Demographic Changes - Overpopulation

Demographic Changes -OverpopulationThe surgein population is both a cause of the changed relationship and one of theclearest illustrations of how startling the change has been, especially whenviewed in a historical context. From the emergence of modern humans 200,000years ago until Julius Caesar s time, fewer than 250 million people walked onthe face of the earth. When Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World1,500 years later, there were approximately 500

million people on earth. By thetime Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the numberhad doubled again, to I billion. By midway through this century, at the end ofWorld War II, the number had risen to just above 2 billion people.In Other words, from the beginning of humanity s appearance on earth to 1945,it took more than ten thousand

generations to reach a world population of 2billion people. Now, in the course of one human lifetime mine the worldpopulation will increase from 2 to more than 9 billion, and it is already morethan halfway there. Overpopulation is often defined as the condition of having more people than canlive on Earth in comfort, happiness, and health and still leave the planet afit place for future generations.

To most environmentalists, the data suggestthat the planet is already overpopulated. Because of differing concepts ofcarrying capacity, however, experts differ widely over what level of populationis considered too high.Some project that if everyone existed at a minimum survival level, the earthcould support 20 to 48 billion people. This anthill existence would requirethat everyone exist only on a diet of grain, cultivation all arable land, andmining much of the earth s crust of a depth

of 1.6 kilometers 1 mile . Otheranalysts believe the earth could support 7 to 12 billion people at a decentstandard of living by distributing the world s land and food supply moreequitably and shifting from less abundant resources such as lead, tin,uranium, oil, and natural gas to more abundant resources such as aluminum, glass,and various forms of solar energy . Others opposed to population regulation feel that all people should have thefreedom to have as many

children as they want. To some, population regulationis a violation of their deep religious beliefs. To others, it is an intrusioninto their personal privacy and freedom. To minorities, population regulationis sometimes seen as a form of genocide to keep their numbers and power fromrising.Proponentsof population regulation point to the fact that we are not providing adequatebasic necessities for one out of five people on Earth today who don t have theopportunity to be a net economic

gain for their country. They see peopleoverpopulation in MDCs more developed countries as threats to Earth s lifesupport systems for us and other species.These analysts recognize that population growth is not the only cause or ourenvironmental and resource problems. They believe, however, that adding severalhundred million more people in MDCs and several billion more in LDSs lessdeveloped countries will intensify many environmental and

social problems byincreasing resource use and waste, environmental degradation, rapid climatechange, and pollution. To proponents of population regulation, it is unethicalfor us not to encourage a sharp drop in birth rates and unsustainable forms ofresource use to prevent a sharp rise in death rates and human misery and adecrease in Earth s biodiversity in the future.Despite promises about sharing the world s wealth, the gap between the rich andpoor has been getting

larger since 1960. Proponents of population regulationbelieve this is caused by a combination of population growth and unwillingnessof the wealthy to share the world s wealth and resources more fairly. They callfor MDCs to use their economic systems to reward population regulation andsustainable forms of economic growth instead of continuing their unsustainableforms of economic growth and encouraging LDCs to follow this eventuallyunsustainable and disastrous path for the planet.

Recently,the Population Crisis Committee complied a human suffering index for each of130 countries based on ten measures of human welfare. They found a highcorrelation between the level of human suffering and the rate of populationincrease in countries. The 30 countries falling in the extremehuman-suffering range all in Africa and Asia averaged a high annual rate ofpopulation increase of 2.8 . The 44 countries with a high human sufferingrate all in

Africa, Asia, and Latin America also had an average annualpopulation increase of 2.8 . Alexander V. Myskin, gr. 301