World Population
Works Cited Not Included
Population causes a heated debate among many people. The world's population has exceeded 6.5 billion and continues to increase about another 76 million each year. The three most populated countries are China, India, and the United States. Scientists have become worried that the population will double within the next 50 years, exceeding 12 billion people. With scarce natural resources and the strain that a doubling in population will cause on food availability, people become more wary about population control. What is population control? Population Control is the practice of limiting population increase, usually by reducing the birth rate (www.wikipedia.org).
The first country to adopt a population control policy was India, though that did not stop the country from passing the 1 billion mark. In 1952, 6.5 million rupees were made available to conduct studies in fertility and family planning (Samuel, 54). For the first five years (1952-1956), the Indian Government was not sure what to do with the information and the population continued to grow at a rate of two per cent per year. After 1962, the Indian Government decided to limit the size of families, yet did not have to put effort into persuading the people to favor the idea. However, the people lacked a serious motivation to limit their procreation (Samuel, 56). India's population continued to grow. Contraceptives were also introduced, yet even after the education of the people, they went unused. The women were not given a choice when it came to reproduction. The men did not want to use the contraceptives, and they could not be forced by their partners. It was said that without an improved standard of living and improved education, ...
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...t. The United States can support its population, but is still having problems with pollution. The hungry can be fed, the poor can be clothed, but the pollution is still much higher that desirable.
The issue becomes a question of availability of natural resources and food. The question becomes "How do we produce more for a growing population on less land with less available water?" Is it ethical to control population? Should the government of any country mandate contraceptives or limit the amount of children a family can have? Does this remove the agency of the people? Can people themselves be trusted with the agency of how often they can procreate and how they feed, shelter, and clothe their children? It seems as though if population goes unchecked, mankind will wring out every last drop the Earth has to offer. The question then becomes: "What will we do then?"
The worldwide population is approaching 7 billion and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 (Baird). This projected population number is down from a once predicted 16 billion (Baird) and while some are not concerned, others are worried about any increase in population. Population growth is discussed in the articles “Too Many People?” by Vanessa Baird; “Population Control: How Can There Possibly Be Too Many of Us?” by Frank Furedi; and “The Population Bomb Revisited,” by Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich. Baird and Furedi concur that a concern for population growth has been around since mathematician Thomas Malthus, in 1798, warned that overpopulation could lead to “the collapse of society” (Furedi). Furedi claims that too much human life is being used as an excuse, by population control supporters, for the world’s current and future problems. Baird tries to discover if “the current panic over population growth is reasonable.” For Ehrlich and Ehrlich the concern over population growth is very real, and they reinforce and support their book “calling attention to the demographic element in the human predicament” (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 63). While taking different approaches to their articles, the authors offer their perspectives on population growth, population control and the environmental impacts of a growing population.
In the essay “Population, Delusion and Reality,” Amartya Sen discusses two opposing approaches to population control. These two approaches are “collaboration” and “override” The collaboration approach calls for a voluntary choice as well as a collaborative solution to controlling the population growth. The collaborative approach relies on more choices for men and women, a more educated and rational decision on the part of both men and women, and an open arena for a more extensive discussion on such subjects. These men and women are able to make such rational decisions based on the opportunity to be more educated and with a sense of self-confidence when presented with the ability to do so by having public policies such as family planning, health care, bigger and better education facilities and a sense of economic well being. Our ability to solve problems by making rational and educated decisions seems like a better alternative than to forcing a resolution. The “override” approach works by means of legal or economic coercion, such as the means that China forces with their “one child policy.” With this approach, the government may deny individuals of job opportunities or deny housing. These people are left with no other choice but to follow along with what the government would want them to do.
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.
After the People’s Republic of China was established several factors such as improved sanitation and medicine led to a rapid population increase. Initially, the population growth was considered to be an economic boom [2] because before it occurred the county had faced a century of wars and epidemics. However, by 1962, China started to promote the use of birth control. Later, in 1979 China was faced with a population that was growing out of control[3], and the government decided that in order to combat the extreme population that they needed to take action. Thus, the Chinese government decided to implement a one child policy.
China is the world’s most populated country with an astounding 1.35 billion people. That number would be significantly higher if it wasn’t for the family planning policy put into effect September 25th, 1980 under Chairman Mao. This was a population control effort and was considered extremely successful to the Chinese government. However success is defined differently in many countries. In America for instance it usually ends with a positive outcome. The cons of this attempt of controlling the population heavily outweigh the pros. The problem of over-population manifested into economic tragedy. Crime rate, gender gap, forced abortions, and mass suicide are primary problems that stem from the population control efforts of the one child policy.
