Overpopulation - The Global Challenge

1. The Population Explosion

Overpopulation is the root cause of famine, civil wars - and refugees. "When the manger is empty, the horses will bite each other", is an old saying.

Overpopulation will create revolutions and civil wars, which in turn will produce a constant flow of refugees.

In modern times, Earth's population has grown enormously, and it has made us vulnerable to even minor climate changes.

Climate changes appear apparently from natural causes, due to sunspot activity, lack of the same, variations in cloud cover, altered ocean currents and albedo due to increased or decreased cover of sea-ice, altered vegetation or increased urban settlements.

African women's Fertility rate (2005-2010).

But whatever the reasons, the nations' overpopulation make them particularly sensitive to even small changes in the climate. Just one bad harvest can cause that outer localized peasants must leave their homes and their land, and millions must go to sleep hungry.

Overpopulation is the planet's leading problem, the root of the evils, so to speak.

Demography is the science about population, its size, composition by sex, age, marital status and so on.

Scientists in this discipline predict that in 2013, the population of the World will reach seven billion, in 2028 we will be eight billion, nine billion in 2054, and in the year 2200 we are expected to reach the ten billion people on this planet.

The graph shows that by far the largest population growth will take place in the developing countries.

The world population clock 26-10-2009.

Some experts say it will not be a problem. Human ingenuity, that has served us so well so far, will find ways of solving the problems. Others predict severe consequences for the environment and human health.

When the World in 1918 was licking its wounds after the First World War and the Spanish flu, we were around 1.8 billion people on the planet. Today we are close to 6.8 billion. This corresponds to a nearly fourfold increase during hundred years. When we see this in the long historical perspective, one can safely say that the population has exploded.

Market somewhere in Africa south of Sahara.

Fossil fuels are the lifeblood of modern society. Seventy percent of the oil is used for transportation. Enormous quantities are used in the manufacture of fertilizers and pesticides and as raw material for plastics. Basically, our modern economy can be described as a gigantic process that converts hydrocarbon into energy and calories.

It is the aim of all nations to develop into a similar economic and technical level as the USA, Japan and the European nations.

But when we will be seven to ten billion people on the planet and they all must have a lifestyle and consumption near western level, it will be an enormous strain on the world environment.

Countless fish, animals and plants will become extinct. We will suffer from all kinds of pollution, and the climate could be worser than ever. The world's fossil reserves will disappear probably in a few generations, swallowed up in one huge suck.

Therefore, it is not right to remain silent about the population growth and only talk about the climate.

Population growth is greatest in developing countries.

Famine in Etiopia.

The world's nations can be ranked after fertility rate, i.e. the number of children per woman. The list is headed by Niger, Mali, Uganda, Afghanistan and Somalia, all of which performs six to seven children each woman. The Palestinian Territories have also a high ranking with 5.6 children each woman.

The highest scoring European country is the Faroe Islands, which occupies number 101 on the rankings list with 2.44 children per woman. Denmark is number 165 closely followed by Finland with about 1.7 children per woman on average.

14 million of Ethiopia's 85 million inhabitants in this years must have help to survive. Program employee of the UN Food Program, WFP, Fithanegest Gebru, who himself is an Ethiopian, do not feel doubt why: "In my life, the population has grown from 25 million to 85 million. We have simply become too many people. "

Abby Maxman, country director of the aid organization, Care, in Ethiopia, believes that the population problem is underestimated.

Children in Ethiopia.

"In 2025 there will be 120 million people in Ethiopia. What does it mean for the food supply? "(quote from the article of JP - see link below)

In December 2009, the world's leaders will gather in Copenhagen to discuss the world's climate problem. But the fundamental problem is the overpopulation, and this they will not talk about. In any case, they will only mention it in passing.

Man exploits the resources of the World to something near the last square meter of arable land and the last drop of clean freshwater. That is precisely why it can be disastrous with a few degrees increase in temperature and a few meters rise of the sea level.

Apparently, the World leaders do not want to look the real problem in the face, and they do not want to attack it directly. Only the leaders of China has tackled the problem with their one-child policy.

2. The Demographic Transition Model

In the science of economy, we cheer in the Western countries, we have the law of supply and demand and the theory of the self-regulating market forces. This theory allows the West's political leaders by and large to leave the economy to the businessmen and allow it to develop "naturally".

