U.S. attitudes on population: a mixed picture that seems to reflect confusing media messages.

AuthorConnolly, Scott
PositionPOPULATION FORUM

Our planet faces a "perfect storm" of unprecedented challenges, including climate change, food and water shortages, and a severe energy crisis. But while the urgency of addressing these issues is undisputed, many people in the United States fail to understand how overpopulation aggravates these problems. A recent nationwide Roper Poll commissioned by our organization, the Population Media Center, found that the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of the U.S. public on the issue of population are ambivalent or even contradictory. As it turns out, this is a clear reflection of mainstream media coverage.

World population grows by 78 million annually and that stark fact has received some notice. For example, on March 14, 2008, the Financial Times of London proclaimed, "Africa's Greatest Challenge Is to Reduce Fertility." Three days later, the Associated Press headlined, "Egyptian President Says Unrestricted Rise of Population Affects the Quality of Life." On March 24, the Wall Street Journal chimed in with "New Limits to Growth Revive Malthusian Fears.." And in late April, the Washington Post announced, "Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty." And in response, some concerned people are speaking out. For example, in his Message for the New Millennium, the Dalai Lama said, "One of the great challenges today is the population explosion.. Unless we are able to tackle this issue effectively, we will be confronted with the problem of the natural resources being inadequate for all the human beings on this earth."

But although impressive progress has been made in reducing birth rates, this success has been interpreted by many journalists as the onset of a new crisis. By calling reduced fertility "The Birth Dearth," the reporters have shifted the emphasis to too few young people and a possible decline in human numbers sometime in the next 50 to 300 years.

For example, on June 29,2008, the New York Times Magazine ran a major essay entitled "Childless Europe," which echoed an earlier piece (November 23, 1997) that proclaimed "The Population Explosion Is Over." The June 18,2008 Boston Globe carried an editorial entitled, "The Coming Population Bust" and followed it with a June 22 editorial headed, "A World Without Children." On June 30,2006, Science magazine published "The Baby Deficit," with a second piece called, "The Bomb that Wasn't." On July 9,2006, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran an article headlined, "Birthrate Decline Will Be Our Global Peril." On January 26, 2005, the Times of India went so far as to declare, "Population No Longer a Worry in Poor Countries." On August 29, 2004, the New York Times printed an editorial entitled, "Subtract Billions: Demographic 'Bomb' May Only Go 'Pop!'" Newsweek followed suit on September 27 with "Birth Dearth; Remember the Population Bomb?'' The Wall Street Journal in a January 24, 2003 editorial referred to a "Global Baby Bust," citing more recent United Nations projections.

Most of the articles downplay or leave out entirely that the UN projects a likely 2.5 billion population increase by 2050. At the time of this writing, there are 6.7 billion people on our planet; by 2050 there will probably be about 9.2 billion. These mixed and contradictory messages coming from the media about population are mirrored in the results found in our recent survey, which tapped a nationally representative sample of 1,011 U.S. residents age 18 and over and was conducted June 13-15. The margin of error for the total sample is, on average, +/- 3 percentage points at the 95-percent confidence level.

Understandings and Misunderstandings

People in the United States are split when it comes to the impact of population growth on the environment. For example, just over half of survey respondents believe that there is a strong link between a growing global population and climate change. Similarly, the respondents are...

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