Nina Fedoroff

  People, Support, Growth

  8 Copy quote

• I would be absolutely astounded if population growth and industrialisation and all the stuff we are pumping into the atmosphere hadn't changed the climatic balance. Of course it has. There is no valid argument for denial.

  David Attenborough

  Atmosphere, Growth, Balance

  8 Copy quote

• Excessive (population) growth may reduce output per worker, repress levels of living for the masses and engender strife

  Confucius

  Growth, Population, Levels

  19 Copy quote

• As a woman leader, I thought I brought a different kind of leadership. I was interested in women's issues, in bringing down the population growth rate... as a woman, I entered politics with an additional dimension - that of a mother.

  Benazir Bhutto

  Mother, Issues, Leader

  35 Copy quote

• 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

  War, Issues, Growth

  38 Copy quote

• It's coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It's not just climate change; it's sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.

  David Attenborough

  Home, Years, Space

  "Humans are plague on Earth". www.telegraph.co.uk. January 22, 2013.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• We need to recognise that slowing population growth is one of the most cost-effective and reliable ways of easing pressure on our environment and securing a sustainable future for us all

  Lionel Shriver

  Growth, Population, Needs

  6 Copy quote

• Of course I know our economic growth can't match our population growth so of course I know we'll all get poorer until we get that number down - don't tell me, tell the other idiots!

  Bernard Chidzero

  Numbers, Growth, Population

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  People, Democracy, Population

  Interview with Bill Moyers on PBS miniseries "A World of Ideas" with Bill Moyers, www.pbs.org. October 17, 1988.

  117 Copy quote

  Show source

• The superior power of population cannot be checked without producing misery or vice.

  Thomas Malthus

  Vices, Population, Misery

  Thomas Robert Malthus (1959). “Population: The First Essay”, p.13, University of Michigan Press

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Budget consolidation and economic growth are two sides of the same coin.

  Angela Merkel

  Two Sides, Growth, Coins

  78 Copy quote

• The rate of population growth in the United States is slightly below that required to reproduce itself.

  Emanuel Celler

  Usa, Growth, United States

  Emanuel Celler (1953). “You Never Leave Brooklyn: The Autobiography of Emanuel Celler”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Eugenics, Growth, Population

  "The Place of Women on the Court". Interview with Emily Bazelon, www.nytimes.com. July 7, 2009.

  63 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most of the suicide hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, a place not lacking in wealth. But due to rapid population growth, the wealth per capita has fallen by about half in a generation.

  Keith Henson

  Suicide, Growth, Arabia

  7 Copy quote