Within the subject of demography, the World leaders also bring forward a formula that allows them to leave the population development to itself. It's called "The Demographic Transitions Model (DTM). It is a model from 1940, which was formulated under the impression of the historical development of Europe and America.

Left: The Demographic Transition Model.
Right: Crowd of humans.

The DTM model explains how a country's population naturally evolves through four stages:

Stage 1 - In the original primitive societies, people have a high fertility-rate, but also a high mortality-rate. Many children are born, but they also die early. Birth and deaths are in balance, however with a great fluctuation.

Stage 2 - During the next development stage, it is managed to extend lifespan significantly, with antibiotics, clean water, vaccinations and the like. Fertility rates remain high. Therefore the population rises in an explosive way. Typical of sub-Saharan Africa and Afghanistan.

Stage 3 - Death rate reaches a minimum. Parents come to realize that most children will survive, and the fertility rate begins to fall. Population continues to increase, but with reduced growth. Typical of this group is for example Brazil.

Stage 4 - The death rate has stabilized at low level. The fertility rate has also stabilized at low level. Few children are born, but they nearly all survive and have a long life. This stage is characteristic of the highly developed nations in Europe and America.

Refugees from the 1994 massacre in Rwanda destroyed a large area of forest

In support of DTM theory is often mentioned a number of countries that have experienced a decline in fertility rates more than 40% without direct interference from the government. El Salvador, Panama, Jamaica, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and India are examples of such countries.

Contra the Demographic Transition Model: The DTM model was originally developed to explain the population-related development in Europe and the United States since the start of the industrial revolution. It can not simply be elevated to be a general theory which explains and predicts the population development of all nations and cultures in the World.

Subway in Tokyo.

- The industrial revolution had its origins in European culture, and it may well be, that the Demographic trends also have its roots in this specific culture.

- The European social development took place simultaneously and in pace with the industrial revolution. Contrary the modern developing nations are facing a completed industrial development. In all business areas, there are already big international companies with experience, who can make everything better.

- The decline in the death-rate and birth-rate in the West took place over two hundred years. Much more rapid changes are expected from modern developing nations.

- In Europe, the population pressure was eased by emigration, especially to America, Australia and New Zealand. In general, the modern developing nations can not reduce the pressure in this way.

Crowdy Indian train.

- Many believe that the dramatic increase in population in many poor countries are caused by the import of Western medicine, more than it is caused by genuine development.

- Many nations seem to "get stuck" in stage 2 or stage 3. It seems to show that a continuous "natural" development is impossible.

- Women's equality was a key factor for the declining birth rate in Europe. This condition is not present in Muslim nations. For example, it is decades ago that Saudi Arabia became wealthy, but their women still have a comfortable fertility rate of 3.83 children each woman.

The Chinese one-child policy

The idea that the DTM model is a kind of natural law, which will take care of the population numbers to the best without any real interaction from the politicians, is more wishful thinking than it is reality.

Take for example China; If the government in this country had left the size of population to develop "naturally", the economic development of this country would not have been possible. Before any kind of balance between birth-rate and death-rate had come out, the whole thing would have dissolved in famines, strikes and regional breakaways.

3. The Declining Birth-rate in the West

The fertility rate among European women has declined dramatically over the past few decades. Worst is the situation in Eastern and Southern Europe, where women almost have stopped giving birth.

Left: Modern liberated woman, who has the power over her own body
Right: Young conscripted men - the nation and the military have the power over their bodies and their life.

This weird demographic suicide takes place right before our eyes. This mysterious riddle will haunt the corridors of historical research in the centuries to come.

Why did the European peoples end their existence? They were the world's leading nations culturally, technically and economically. They were rich, as never before. They were not conquered by foreign nations or plagued by fatal diseases.

They simply chose to stop having children, and thus they quietly disappeared from history.

Left: Muslim teen-age brides in England.
Right: Liberated Eropean teen-age girl smoking a cigaret.

There is little doubt that the low European fertility rate is associated with such cultural phenomena and concepts as "women's liberation" and "Women's right to determine over their own bodies".

Modern young women (and men) must first have their education in place. After three tough years in high school, they simply must travel out to see the world, meeting new friends and have different experiences.

