World Population Conference

Population:
Is Anything Being Done?

In Chapter III of The Origin of Species, Darwin writes: "Even slow-breeding man has doubled in twenty-five years, and at this rate, in a few thousand years, there would literally not be standing room for his progeny." (Darwin 29) Three hundred years ago, the population was only at about 500 million, and during this time the population was at a slow increase. Another factor during this period of time was the birth and death rates were at much higher levels. Many babies were born, but many also died. "Living conditions were such that many of the remaining children failed to survive beyond the age of thirty." (Black 84) The crisis of Over Population should not be a surprise to anyone, currently if you were to look at the world Pop clock, which is a counter supported by the U.S. Bureau of the Census you would find a number that has risen from 6,367,148,920. This is the amount of people on earth May 8, 2004 at 8:39:47 PM; this number is constantly rising at about 8 million people per month. At the present rate, the population will rise to a point that it will max out the earth 's carrying capacity leaving humans with a lack of resources and space. Soon people will have to learn to survive off artificial resources to substitute for the inability for agriculture to keep up. "In 1950 the population of the world was placed at roughly 2,400 million, the rate of growth of the world 's population is greater than ever before in history, and the successive net additions, period by period, are breath-taking." (Hertzler 9) In 1974 the United Nations held the World Population Conference at which it was determined that a solution for the crisis was needed, it was also decided that all countries would create a population policy that would attempt to help the countries deal with social, economic and cultural development. Although the United States has a large population problem to deal with of its own, underdeveloped countries hold 80 percent of the worlds population and are unable to provide methods of birth control, leaving people no choice other than abstinence. A question we are forced to ask ourselves is: Should we help fund family planning in third world countries, or should we leave them to fend for themselves when it comes to the issue of population control. Aside from third world and underdeveloped countries, modernized nations including the United States are having the same troubles with uncontrollable population rise. The principal reasons for alarm with population are the pressures that population characteristics and population change inflict on physical resources, environmental services, economic prosperity, social systems, and human values.
For decades, humans have fooled themselves into believing that we would never deplete all of earth 's resources, but because we could not control the population this has become almost inevitable. Not only is the exhaustion of resources a problem we face, but the destruction of these resources is as well. This destruction includes continued urban growth, degradation of land and water resources, massive deforestation, and buildup of greenhouse gases. Pollutants such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), radiation, and pesticides are all physical environmental factors found in air, land, or water that are damaging the planet. They recognize no political boundaries. Not only are resources affected but nature and many of its elements are in danger. Populations are being wiped out, species, and communities of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are working parts of our life-support systems are being destroyed. These are all partly responsible for the delivery of ecosystem services, which are the most irreversible of all losses. Just one element of biodiversity, species diversity, is disappearing at a rate estimated to be 1000 to 10,000 times the "background" rate, which is the more or less constant extinction rate that biologists presume to occur naturally over time. (Ehrlich 1) The activities of one nation can create pollution that is detrimental to other nations, or to all humankind. (Managing 2) In developed nations pollutants are always being created and are constantly being released into the environment destroying the resources that still exist. Although this pollution may not seem relative, it is directly related to the population increase. As the population increases the need for materials and living needs increase resulting in the harm of the natural resources that exist. During the Iron Age a lesson was taught to Britain, "As populations gradually increased and iron production became specialized, the impact grew more severe. Scottish forests were felled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to smelt English iron. England, that former country of oak forests, had lost her timber." (Darling 72) This is just an example that occurred three centuries ago, it should have been a lesson to all countries to keep resources plentiful, but sometimes history is just bound to repeat itself. We have reached a state at which we are constantly overusing resources especially in America. An American baby born in 1973 will consume 50 tons of food, 10,000 pounds of fertilizer, 21,000 gallons of gasoline, 13,000 pounds of paper (forest), and 52 tons of iron and steel. As a developed country, the United States must realize the large impact it has on the rest of the world. We as a country use more resources than many underdeveloped countries combined. The American baby will consume 50 times as much steel, 250 times as much gasoline, and 300 times as much plastic as his counterpart in an undeveloped nation. (Hardaway 152) As the population grows it not only affects the environment and resources, but it affects the economy and living standards of all people. Some may argue that population growth is directly related to economic growth and if the population does not continue to increase, the economy will fall into a lowered condition. It is debated, "Rapid population growth has not been an obstacle to sustained economic growth either in the Third World or the West." (Hardaway 148) Although this may seem comforting now, this is only from a microeconomics standpoint, if looked at from a different standpoint its validity no longer stands. There is no hard evidence that the amount of people living in an area has any correlation with their per capita income. Western Europe, as well as other countries that have stabilized their population are now enjoying economic growth. If the population growth of the United States and other developing countries is not taken under control then the areas are soon to be overpopulated to a point where land does not exist and there will no longer be anything left to sell due to the depletion of resources. In the present time this does not seem threatening, but looking at the future it can be catastrophic.
