Nov 17 - Kathryn Norlock
How I learned to stop worrying about Fascism and Love the Population Bomb

Is there such a thing as an overpopulation problem? Most scholars who consider themselves ecological or environmentally aware would answer this question with an immediate affirmative. Yet the identification of a population problem, and the proffered solutions in ethics and public policy, are often burdened with moral and historical baggage. I argue that overpopulation literature tends to use some of the same concepts and language as fascism, and briefly outline the relationships between eugenics, racism, and overpopulation organizations. This is not intended to deny that exponential population growth can be problematic. Rather, I wish to focus on how we think about those whose population we would 'control.' I suggest that purportedly apolitical approaches to population concerns can be dangerously permissive of morally wrong acts.

Link to this week's reading.

Kate Norlock is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at St. Mary's College of Maryland, where she also serves on the Environmental Studies Program and the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Her public presentations include "Global Warming and the Politics of Pedagogy," and "Hitler was a Vegetarian, or Moral Qualms about Deep Ecology." She is a member of the International Society for Environmental Ethics, whose session at the American Philosophical Association this year will include her paper, "Ethical Response to Environmental Atrocity." Her articles include, "Environmental Evils and the Atrocity Paradigm," in the journal, Ethics and the Environment.