"In a country, there would no longer be people, who could enjoy a daily glass of wine and a beef steak for dinner" Thomas Malthus

Then come many years at the University or similar education places, where it also would be distracting - also for the social life - being married and having children. Once the education is in place and they have found jobs, they would like to get married and have children - if they can find the right one. But some will never find that special someone, even after many years of strenuous searching.

But it is one of nature's whims, that women's ability to become pregnant is greatest when they are teenagers or in their early twenties. When a woman becomes more than thirty years old, it may be difficult to become pregnant, even if she has a good motivation.

Moreover, many women - but not all - of such age have a career position, and they find it often inconvenient to have more than one child.

In the EU a fertility rate of 2.1 is considered to exactly correspond to a stable population size. All European nations except the Faroe Islands are far below. For example, Ukraine has a rate of 1.26, Russia 1.41, Italy 1.31 and women, who are registered as Danish citizens have around 1.74 children per woman on average.

European fertility rates (2005-2010).

Now one can argue that it is not the end of the world, that a single generation will not have as many children, as previous generations had. Our parents and grandparents' generation in the first half of the twentieth century had many children. Five or six children per women were very common, and there were also many families with more than ten children. It was a great expansion of population and a less numerous modern generation will simply create a little relief.

It is not an end in itself, as soon as possible to fill every square meter of land up with people and utilize every single liter of pure water.

Life is more interesting and romantic, when there are fish in the water, birds in the air and deer in the forest.

But the fact is that the Danes are not alone in Denmark. The politicians have invited a vast number of Muslims to live in the country, and they want to fill it up with their own kind as soon as possible. Each square meter, we do not reserve for ourselves, they will take in possession. When they become many enough, they will take over the entire country.

Two Muslim women shopping in the English town of Blackburn.

Muslim immigrants and their children from the Middle East and Africa give birth to 3-5 times as many children as ethnic Danes and Europeans in general. Therefore, this population will be the largest in the country, when the ethnic Danes with mathematical certainty will become a minority by the year 2050 if immigration continues as now. If it ended tomorrow and continued at zero without expulsion of other immigrants than once refused, there must be added 10-12 years to the forecast before the final change of power will take place.

However, this forecast assumes, that the Muslims are democrats what islam certainly is not at all. Contrary they bring forward, that their god, Allah, gives the laws, and the humans obey.

Long before the year 2050, they will constitute a majority within the police and military. They will only give a tough smile to the silver-haired old-Danish naive notions about democracy.

Left: Muslims attacking an ethnic englishman.
Right: Unrest in Paris 2009 - an ethnic French man is in problems.

This is the situation all over Europe.

The Vice President of the German "Statistischen Bundesamtes", Walter Radermacher, said at a press conference in Berlin: "The decline in the population (ethnic Germans) can no longer be stopped, it will be a Muslim state by 2050."

The average fertility rate for an ethnic English woman is 1.1 children each woman, while the fertility rate for a Muslim woman in Britain is 4.1 children per woman. The English press wrote recently, that the most popular name for newborn boys, "Jack", in the near future will soon be overtaken by "Mohammed". It indicates that England, in a not too distant future, will be a Muslim nation.

"There are signs that Allah will bestow victory to Islam in Europe without swords, without guns, without conquest." Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Ethnic Belgian women have on average 1.7 children per woman, while the Muslim immigrant women from Morocco living in Belgium, give birth to 3.25 children per woman on average.

In France, women registered as French citizens have an average fertility rate of 1.98, which immediately sounds pretty reasonable. But it is influenced by a very large number of muslim women from Northern Africa, which is said to have a fertility rate of around 8.1. So the ethnic French women have most likely a rate of around 1.0 children each woman.

In Holland, it is said that half of all newborns are born to Muslim mothers, and thus one could continue with the European peoples one by one. Israel has the problem, and in a relatively few years, the Palestinian women will have realized the Arab dream. Also in India's the Muslim population has a significantly higher fertility than the Hindus.

Also in relation to this problem, the politicians have a formula that allows them to do nothing and let history take its course. Namely, the politicians feel them-selves as true democrats and anti-racists, they are uncompromising supporters of personal freedom and especially freedom of religion. They believe firmly that the decision on how many children the free citizens want and what God they believe in, it must definitely be a personal matter, which does not concern the politicians and the government.

