We’re counting down the Top 10 Reasons to Choose a Small Family. Reason #8: 5.3 Billion are Likely to Face the Threat of Water Shortages by 2025. We’ll hit reason number one on July 11, World Population Day.

Water is one of the most essential parts of our life-support system and it is limited. There is only so much fresh water on the Earth and no substitute. There are vast amounts of salt water in the oceans, but desalination requires vast amounts of energy, wreaks havoc on nearby sea life, and  leaves a brine disposal problem. 720 billion people don’t have adequate access to fresh water today. 25% of major rivers dry up before they reach the sea. Major aquifers are being pumped dry. All this is with 7.2 billion people on the planet. Upping that number would not be considered a wise strategy for addressing the fresh water crises we’re warned about.

We know the scale of human activity on Earth passed into overshoot several decades ago. The more we ignore the population multiplier in the sustainability equation, the more drastic must be our contraction of economic activity (consumption). Yet we have the tools to prevent world population from ever reaching even 9 billion. We could humanely and voluntarily get world population back to a sustainable level within a century, if we were genuinely committed to it.  What we lack is the will to acknowledge the problem and to strongly recommend to all our children that they limit the size of their family.

The current population level and state of overshoot are two very good reasons to choose to have no children, or perhaps just one. Even stopping at two will help. Adoption is a good option for those who desire more.

Please share this thought with your friends and children. Subscribe to our updates to get the rest of the Top 10 Reasons to Choose a Small Family!

Dave Gardner
Director of the documentary
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth