Population Control: Preparing for the Future
The world’s population is rising rapidly from seven billion to the estimated nine billion in 2050 (Ellis, Overpopulation is Not the Problem). Every human being adds stress to the Earth’s resources. Numerous places like Africa and China maintain a copious amount starvation and poverty. There are days when people go without food, water, or shelter. There is even such happening in the United States. In such places, it is difficult to find contraception, or birth control, which leads to unplanned pregnancies. These situations are rooted down to overpopulation, which is when there are too many humans. However, there is a multitude of ways to reverse such negative effects. Population control is a necessary act that will benefit the world through sparing natural resources, decreasing famine, and controlling unplanned pregnancies. A worldwide effort would have to take effect in order for a successful future.
China has a list of problems while maintaining one fifth of the world’s population. It covers around the same geographic area as the United States, but has twice the amount of problems, along with five times the amount of people. They have not had a lucrative past, and their future does not either. In order to fix such problems, the Chinese government has taken miniscule actions to further aid their country (Riley, China’s Population).
In the 1940s, China viewed promoting a larger population as a positive improvement for political strength and to improve economic development. Consequently, in the mid-1950s, China realized it “hindered economic development.” They then concluded the government of China must regulate population control in order to solve a majority of their problems (Rile...
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... that the world can equally sustain each and every human. Population control is the key to a future containing a plethora of resources being distributed to each human, including less starvation and jocular lives.
Works Cited
Ellis, Erle C. “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem.” International Herald Tribune 16 Sep. 2013: 6. SIRS Researcher. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. .
Navarro, Mireya. “Breaking a Long Silence on Population Control.” New York Times 31 Oct. 2011. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. .
Pflanz, Mike. “Africa’s Baby-Boom: Population to Double by Mid-Century.” Christian Science Monitor 12 Sep. 2013: n. pag. SIRS Researcher. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. .
Riley, Nancy E. “China’s Population: New Trends and Challenges.” Population Reference Bureau June 2004: 3-36. SIRS Researcher. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. .
China’s population growth began to increase during the Ming Dynasty, and increased dramatically throughout Qing. The population grew around 65million in the late 14th century to more than 400 million in 1949 (Spengler 1962: 112). Since the People Republic of China was founded, Mao had seen the population growth as favorable to industrialization, and he believed that population growth empowered the country (Potts 2006). In the 1950s, the government began to realize that the food supply would soon become insufficient for the rapidly growing population, and stopped encouraging people to have more children through propaganda posters. In the beginning of the 1970s, the government launched the “Later, Longer, Fewer” campaign. It encourage couples to marry at a later age, have 4-8 years break from the first child’s birth before having the second child, and couples were encouraged to have only 2 children (Greenhalgh 2008: 49). In 1979, the one-child policy was implemented to further control the population growth.
In the 1950s the People’s Republic of China first implemented the beginnings of the one child policy. It made significant changes to the population and the nation’s growth rate decreased. Professor Yinchu Ma (1957) initiated the policy with his book New Population Theory. His book responded to the huge increase in population growth occurring in China (Singer 1998). Under the Mao republic, leaders saw the population development as a danger to the nation’s economy (White 1994). The political party promoted childbirth in the 1950s and 1960s according to the slogan “one is a good few, two is just enough, and three is over” (White 1994). However these efforts were not successful and there were 250 million additional people in the 1970s. More steps were taken to encourage population control. These steps included focusing on contraceptive and abortion services in the countryside and encouraging later marriages. In 1982 the Chinese population was over one billion and the growth rate made China’s modernization goals more difficult.
In communist China, prior to the population boom, more people meant more manpower to create more economic prospects for the communist nation. The communist government condemned birth control and banned imports of contraceptives (Attane, 2002). Lack of birth control, and government encouragement led China into a time of vast population increase. Hundreds of millions of extra children were born in a baby boom that sent the birth rate soaring to 5.8 children per couple, a level considered unsustainable (Cai & Lavely, 2003). With an increasingly growing population, food sources began to become depleted, and soon it became clear that the rate of reproduction needed to be decreased. To begin, government propaganda cropped up, pushing the sloga...
China’s population has shifted drastically over the past century resulting in ongoing issues that greatly impact the people of China beyond visually troubling demographic. China was once a poor and struggling country plagued with years of war and disease. The leader during this era, Mao Zedong had thought that influencing his people to grow their families it would lead economic prosperity. Sadly, the situation led a famine killing 30 million people. As a result of the disaster, Mao Zedong shifted his mindset towards an idea based around the slogan “Late, long, few”. Although fertility rates had dropped by half between 1970 and 1979, the Chinese government feared that the population was still growing too fast which then resulted in the one child
When the leader of China was Chairman Mao, formerly called the People’s Republic of China, the crude birth rate fell from 37 thousand to 20 thousand . This is when the One Child Policy First Started. Infant mortality had declined from 227 per 1000 births in 1946 to 53 per 10000 births in 1981, as well the life expectancy had a major increase from 35 years in 1949 to 66 years in 1967 . Until the 1960’s, the china government was encouraging families to have as many children as they can to raise population. This was because of Mao’s belief that a large population is what empowered the country; this was what started the preventing of emergence of the family planning programs that were earlier in China’s development. The population then had a major growth from about 540 million in 1949 to 940 million in 1976 . Then Beginning in 1970, people were strongly encouraged to get married at a later age and only have two childr...
