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

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• Population growth is the primary source of environmental damage.

  Jacques Yves Cousteau

  Growth, Environmental, Population

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• '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

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

  Bill Gates

  Empowering, Growth, Population

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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

  Confucius

  Growth, Population, Levels

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

  Population Problem, Two, Roots

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• The negative impact of population growth on all of our planetary ecosystems is becoming appallingly evident.

  David Rockefeller

  Impact, Ecosystems, Growth

  "The Unauthorized Biography of David Rockefeller", www.theeventchronicle.com. March 30, 2017.

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• Environmentalists have been outspoken in their support of smaller family size and abortion rights as keys to reducing global warming. But when it comes to immigration, the single biggest contributor to population growth in the industrial world, they stand largely silent.

  Gary Bauer

  Keys, Rights, Support

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• 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

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• Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today

  Jacques Yves Cousteau

  Population Problem, Environmental, Today

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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”

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