The past population estimates and existing data demonstrate that world population continued to grow since its origin to date. Extremely high rate of growth has been observed during the second half of 20th century along with medical and green revolutions. World population data sheets and other data sources tell that 80 to 90 million individuals are added to the global population every year increasing pressure on resources. Consequently, environmental, economic, social, political, demographic, and biological problems are also increasing and in some cases are appearing in new forms. On the other side, world communities, specifically more developed countries claim that they are taking several measures to overcome these issues. Here the question arises that in the prevalence of such kind of situation where population is augmenting rapidly, environmental degradation is at its apex and resources are already in pressure, is it possible to overcome these problems?
Dear Khan,
The earth has and will always have enough "for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed". Therefore, the question is not about overpopulation but it has more to do with over-consumption and overproduction. It seems that for those with privilege it is easy to talk about overpopulation (human beings as if they were undesirable) and a few billions too many. Yet, those who have less in the world are the ones who exploit resources the least and conserve biodiversity the most. Unfortunately, the world's hunger is the results of wars and conflicts, not because of population growth. There is hunger and yet the amount of wasted food per year can feed the world four times over. Those who insist on talking about overpopulation are only finding a way to blame others and to divert attention away from greed and planetary vandalism that destroy our natural resources and take away what little is left from the 'have-nots'.
This is what they say: "There is overpopulation and therefore there are not enough resources for everybody." The eyes of some immediately turn to the growing populations in emerging and developing nations. Yes, there is population growth but it is not unsustainable if the wars and global mega-corruption will stop. In Japan and the West there is low birth rate; Russia is such a big country with less than 160 million people, and so on. Therefore, when people talk about overpopulation, they are referring to the others (those they deem undesirable).
It is easy to fall into the trap of going along with this narrative when they use mind games through imagery to suggest that the poor are giving birth to too many children even though there is not enough food to feed them and there are many diseases, too.
Consider this. Where there is industrialization and opportunities for all, birth rate tends to be low. Even in developing nations, the middle and upper middle classes have fewer children. It must be noted, however, that with or without food the privileged don’t like the poor anyway.
Solutions:
- Arrest greed, over-consumption and overproduction and don’t steal from the have-nots.
- Good nutrition can already solve most of global health problems – Waste not, want not!!.
- Let’s create opportunities for all so that girls can aspire to be anything they want to be - after college and Master’s or a possibility to learn a trade, no one has time for ten children per family. When girls have opportunities to go to college just like their male counterparts, they tend to also want to become professors, doctors, engineers, pilots, entrepreneurs. etc., because they can.
- Men should take responsibility for family planning: when women are left bereft of educational/vocational opportunities, men use them as breeding machines. Women don’t make the children all by themselves - and no child should suffer any indignation of being seen as the one who arrived in the world as one child too many.
Just my two cents.
Samberg, L. (2018). ‘World Hunger Is Increasing, Thanks to Wars and Climate Change’ Scientific American, October 18, 2017, available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-hunger-is-increasing-thanks-to-wars-and-climate-change/ (accessed 12 September 2018)
World Hunger Is Increasing, Thanks to Wars and Climate ...
www.scientificamerican.com
Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.
Deen, T. (2018). 'Food Waste Enough to Feed World’s Hungry Four Times Over', Inter Press Service, available at: http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/05/food-waste-enough-feed-worlds-hungry-four-times/ (accessed 3 June 2018).
Fred. Pearce…https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/19/not-overpopulation-that-causes-climate-change-but-overconsumption
Dear Khan,
The earth has and will always have enough "for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed". Therefore, the question is not about overpopulation but it has more to do with over-consumption and overproduction. It seems that for those with privilege it is easy to talk about overpopulation (human beings as if they were undesirable) and a few billions too many. Yet, those who have less in the world are the ones who exploit resources the least and conserve biodiversity the most. Unfortunately, the world's hunger is the results of wars and conflicts, not because of population growth. There is hunger and yet the amount of wasted food per year can feed the world four times over. Those who insist on talking about overpopulation are only finding a way to blame others and to divert attention away from greed and planetary vandalism that destroy our natural resources and take away what little is left from the 'have-nots'.
This is what they say: "There is overpopulation and therefore there are not enough resources for everybody." The eyes of some immediately turn to the growing populations in emerging and developing nations. Yes, there is population growth but it is not unsustainable if the wars and global mega-corruption will stop. In Japan and the West there is low birth rate; Russia is such a big country with less than 160 million people, and so on. Therefore, when people talk about overpopulation, they are referring to the others (those they deem undesirable).
It is easy to fall into the trap of going along with this narrative when they use mind games through imagery to suggest that the poor are giving birth to too many children even though there is not enough food to feed them and there are many diseases, too.
Consider this. Where there is industrialization and opportunities for all, birth rate tends to be low. Even in developing nations, the middle and upper middle classes have fewer children. It must be noted, however, that with or without food the privileged don’t like the poor anyway.
Solutions:
- Arrest greed, over-consumption and overproduction and don’t steal from the have-nots.
- Good nutrition can already solve most of global health problems – Waste not, want not!!.
- Let’s create opportunities for all so that girls can aspire to be anything they want to be - after college and Master’s or a possibility to learn a trade, no one has time for ten children per family. When girls have opportunities to go to college just like their male counterparts, they tend to also want to become professors, doctors, engineers, pilots, entrepreneurs. etc., because they can.
- Men should take responsibility for family planning: when women are left bereft of educational/vocational opportunities, men use them as breeding machines. Women don’t make the children all by themselves - and no child should suffer any indignation of being seen as the one who arrived in the world as one child too many.
Just my two cents.
Samberg, L. (2018). ‘World Hunger Is Increasing, Thanks to Wars and Climate Change’ Scientific American, October 18, 2017, available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-hunger-is-increasing-thanks-to-wars-and-climate-change/ (accessed 12 September 2018)
World Hunger Is Increasing, Thanks to Wars and Climate ...
www.scientificamerican.com
Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.
Deen, T. (2018). 'Food Waste Enough to Feed World’s Hungry Four Times Over', Inter Press Service, available at: http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/05/food-waste-enough-feed-worlds-hungry-four-times/ (accessed 3 June 2018).
Fred. Pearce…https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/19/not-overpopulation-that-causes-climate-change-but-overconsumption
Dear Khan,
Thanks for asking this question, we often get so much in to the research that we forget the real world problems. What i feel is that the governments and world communities have agreed to certain goals that we call Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Even if we abide to this we can solve many of our problems. But yes preventing increase in population growth rate and sustainable use of resources should be the major goals across nations.
Dear Khan
It is possible, through the implementation of The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The SDGs came into effect in January 2016, and they will continue to guide UNDP policy and funding until 2030. As the lead UN development agency, UNDP is uniquely placed to help implement the Goals through our work in some 170 countries and territories
Hopefully useful
Great question. Population control (endogenous) is the control of environmental problems (exogenous) at this moment. Besides, my research (forth coming issue) shows big size family are more concerned on adaptation mechanisms rather than small size in terms of health care loss.
Thank you for this thoughtful question. My immediate response would be NO. The SDGs have not touched enough people's lives to illicit the quantum change that needs to take place in our daily habits and indulgences. Governments, for the most part, have not taken the SDG concept - SUSTAINABLE - to the place where it needs to be - at the grassroots level, influencing the daily decisions made by an entire population. Until we all take responsibility for the devastation we have collectively wrought, we will not save ourselves or the Planet as we know it. If we all understood our own local environmental problems, the root causes of those problems and how the what that we do instigates those problems, more of us might be willing to change our behavior. That requires scientists to write articles in people-speak, not science speak. Schools, regardless the grade, need to include a thorough understanding of local ecosystems and environmental issues facing those systems and offer ecosystem-friendly behavior guidance. all as part of curriculum. We will now have a living experiment thanks to China's recent decision to lift the child bearing cap. The "one child" law certainly did not stop China from the terrible environmental problems it created and is having to deal with. What will an increased focus on dealing with these problems combined with eliminating the child bearing cap bring? Something to observe and learn from, I would think.
Frederick Ahen's brilliant comment morphed into references to the SDGoals. Here is a recent, valiant effort to translate its bureaucratic language into people-speak: https://sdghub.com/goodlifegoals/.
Interesting insights into how people think about climate change are also available from a recent IKEA/Globescan study, n=1400 in 14 countries -- ref. https://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/pdf/reports-downloads/IKEA%20Climate%20Action%20Report%2020180906%20(002).pdf
Access to family planning education tend to result in women having fewer babies. Today, many young couples postponed parenthood until they feel ready; and in some cases, they decide not to have any children. On the other hand, some key factors that have reduced death rates are clean water, improved living conditions, health services and agriculture production. However, disasters and epidemics can dramatically increase death. The resulting difference between birth and death rates is called natural increase.
The world natural increase rate used to be around 3% during 1960s but over time that has decreased dramatically to the point where the world average is only about 1.2% a year now. This figure may not sound like a lot but for over 7 billion people at 1.2% rate we're talking about a net gain of 80 or 90 million people every year. However, there are still some places with over 2% rate and unfortunately those places happen to be least able to support the increase of population. For example, the vast majority of countries with over 2% natural increase rate are actually located in Africa. On the other hand, throughout Western Europe and North America, i.e. the more developed countries, you see much lower natural rates of increase.
So, in my opinion, without controlling (or balancing) world population, a sustained environmental soundness cannot be guaranteed in the long run.
increase in population subsequently makes the available resources constrained. what needs to be done is to ensure efficiency in the use of resources, innovations, recycling, reusing and reducing keeping in mind future generations.
Yes, it is possible for the world to overcome environmental problems regardless of the amount of current population and that estimated in the future, in which there is a coincidence that the rate of growth of the world population has a decreasing trend in the future. The fundamental issue is to make the environmental problem independent of the amount of population. It is not a quantitative problem of population but it is a quantitative problem of unequal consumption of goods and services. Just in these days I published my 3 year research (Climate Change, Economics and Inequality: the limits of growth in the 21st century, Editorial of the University of Buenos Aires, EUDEBA, 2018; Cambio Climático, economía y desigualdad) where I present the conclusions of several specific researches and whose main and common conclusion is that no more than 30% of the world population (resident in all countries, although mainly in the highest income countries) through its excessive consumption of goods and services originates 80% of emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that causes global warming and the consequent Climate Change, not only the main environmental problem but the main problem that humanity faces today. The problem is not the amount of population but of inequality that is expressed through unequal and unnecessary consumption given the limited resources of a finite planet.
Hi all,
The following is a recent interview of David Attenborough on the future of the planet. This interview directly addresses the question.
https://youtu.be/pRETT1L-aZQ
When the growth only matters , environmental degradation is a big issue. Demographic dividend is a big asset to a nation , problem is how to manage and control it ?
Very interesting question for us. Increasing population is not the main problem as far as we can follow the sustainable development. That's my opinion.
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