Edward Abbey once said, “A crowded society is a restrictive society; an overcrowded society becomes an authoritarian, repressive, and murderous society (Goodreads).” Overpopulation has constantly been a controversy in regards to the well being of the Earth. Overpopulation can lead towards environmental issues, mass extinction, promotion of global warming and more. How can overpopulation be stopped with the constant cycle of life and death occurring every second? The authors of both “Welcome to the Monkey House” and “The Lottery” display methods to control overpopulation in their societies with the use of birth control pills, suicide parlors, and lotteries, while present-day countries develop methods of their own for population control.
Following a thirty five year policy which was geared towards improving economic and social concerns within the region, the Peoples Republic of China has begun to facilitate its family planning regulations. Prior to the establishment of China’s population policy, the population experienced massive increases and decreases of its magnitude. Consequences of civil and global wars before 1949 led to high death rates in the country. As country conflict came to an end, and new leadership, population growth was greatly encouraged by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong. During this time, the size of Chinas population grew subs...
With the largest population of any country in the world, much attention has been focused on China's ability to handle the overwhelming crowds in such a dense area. China bolsters a population of 1.38 billion citizens, many of whom are unable to live in under proper conditions. Overpopulation has led to unhealthy living conditions that can lead to severe health problems. It is easy to look at the positives of having many people to form a workforce and build the country’s infrastructure. However, the simple question of where does everyone fit has become a great crisis in recent decades. It has become clear to Chinese government that being the most-populated country in the world can lead to many issues that require different policies to be put in place.
If it weren't for natural disasters, famine, or policies set for limiting birth rate, the present as we know it would be very different. In the beginning of the development of human beings, we probably had a big explosion of a population. Compared to today, it was most likely a narrow population. It is probable that many diseases that we know of today, were not around at that time, so it grew fast enough to keep us from going extinct. Back then, It was very beneficial for us to reproduce, now, on the contrary, it will be why we might go extinct. Due to the world already being considered overpopulated, some policies have been established. According to National Center for Biotechnology Information, between the years of the 1930s and 1970s China had a massive growth of population; specifically, an increase of 500 million people. In 1979 China introduced the One-child-Policy for the reason to keep a stabled economy. As of today, that policy has slowly faded out. This is a big concern to many scientists because it is alarming that the results of the policy are implying that we have insignificant control over overpopulation. Equally important, The Economic and Social Affair stated in the book “World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision”, “by 2100, the world population will reach 11.2 billion.” That being the case, These statistics are agitating and should be concerning everyone.
The population of the world today is 6,112,911,145 and progressively growing. Unfortunately, that figure is expected to double by the year 2050. Four-fifths of this population resides in developing countries of the "South". Because of extreme levels of fertility, mortality, and new migration, these developing countries are accountable for most of the world population growth. There are many reasons that explain why the numbers are increasing, but the main reason is the way of life for many of the people inhabiting these regions. With the combination of an unmet demand for family planning and the desire for a large family, the world's Total Fertility Rate(TFI) is 3.1. This is significantly higher than the average population replacement TFI of 2.1.
Every minute of every day our world’s population is growing. It is growing at a rate of 1.13% annually with an estimated population change of 80 million people per year. Despite the popular stance taken by most that efforts to reduce human population growth are necessary, it goes against human freedom and denies people their rights to make decisions about family size on their own. However, family planning and other measures to prevent major population growth should be put in place, specifically in underdeveloped countries where people generally have large families. Limiting population growth by putting laws in place have not been successful in the past, for example, in China with their one child policy. These rules and laws also cause population
In Spite of the great achievements that China has achieved in the recent years, our country is still a developing country, which is facing many serious social problems. The most serious of all is overpopulation, for it has a passive influence on the national economy, education and environment.
...r, there are still not enough policies that fight with negative impacts of overpopulation. It is hard to determine whether all policies suggested above would be successful and helpful in dealing with challenges arising, but if no actions are taken, in a couple of decades the world can face serious problems. It is better for one to start developing strategies for overcoming these problems earlier in order not to be left with a range of unresolvable issues one day in the future. However, it must not be forgotten that increase in population numbers brings not only challenges for society, but also opens vast opportunities for economic and technological development; and by taking advantage of opportunities along with implementing successful preventive strategies towards challenges, humanity may be able to reach a balanced and sustainable societal structure in the future.
Population control is a very dangerous and serious case. Population control is controlling parents to not have a lot of children for the problem of population. This is important because it helps the country the country to decrease its population. Population control is actually a great crises that a lot of countries now a days have and try to solve it. Population control is a huge problem because it increases the country’s population and makes the countries recourses way more available to poor people. The rule was even in the United States in 1814 by Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States of America. He actually started the policy the opposite way, he wanted the country’s population to increase so the army would have more soldiers. In 1962 the Communist Party of China and the State Council issue instructions advocating birth control. In 1975, the government creates the policy, it was named “advocating one couple to have one child at best and two at most.” The policy was marvelous and had great progress that in 2013 the National Population, Family Planning Commission and the Health Ministry announced that couples can have a second child if any of the parents is an only child.
Overpopulation is a circumstance where the amount of existing human population outweighs the natural resources that people indisputably need to survive. Unfortunately, many developing countries are presently dealing with the issue of overpopulation and are in desperate need of finding resolutions because of the dire consequences that it may lead to. Population growth is increasing at an alarming rate and this high population density will lead to a reduction of natural resources, impoverished areas, food shortages, lower life expectancy, high mortality rates, susceptibility to disease, habitat loss, and so on. David Suzuki suggests that the ideal way to tackle this issue is to “learn from