Left: Muslimk demonstration in Holland.
Right: Muslim demonstration in England.

And so goes the European peoples meek and humble against their fate, a little uneasy about what awaits them at journey's end, but without any real resistance.

4. Thomas Malthus - Essay of Population

In 1798 Thomas Malthus published, anonymously, his sensational work "An Essay on the Principle of Population. "He showed, that the population will always have a tendency to grow faster than the production of food.

Left: Thomas Malthus.
Right: Graphical representation of Malthus's theory.

This will make the individuals standard of living become less and less and eventually, extensive famine will break out.

He demonstrated that in the "natural" human society is a contradiction between the sexual drive, the desire to have descendants, and the desire for increased living standards and more food.

Overcrowded beach in Quindao in Kina.

A contradiction, he believed, which was overlooked by Rousseau and other contemporary philosophers, who would liberate the individuals from the chains of the organized communities and create social conditions in accordance with the free nature of man.

Rousseau was a great inspiration to the French Revolution, and thus the liberal capitalist society, we know today.

Thomas Malthus argued that food production was limited by the existing arable area, the weather and the skills of the farmers. The population, however, would have a propensity to develop much more rapidly because of man's natural propensity for sex and family.

Subway in rush hours.

Hunger and disease will therefore necessarily reduce the number of people to a sustainable level. Any increase in the food production would only allow that many more people would be able to drag a life filled with hunger and poverty.

Malthus did not argue for contraception or forced child limitation. But following his arguments, it is clear that birth control will be necessary for the really long run. It is quite obvious, that he did not believe that one can leave the growth of the population to the "natural" inclinations of humans.

Contra Malthus' Essay of Population: Malthus is often regarded as an extremely pessimistic doomsday prophet.

The Malthusian population catastrophe will not occur, because all peoples of the Earth naturally will reduce their numbers, his opponents say. Just as it is described by "The Demographic Transitions Model".

The effect of DTM is clearly seen in Europe today, they say. Thanks to the welfare state and pensions arrangements parents do not have to rely on their children in old age. Therefore, it is no more necessary for them to get many children.

Women's liberation has made a career possible also for women, and therefore they are not interested in having many children.

Europe is just ahead in the development and a similar reduction in fertility of the very same causes will definitely happen all over the World, claim Malthus opponents.

Left: Liberated career woman.
Right: Modern big city

Malthus has also been contradicted by the "Adaption-theory", which says that people will adjust to the new form of life in huge cities, surrounded by countless millions of other humans.

It will be a quite natural feeling to stay in man-made surroundings only and never experience a forest or a green landscape. The singing of birds will never again be heard, and rap music will replace melancholy folk tunes.

5. Paul Ehrlich - The Population Bomb

The message of Paul Ehrlich's book "The Population Bomb" from 1972 is based on the same logic as that of Malthus's theory about the final catastrophic famine.

Left: Paul Ehrlich
Right: South American favella.

The planet has a well-defined size and contains final resources, whereas humans have drives and motivation to multiply themselves in endless quantities.

Therefore, there will come a time in the future, where the quantity of food, clean water and other resources, which will be available for each individual, will be so small, that it will lead to famine and mass deaths.

Overpopulation will be the cause of wars and environmental disasters, he predicted.

Crowd of people.

The essence of his book is illustrated with the following quote: "A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people. Treating only the symptoms of cancer may make the victim more comfortable at first but eventually, he dies - -often horribly. A similar fate awaits a world with a population explosion if only the symptoms are treated. We must shift our efforts from treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions. The pain may be intense. But the disease is so far advanced that only with radical surgery does the patient have a chance of survival".

As far as the author knows, Paul Ehrlich is still alive. It would be interesting to hear what he thinks about the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. Does he think that it is useless symptom treatment?

The Population Bomb.

Unlike Malthus, Erhlich stretched pretty much his neck forward with quite unambiguous predictions about, when these events would happen to occur.

He began his "The Population Bomb" in 1968 with the following line: "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970's and the 1980's hundred million will starve to death in spite of any crash program embarked upon now -"

The book's ending was also a rather unique prediction: "A general prediction can I do with certainty: The cost to feed yourself and your family will continue to rise. There may be slight variations in food prices, but the general trend will be upward."

