The human race is in danger and it
is our responsibility to remedy the situation. Population growth has
exponentially increased over the past hundred years and has led to the human
population on this planet growing to a staggering 6.7billion people. What are
the ramifications of this many people inhabiting the Earth? When we look at
populations in nature, we see that any population that grows beyond the
resource capacity of a system, quickly collapses either due to a number of
reasons, i.e. starvation, competition etc..
The Fact is that:
Worldwide there is
still a “vast unmet need” for contraception. About 50 million of the roughly
190 million pregnancies worldwide each year end in abortions, half of the 380
women who become pregnant each minute did not plan to do so and at least 35 per
cent of the estimated 550,000 women who die each year through abortions or
childbirth are being killed by pregnancies they would have avoided if contraception
had been available.”
Clearly, lack of contraception in
many parts of the world is a main contributor to the overpopulation problem. Certain countries, like China, have issued
child limit policies, which impinge on certain human rights, and may be
considered a human rights violation. However, what are we to do when faced with
such an overwhelming issue? As it stands:
A combination of
high population and rising consumption levels means that humanity is currently
outstripping the biological capacity of the Earth by 25 per cent each year. By
2050, when global population is projected to be 9.2 billion – an increase of
2.5 billion on today’s 6.7 billion - humans will be using the bio capacity
of two Earths.”
Something
must be done to fix this situation before it is too late, and the human
population crashes. Some things are being done to remedy the situation in the
form of voluntary child limiting, and education about population control.
Various countries, like Iran, have been very successful in limiting population
growth, simply by educating its citizens to make their own decisions about how
many children to have after receiving proper education about the importance of
limiting our birth rates. A very simple remedy to the high birth rates, would
be simply allocating more resources to providing proper birth control methods
to areas without them, and providing education on the importance of population
control. While the problem of overpopulation is contingent upon many different things,
the burden can surely be lessened through more available birth control and
proper education
I think this brings us back to the Malthusian Theory of Population and whether or not our food supply will be able to sustain such a large amount of population growth. I personally believe that if we do not start controlling the population in the United States and elsewhere on this planet, we are going to start having a slew of problems that cannot be solved. Now unless there is another Green Revolution, the thought of having not enough food will be a huge issue. Furthermore, considering that we are advancing the average lifespan of humans through the advancement on medicine, it will be hard to keep this population in check. I believe that there is way too much people for the earth to handle and there needs to be a slow down before our resources start to run out.
ReplyDeleteHowever, when resources run out, our population could possible be shifted back to normal with many deaths that may possibly occur. Our hospitals and healthcare system have long been overfilled with many patients and I cannot imagine more people in this already saturated healthcare system. I think it is imperative that we slow down the population growth or there will be no more planet for us to live on. The only things we are giving when we increase our earth's population are hunger, famine, homelessness, and death.
What do you think we should do about that?
I think you make great points about the problems with overpopulation. You are completely correct when you say that overpopulation will eventually overburden all of the earth's resources. It's a scary thought to worry about all of the potential wars that will be fought over simple things like water. We are only adding to the problem by elongating the average human's life while failing to promote family planning and reduction in family size. I think we need to promote family planning and education about the seriousness of the issue of overpopulation. I think too many people are oblivious to teh actual dangers of overpopulation. They live their lives unable to see the problems that overpopulation is causing. Proper education, ample supply of birth control methods and more family planning will definitely help resolve much of the problem with overpopulation.
DeleteI think you make great points about the problems with overpopulation. You are completely correct when you say that overpopulation will eventually overburden all of the earth's resources. It's a scary thought to worry about all of the potential wars that will be fought over simple things like water. We are only adding to the problem by elongating the average human's life while failing to promote family planning and reduction in family size. I think we need to promote family planning and education about the seriousness of the issue of overpopulation. I think too many people are oblivious to teh actual dangers of overpopulation. They live their lives unable to see the problems that overpopulation is causing. Proper education, ample supply of birth control methods and more family planning will definitely help resolve much of the problem with overpopulation.
DeleteThis is a really interesting topic. I was actually just watching a video the other day that describes the situation as well (http://devour.com/video/how-many-people-can-the-earth-hold/). In the video, it does seem optimistic that if we prepare correctly, we can sustain a planet with over 10 billion people, but quality of life is going to operate inversely as a response to an increase in population.
ReplyDeleteThey also project global warming is going to effect our ability to grow crops as a hotter atmosphere is going to cause more unpredictable weather conditions. The potential scope of this problem is very alarming.