800 Words About 8 Billion People: Creation Care & The Hope Of The Gospel

Article   -   5min read

Our global population has surpassed eight billion, eliciting various responses from the public. United Nations Secretary General, António Gutterres, quipped: “The milestone is an occasion to celebrate…while considering humanity’s shared responsibility for the planet.”1 Others respond in protest, positing humanity’s imminent extinction due to overpopulation.2 In light of the environmental crisis, many argue for globalized population control to help bring our numbers down.3 As we look around our world today, we indeed witness pollution, starvation, and environmental degradation at severe levels. How are Christians meant to respond to this issue, especially in light of Scripture?4 Data reveals the problem is not overpopulation, and the solution is paradoxically simpler and less convenient than mitigating numbers.

Globalized population control would be both disastrous and unnecessary. One need only read the history of the past hundred years to discover the dire sociological outcomes of such programs. A global-scale version of nation-wide population control would prove no better.5 The reasons given for such drastic measures center around resource scarcity. One ecologist stated we would need seven Earths to keep up with our resource needs.6 However, these arguments are scientifically unfounded. Firstly, data reveals our population is already decreasing. Women are having fewer babies today than they did ten years ago.7 Additionally, our planet produces an overabundance of food, with vast amounts wasted.8 Starvation is tragic and needless. Food scarcity is a distribution problem, not a production problem, and doesn’t signify the need for enforced population control.9

The actual problem is far more insidious and difficult to change than mere numbers. When asked about the true cause of our crisis, world-renowned environmental lawyer Gus Speth replied, “I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that with thirty years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy…and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation—and we scientists don’t know how to do that.”10 Coming from the third most populous country in the world11 (and the most wasteful culture in the world) Americans should hear those words clearly and consider them soberly.12 As citizens of God’s kingdom first and foremost, we should bring our hearts to the King and ask him, “What would you have me do, Lord?” One way to consider our attitude about the environment is to remember the acronym HOW:

Habitat: How much space does this use up/affect?
Outlook: How is my attitude about this; stewardship or consumption?
Waste: How much trash does this produce?

For instance, “How can I be a good steward of God’s creation in my work?” A simple change might look like taking public transport to work to minimize pollution (habitat), eating leftovers for lunch instead of getting take-out (outlook), or bringing a mug instead of using disposable cups (waste). It’s a simple way to start, but enacting a wiser daily rhythm does wonders as we change our attitudes about the environment. Greed, apathy, and selfishness are not meant to typify Christian people. Rather, we are meant to be conformed to the mind of Christ, to begin feeling and thinking as he does. Scripture points to the fact that God loves his creation and that it is precious to him (Psalm 24:1, NIV). As we are transformed, we will find in our hearts what E.O. Wilson called Biophilia—the love of creation.

The Christian paradigm offers a beautiful perspective that is unique in the environmentalism conversation. While much of the secular world views nature as instrumental—as being valuable for what it does for us—the Christian paradigm views nature as inherently good—as being valuable because God made it. This outlook begins on the first page of our Holy Scriptures, when God looks at what he has made and proclaims it to be good. The trend follows all the way through to Revelation, where God’s creation, once broken by sin, is fully restored to how it was meant to be. We as stewards from the Earth’s True Owner can take part in his mission today. God calls us to join him in his magnificent work of restoration, a work that has already begun.13

Population control will never bring the solution we need to our environmental crisis. On the contrary, it would cause deep sociological and human-rights issues. Christianity offers a way to change the root of the problem—the selfishness, greed, and apathy in our culture—because it views nature not as something instrumental to be used and disposed of, but as God’s precious possession, deeply valuable because he made it and delights in it. In Christianity, the motivation of stewardship is love, and the outcome is profound hope.

Xandra Grieme received a BS from Colorado State University and later studied at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. Xandra continued her studies at Victoria University of Wellington where she completed a master’s degree in Conservation Biology. Her scientific research includes work in parasitology, flow cytometry, and ecological restoration. Xandra is passionate about educating youth on our role as stewards of the natural world

  • Possible Discussion Questions
  • Recommended Resources
  • Footnotes
  • Do you agree that “The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy”? Why or why not?
  • As divine image-bearers, what role does stewarding the creation well have?
  • How should Christians respond to the charge that the globe is now overly populated?

1. United Nations, Day of Eight Billion. https://www.un.org/en/dayof8billion.
2. During a 2019 interview at the MLK Now event in New York City, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez suggested humanity would likely go extinct in twelve years, stating: “Millennials…and all these folks that will come after us are looking up and we’re like: ‘The world is gonna end in twelve years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?!’”
3. In my graduate level Conservation Biology class, one prominent professor often told us that this would be the only viable solution.
4. Consider passages such as Genesis 1:28 and Isaiah 45:18 which encourage us to inhabit the Earth.
5. Decades of forced abortion in China led to deep sociological wounds for women, and ‘spoiled brat’ syndrome ran rampant as many sons were doted on by elders. The policy had success in slowing population growth but resulted in numerous adverse consequences nationwide including an increase in the ratio of men to women, child abandonment, and an increasingly elderly population with not enough resources to care for them. For further reading: The Effect of China’s One-Child Family Policy After 25 Years. Therese Hesketh, PhD.
6. Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass. Page 368. She cited no sources after making this claim.
7. United Nations Population Fund, Global Fertility Research 2023.
8. 40% of food in the USA goes to waste. In fact, 50% of produce is thrown away in this country—some 60 million tons worth of produce annually! 1/3 of all foodstuffs end up in the garbage. An FAO report conclusively showed that food wasted by the USA and Europe could feed the entire global population THREE TIMES over! To read more about this, download the UNEP’s free document The Environmental Food Crisis. This information appears on page 30. https://www.grida.no/publications/154.
9. NGOs constantly fight to get supplies into impoverished regions, and the setbacks are caused by military factions or geographic restrictions. A 2021 World Health Organization study revealed as many as 828 million people affected by undernourishment, but it’s not for lack of trying to bring aid. War, environmental factors, and political climate are among the hindrances.
10. Gus Speth. Shared Planet: Religion and Nature, BBC Ratio 4 (1 October 2013) Emphasis mine.
11. The United States of America is the third most populous country, surpassed only by China and India. To keep up with the current population, visit: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population.
12. Americans produce more trash than anyone else on the planet, throwing away more than seven pounds per person per day. Americans produce 50% more garbage per capita than other Western economies with similar standards of living (compare with Germany, Austria, Denmark, etc.) Columbia University conducted a study that found the United States’ trash total to be about 400 million tons annually. This explains why one out of every six big trucks you see on the road is a garbage truck. Their yearly loads would fill a line of trucks stretching halfway to the moon. To read more about garbage in America, I recommend Garbology by Edward Hume. These statistics were taken from that volume.
13. Consider the beautiful words of Isaiah 58:12 (NIV): “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls.”