The Journal of Interreligious Studies 28 (December 2019) 76 Restrictions or Resources? Buddhist-Christian Discourse for Our Growing Population Joel David Daniels As global population continues to grow, people have become increasingly concerned about the Earth’s capacity to sustain and support life. If human population exceeds the planet’s ability to produce enough food and clean water then impoverished communities will suffer and international conflict will inevitably arise over resources. According to many of the leading voices in academics and politics, the best way to control population is through implementing severe restrictions on women in regions with the greatest population growth and on immigrants trying to relocate to “Western” countries. Using Michel Foucault’s discourse analysis, I contend that restrictions-based solutions are both ineffective and discriminatory, relying on racist and sexist discourses, and that the actual solution to population growth is resourcing underprivileged regions, which global population data confirms. I conclude by arguing that Buddhist-Christian discourse can support and advance resource-focused solutions through emphasizing shared values on generosity, interdependence, liberation, and responsible action. Keywords: Resourceful Discourse, Restrictive Discourse, Overpopulation, Migration, Michel Foucault, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jürgen Moltmann Introduction The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and Global Environmental Alert Service (GEAS) issued a report in 2012 entitled “One Planet, How Many People?,” 1 which examined research on the Earth’s human carrying capacity. According to the findings, the majority of studies state that the Earth can sustain no more than eight billion people, 2 a number projected to be surpassed before 2025. 3 The apparent population issue is not about physical space, though– –indeed, there is plenty of landmass to support human bodies. Rather the issue is related to production and consumption: at some point, the Earth simply cannot provide for all of its citizens. Further problems then arise such as pollution, mass migration, and international conflict over resources. From this perspective, the prognosis is devastatingly bleak unless humankind is able to find a way to better control population growth. So what is the solution? In this article, I survey the discourse on overpopulation through a Buddhist-Christian interreligious lens, asking who has dominated the larger discussion and how those individuals have shaped the social narrative. I begin by exploring Michel Foucault’s discourse analysis. For Foucault, language is not representational or passive but rather generative, creating reality through the propositions communicated. Foucault’s framework is important because he corrects the false assumption that discourse on ethical issues like population growth is merely descriptive, objectively 1 United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and Global Environmental Alert Service (GEAS), “One Planet, How Many People? A Review of Earth’s Carrying Capacity. A Discussion Paper for the Year of Rio+20,” Environmental Development 4 (2012): 114–135. 2 The report cites other studies that suggest the world can support anywhere between 16 and 64 billion people; however, they also cite studies that say the capacity is 4 billion. UNEP and GEAS, “One Planet,” 120. 3 The world’s population at the time of writing is roughly 7.7 billion people.