Contra Paul Ehrlich - The Population Bomb: Many see Paul Ehrlich as an alarmist and apocalyptic prophet.

The green revolution.

He predicted really many disasters in the near future, both in his books and in various articles and interviews; disasters and misfortunes, that did not occur, as he predicted. He has been blamed much for this.

The famine, which he wrote would break out in the 1970s, failed to materialize.

Ehrlich had not imagined the "Green Revolution", which apparently has pushed the final famine far into an uncertain future.

Skilled farmers multiplied the yield per hectare by using new types of crops, fertilizers, insecticides, mechanization and irrigation.

Instead of famine, foods became cheaper and more plentiful than ever before.

In the 1980s, even occurred an obesity "epidemic", especially in the US.

Long before Malthus's and Erlich's final famine occurs, human ingenuity will have invented something new, is their opponents' optimistic claim, as we have always have done throughout history.

Obesity in the USA.

6. A Defense of Malthus and Ehrlich

Human history is thousands, yes, millions of years old. That means really not so much that Malthus and Erlich missed the target with a few centuries. "It happens always later, than we think", as Alan Greenspan said.

They have namely the logic on their side.

Left: The population of the World through history
Right: The planet Earth.

Our planet is only so big, and its resources are final. The population increases incessantly, as never before seen in human history. Sooner or later we will run our heads up against the ceiling, and it will hurt. It is a very basic logic that can not be denied, no matter how much the environment optimists struggle and wriggle in the network of logic.

The future looks bleak, and even a vast amount of television hours with optimistic statements about alternative energy and energy saving devices can not change this. Overpopulation is the biggest threat to the future of mankind. The exploding population in the world - doubled just since 1960 - has increased the effects of other problems such as global warming, the shrinking ozone layer, acid rain and so forth.

7. The Growing World Population

The forty top seats in the ranking of the Worlds nations top fertility rates are all occupied by Muslim and Christian sub-Saharan countries, supplemented by some Muslim nations in Asia.

The twenty nations with the highest fertility rates after the CIA World Factbook 2010.

The muslim desert countries Niger, Mali and Somalia top the list, along with Uganda with about seven children each woman.

Afganistan's problems with civil war and poverty are certainly connected with the overpopulation, nevertheless, every Afghan woman gives birth to more than six children on average. So there is nothing to suggest that the peace will come soon.

In the already very crowded Palestinian Gaza Strip each Women on average gives birth to more than five children. The Palestinian women on the West Bank, however, restrict themselves to just 3.2 children per woman.

The nation with the highest fertility rate, which is not from Africa and not Muslim, is Laos, ranking as number 42 on the list with a rate of 4.41 children each woman.

Bangladesh is one of the countries in the world that a possible climate change will affect hardest. The 156 million Muslim residents live already very crowded in the small low-lying country, where 35% of the population is under 14 years. Here each woman settles for giving birth to 2.74 children only on average.

The Sahel area south of Sahara

The top-ranking country from the American continent is Haiti with 3.81 children per woman, fiercely contended by Paraguay, where each woman gives birth to 3.75 children.

The Faroe Islands has the highest fertility rate in Europe with 2.44 children per woman, followed by Albania, with 2.01 children per woman.

It has been estimated that with 2.1 children per woman, the population of a country remains constant, there will be born just as many as who are dying.

Only four Muslim nations are below this figure, namely Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Brunei and Tunesia.

The world's average fertility rate is 2.58 children per woman.

Bangladesh Ferry.

Besides fertility, representing children per woman, another very important factor has great importance for population growth, namely the birth rate, representing how quickly the women get their children. A typical Danish woman will be in her late twenties or early thirties when she delivers her first baby. A typical Muslim woman any place in the world, Denmark or Sudan, will deliver her first child in her early twenties, or even earlier. Her children will again typically have babies at the same early age, and so forth.

Over time, populations with a high birth rate will increase their numbers much faster than other groups.

Suppose we have two populations that have exactly the same fertility. Let's say 4.0 children per woman. We can call the two nations "Sandy Desert" and "High North". In the country "Sandy Desert", the women give birth to their first child as 20 years old, and in the country "High North" the women deliver their first baby as average 33.3 years old.

The stork works overtime. Unfortunately unknown artist.

