Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

by Michael Shellenberger

Today, 90 percent of the world’s fish stocks are either overfished or at capacity, meaning they are close to or just barely above the maximum they can be harvested before seeing their populations collapse entirely.80 Where 15 percent of Earth’s land surface is protected, just less than 8 percent of the world’s oceans are.81 Since 1974, humankind has tripled the share of fish stocks being harvested at unsustainable levels.82 And the pressure on wild fish continues to rise: between now and 2050, thanks to rising wealth and a growing number of people, global demand for fish is expected to double.83 The good news is that fish farming, or aquaculture, is developing rapidly. Aquaculture output doubled between 2000 and 2014, and today it produces half of all fish for human consumption.84 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported in 2018 that aquaculture “continues to grow faster than other major food production sector,” and that by 2030, “the world will eat 20 percent more fish than in 2016.”85