During the first half of 50’s government did not limit the population growth but did the exact opposite and actually encourage families to have more children. This was due to the Mao Zedong’s or Chairman Mao’s believe that more population would mean more economic development, more labor and more growth, however, late 1950’s changed that and that is when China began implementing first population control measures. As population reached 600 million Mao expressed his wish for population to remain in this level. Government soon realized that in order to keep population at this level, long term population control would have to be implemented. First they began by simply distributing various forms of contraceptives among general population. As famine of 1959-1961 struck the country it set the policy aside but as soon as country began to demonstrate signs of recovery the family planning campaign resumed where it left with distribution of contraceptives. By the late 1970s, China had experienced success in decreasing fertility rates by increasing the use of birth control under the slogan "Late, Long and Few". As a result China's population growth dropped by half between 1970 and 1976. Nonetheless, it soon leveled off, making government and officials seek more drastic measures and on September 25, 1980 an open letter by the Chinese Communist Party established One-Child Policy (OCP) also called Family Planning Policy (FPP). Nevertheless the OCP name is misleading since the policy allows for exceptions. For instance rural families with first child being disabled or being girl are allowed to have another child. Also, couples where both bride and groom are single children are allowed to have two ...
It is a known fact that the world population is increasing without bound; however, there is a debate if this increase is a good thing or if it will prove catastrophic. The article “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin discusses how the ever-increasing world population will exhaust the world of its natural resources, and eliminate human’s capability of survival. On the other side of the argument is Julian L. Simon who wrote “More People, Greater Wealth, More Resources, Healthier Environment.” This article proposes the theory that with an increase in population, human’s quality of life is amplified. One particular issue that they both mention and have drastically different views on is the future of agriculture and human’s ability to sustain it.
In order to solve the overpopulation issue, the government should pay great attention to it. Some policies, such as “ One China policy”, have already been made in China. They have already paid off. For instance, in 1994, the natural growth rate was 11.21, but in 1999 it was only 8.77 (SFPCC statistics). However, China still has a long way to go in this aspect, for the overpopulation is still serious now, just like what has been mentioned in the previous paragraphs.
In India, women are being manipulated to stop having children after their second birth. Officials claim that by regulating population and the pregnancies of women after their second child they will be able to empower women by offering them contraceptive choices and child care facilities. In reality, if women do not agree to be sterilized after their second birth they will be denied health care, rations for cheaper food, bank loans, and enrolment in government housing. Another major concern for women is the high rate of infant mortality in India. If women are sterilized after two births and lose one or both of their children, they will never be able to become pregnant again. Instead of the population control plan providing women with child care aid and options, they are removing their rights and their choices.
This problem of population growth leads to a number of solutions that could have significant implications on the quality of life. Taking no action and allowing population to grow unchecked could possibly risk the entire human species if food or clean water were to become unavailable worldwide. Aiming for zero population growth would in theory maintain the existing quality of life since a stable population would not increase their use of resources. However not all resources are renewable, so scarcities could still occur with a fixed population size. In an extreme case permanent resource depletion under zero population growth could have the same extinction effect that unchecked growth can lead to. Despite the escalating risk of unchecked population growth, technological advances necessitated by the increase in population will at least maintain the quality of life and could possibly improve conditions.
Human population is drastically increasing by the second, with the addition of one billion people every 12 years. Overpopulation creates an abundant amount of issues ranging from environmental and social problems. Nations attaining copious amounts of population introduce a wide array of problems to the world around and such nations. These environmental problems consist of but are not limited to lack of resources such as food and water; which may cause malnutrition in large populations, poor air quality, and overuse of fossil fuels such as petroleum. Social issues that arise from having a superabundant population consist of overcrowding, limits on freedom, and an increased amount of uprising and conflict within the nation itself. China and India are the two most populated countries in the world. China has a population of 1.34 billion and India closely follows behind as the second most populated country with a population of 1.21 billion (Index Mundi). This accounts for 37% of the world’s population (Index Mundi). China contains up to 20 percent of the world’s population ,which is 1.3 billion people and India is forecasted to soon surpass China’s population in the year 2028 according to the United Nations (5). Due to the increasingly large amount population, China and India have conducted several policies throughout the past. These policies range from China’s strict One-Child policy to India’s flexible National Population policy. In retrospect, if India’s government does not become more strict and enforce their population policies as well as provide proper sexual education, India’s population will surpass the population of China within
Since the beginning of mankind, we have reached many great achievements. We have developed many technologies and theories to solve and explain many of our questions and to improve human life. Through our years of evolution, we have severely increased our own survivability. This has been a great achievement for us, but in the recent decade, overpopulation is becoming a great issue. In the recent years, the rapid increase in population growth has troubled many in the field of political sciences. Scientists like Ehrlich have calculated and expected our population to grow even faster if we do not act upon the increasing rate of population growth. The birth rate of our planet is increasing exponentially, meaning that the birth rate has surpassed the death rate and that the rate of growth will only increase if left alone. The politics of population is a debate that involves both the fields of sciences and moral and ethical considerations. Science may provide an insight of
Overpopulation is a growing problem all over the world. This is a very important environmental issue and needs to be dealt with. This environmental problem is affecting many countries around the world, but mostly the poor and impoverished countries that don’t have the resources to help deal with these issues. It also affects the environment like plants, animal life and air quality. When the population of people expands we need more natural resources from the environment, so we consume more than we can produce.
There are various systems in handling population rates and its various issues that connect with threatening our environment. The population and environment debate will forever be a back and forth problem because there is possibly no way to completely stop carbon emissions but ease its production. To help the environment, we must incorporate all potential solutions in governing population such as family planning and governmental involvement and practice renewable resources and stop on using nonrenewable resources, as well as ways to tackle overconsumption to support our corrupting environment.