Overpopulation

      Over the last century the human population growth rate has drastically increased. This has incredible impacts on the environment and on other people and is something the world has never faced before. It took all of the world's history until 1000 B.C.E. for the population to hit 300 million. Today, our population is nearing seven billion. Not only is our population increasing, but so is the quality of life of the people. In 1800 London became the first city to reach a population of 1 million people. Today there are over 300 cities with populations of 1 million. By the year 2015 it is expected that there will be at least 26 mega cities (cities with a population of 10 million). These booming hubcaps are examples of the prosperity and economic development in the world.  Thomas Friedman discusses this in his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Friedman writes that not only is the population increasing, but so is the amount of people living like Americans. By this, he means that there are more people who are over consuming and perpetuating the problem. While there are more "Americans" there are still many people living in poverty.  Most of the population growth is in less developed countries (LDC's). The population in LDC's is projected to rise from 5.4 billion in 2007 to 7.9 billion in 2050.

            The world and its resources can sustain about 2-3 billion people for an extended amount of time. Humans have already doubled that number and don't appear to be slowing down at any point in the near future without intervention. "Overpopulation" is the idea that the total population exceeds the resources available for the people. The phrase "overpopulation" has negative implications and is often avoided but it is an important issue that needs to be addressed. It is at the cornerstone of the green revolution. It won't matter how much people reduce their Co2 emissions if the population keeps increasing exponentially. Being aware of overpopulation is really being aware that the world has a problem.

            There are two well known theories on population growth. The great thinkers behind the two theories are Thomas Malthus and Karl Marx. Malthus projected that uncontrolled population grows at a quicker rate than the means of subsistence. The preventive checks on population are lowering the number of births or postponing marriage. The positive checks come from famine, disease, and destruction of the environment. Karl Marx theorized that population directly related to economic basis, more specifically that capitalism creates overpopulation. By this theory the overpopulations would lead to unemployment, cheap labor, and poverty.

            This information leads to an important question- what caused the rapid growth rate? The answer is surprising. The main contributors to population growth, and potentially overpopulation, are things that we find inherently good. Improvements in healthcare, disease eradication, economic development, and food distribution have all contributed to growth rate. Despite these improvements, there are many problems occurring with overpopulations. The number of people with availability to vaccines and healthcare may be increasing, but so is the number of people without this availability. The same could be said for access to food and economic development.

The rapid growth of the world's population is an issue that incorporates virtually all aspects of globalization, and is connected to just about any field of global studies. The three major areas I researched in terms of their relationship to human populations are natural resources & environment, economies, and health, each of which is in some way dependent on the others. Population trends are what cause much, if not all, of the global ebb and flow. In a general sense, populations dictate consumption patterns, which affect local resources and economies, influencing health and population distribution, in turn starting the process over once more. As the population continues to grow faster than ever before in history, this chain of cause and effect will be intensified, which demands that we find a balance between growth and the complete prevention of it.

The first and most obvious consequence of the unsustainable population growth we are witnessing is the depletion of our limited resources. A growing world population means increasing deforestation, higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions, the loss of fossil fuels, and the further pollution of air and water. According to The Sierra Club, "The growing population and its consumption patterns have profound consequences for the global environment, including species extinction, deforestation, desertification, climate change, and the destruction of natural ecosystems. These global environmental impacts pose a significant threat to the earth's sustainability and impact our quality of life."

It is important to consider who it is using up these resources.  While the entire world population shares in consumption, it is interesting to note that the United States - only 5% of the world population - consumes 25% of all resources. This makes it unlikely that a person in an Asian slum, for instance, has the same carbon footprint as a middle class American. However, it is likely that the growth rate in places like the slums are perpetuating larger-scale sources of ecological damage, such as the loss of infrastructure and more industrialization.

Local and global economies will likely be affected by population pressures in both good and bad ways. A growing population means increasing consumption, which could help those already in control of resources, while hurting those already without them. There will inevitably be a widening gap between the rich and the poor.

After looking at all the problems with overpopulation, the question that pops into all of our heads is: "What do we do now?" Well, what do we do about this problem? There aren't too many options.

                The first option is the law of the jungle: let the strongest survive. Of course, this sounds cruel and barbaric, how could we possibly let our fellow humans die? Well, death is natural. Starvation, bad water, and famine all are ways that nature deals with overpopulation. If there are too many people, there isn't going to be enough food. When people try to over stretch the land, the soil is stripped of nutrients and soon you are unable to grow any sort of plant life on it. In the rainforest, there are many people using the slash and burn technique, cutting down the forests and burning the underbrush to farm it. Unfortunately, the rainforest floor does not have the kind of nutrients that most crop plants need.

                Aside from hunger issues, war is also a possible solution to overpopulation. Am I suggesting that in order to curb China and India's population problems that the United States sends a few nukes over there? Of course not. But, when there are so many people on the planet, tensions rise because of misunderstandings and all sorts of rivalries. This is what happens when there are too many people packed in to one place. Of course, this theory of mine might be completely misguided. After World War II, the United States witnessed the largest baby boom (hence "the Baby Boomers") that the country had ever seen! After so many people died in that war, everyone just wanted to come home and have fun!

                So, natural disasters are out then, huh? Well, what if we curb population growth with limiting the number of births, like China? Well, why don't we take a closer look at China's issues with this program. Most people are aware that in China, there is a one child only policy that is causing many baby girls to be killed, aborted, or given up for adoption. But, few think beyond this problem. The Chinese have very deep traditions where they see a male as carrying on the ancestor's name. If you only have a girl, than your name will die out after she is incorporated into another family when she gets married. You want your name to live on because, well, if it doesn't, you essentially have no after life. So, for this reason, many pregnant women in China give up their baby girls. Some of them do this before they are born, some leave them in garbage dumps to wait for death, while others give them to orphanages. This is leading to a huge imbalance in the Chinese population. Many boys are going to grow up and not have women to marry. This encourages rape, kidnapping, and sex trafficking.

                It's hard to find a solution to a no win problem. All of the options have a down side. What we need to do to help this problem is focus on decreasing our carbon footprint and have less children ourselves while promoting sex education overseas. Education, not just sex ed, is widely thought to be the best way of curbing out ever increasing population.

We could just wait for this.