Over a hundred years, the population of "Sandy Desert" will produce about 5 generations multiplying their numbers for each generation by a factor determined by fertility. The population of the "High North" will however only run through 3 generations over the same hundred years, and they will only multiply their numbers 3 times with the same factor.

So despite the fact, that the fertility of the two countries, is assumed exactly the same, the population of the "Sandy Desert" will increase about twice as much as the people of the "High North".

8. Soylent Green

Frontpage of Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison.

"Soylent Green" is a science fiction film from 1973. It is loosely based on the science fiction novel, "Make Room! Make Room!" by Harry Harrison. It describes a future dominated by huge overpopulation, unemployment, poverty and lack of all natural resources. All people look grey and unhealthy.

In the year 2022, the population of New York alone has grown to forty million. Real food, as we know it today, is hardly eaten any more. Genuine fruit, vegetables and meat are very difficult to find and very expensive. The huge population survives on various syntethic foods, including a product called Soylent Green.

The new product, Soylent Green, is marketed as a high-energy plankton product, far more nutritious than other syntethic food products.

Charles Heston plays the part of detective Robert Thorn, who lives in a small crowded apartment, which he shares with his friend, Sol Roth, an aging scientist and police investigator. They produce their own electricity with a pedal-driven generator.

Soylent Green - supposedly an energy plankton product.

Sol is so old that he can remember and tell about the time before the big environmental catastrophe when people ate real food, real vegetables and real meat. His friend, however, regards all these stories from old the days as too imaginative.

Thorn is given the task to investigate the murder of a wealthy businessman. When he arrives in the victim's apartment, he immediately starts to investigate it. The rich man's house is full of all sorts of valuable things, such as real whiskey and real food. The apartment is equipped with something as exclusive as hot water and soap, a luxury that the underpaid detective, Robert Thorn, immediately takes advantage of.

He interrogates the murdered man's bodyguard and mistress, an attractive young prostitute of twenty-four years, named Shirl. They both explain that the bodyguard escorted Shirl on a shopping excursion at the time of the murder.

The detective Thorns friend, Sol, tastes real strawberry jam.

He finds a report, "Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015 to 2019", which he brings home to his friend, Sol, for closer study.

As he interrogates the prostitute, Shirl, once again, he notes that she eats a glass with real strawberry jam. Such luxury is almost worth its weight in gold, and it indicates that the murdered man was a really extraordinary rich man.

Shirl says that in the days before the murder her friend had been deeply concerned about something. He had even visited a priest.

Thorn seeks out the priest, who initially denies any knowledge of the murdered man, but later admits that he has spoken with him. However, the priest finds it impossible to describe what he said. Shortly after the priest is found murdered, apparently to prevent him from talking. Under a street riots somebody also tries to kill Thorn, but with no success, contrary Thorn kills his pursuer.

Left: Thorn passes down a staircase crowded with sleeping homeless people on his way out.
Right: An agent tries to kill Thorn in cover of a street riot

In the meantime, Thorn's friend Sol has read the report from the "Soylent" group. The report reveals a terrible truth that Sol Roth is not able to live with. He decides to end his life and signs in at one of the governments suicide clinics, intended for the countless miserables, who do not find life worth living in this overcrowded World.

Sol in the suicide clinic.

Thorn finds Sun's farewell letter. He hurries to the clinic, where Sol's suicide process is in process. He persuades the staff to let him talk to his friend in his last minutes. He pleads with Sol to tell him the truth about the murdered man and the "Soylent" group.

After his friend's death, the detective Thorn sneaks down in the basement of the suicide clinic, where he observes, how the staff load corpses on renovations trucks.
He hides in a truck, and in this way, he obtains access to a heavily guarded destruction facility.

He discovers that the seemingly destruction facility really is a fully automated process plant, which converts an endless stream of corpses into "Soylent Green" biscuits.

Left: Detective Thorn finds his way into the Soylent Green factory..
Right: Thorn in gunfight in the Soylent Green factory.

However, the armed guards discover Thorn. He escapes after a gunfight but gets seriously wounded. He seeks refuge in a cathedral filled with ragged, skinny and pale, homeless people with sallow skin. When the wounded and desperate detective makes his way through the gray and disheartened crowd, he shouts: "Soylent Green is people! We must stop them in some way. "

9. Literature