During the debate over population, the issue of quality of life constantly comes to mind. This term is used in two different ways, social life, and individual life. "Two necessary prerequisites for an individual high quality of life are the capacities and opportunities for various activities. An individual without the physical and mental capacities for activities constitutive of a high quality of life is doomed." (Bayles 25) This statement says that if a person is raised in an area that has low living standards and poor educational opportunities this person will more than likely stay at that level unless they are extremely strong willed and persistent. The other term, social life refers to the standards that one is living in. This is also meant as the opportunities one if offered to become successful. With a rise in the amount of persons in any given area results in lowered quality of life. The area of land that one has to live becomes decreased, the resources offered become overused and exhausted and the level of hygiene drops. Poor quality of life can be seen mainly in undeveloped countries, in these countries the population growth is much higher as well as the population in general.
Not only is living space affected, but also food supply and housing are major factors to take into consideration. "The world produces enough food to feed everyone today - yet malnutrition affects as many as 500 million people. The problem is poverty and the ability to earn a livelihood. The total numbers of the poor have grown over the past two decades to around one billion now." (Sadik NP) In order to end poverty more jobs need to be created for the people that already exist in the labor force as well as for the many that are soon to be entering into it. Another problem that is affecting the people is poor land, with all the good land taken and in use many people are left to use land that is of a low quality, meaning it is not fertile or of a good location. Substantiation that over a billion human beings live in filth, another half billion are starved, that 45,000 children lose their lives each day, and that 1.2 billion hectares of land have been eroded and stripped of agricultural productivity since 1945 is dismissed as the product of misallocate economic systems and poor farming methods. (Hardaway 2)
In the United States many look at the situations occurring in third world and developing Nations and think that it is not our problem. We never stop to realize that yes, maybe it is worse in those nations, but we are quickly letting it happen to our country. Many United States citizens desire varied diets, comfortable homes, the ability to travel to exotic and beautiful places and solitude, spacious conditions to live, and other everyday things we enjoy. (Ehrlich 1) If the growth continues we will all be eating laboratory made food, living in high rise building that are filled to capacity, the opportunities to travel will not exist because all the land will be ruined, and things that we once enjoyed will no longer be able to be done. This may seem like a pessimistic view, but if the problem is not fixed it is the only outcome. "The United States already has the world 's third largest population, 268 million people. China is number one with 1.24 billion, India number two with 970 million, and Indonesia number four with 205 million. Compared to other industrialized countries, the American population is growing at a record rate of more than one percent per year (if immigration is included)." (Ehrlich 1) Constantly in the debate over population we hear the term optimum and sustainable population size. Many are unaware of what this is and how it would be beneficial. On this planet there is only so much room for everyone as well as again resources, the optimum population is a number that correlates with the amount of people that can live on earth given certain technological advances along with certain social conditions. It is also the amount of people it will take for the environment to remain intact and somewhat healthy. The optimal population of Earth is actually two billion people, about one-third the current number. The maximum population capacity is another term that comes into discussion; this is the amount of people that can be supported off technology and other advances the human race has made, if the population proceeds to this number comfortable living would be out of the picture.
The control of population is not something that has a simple answer. There have been many different attempts made to solve this problem, and many that have failed. In 1974, the United Nations held a conference to gather information and to try to create a plan that would work for all nations. The main objectives were to help the environment to continue to grow as well as to ensure a happy and healthy future for all of humankind. They decided all couples and individuals would always have free choice whether they would bear children as long as they were provided for. The U.N. decided that the plan they were to create would have to be flexible and would promote women and the roles of women. The promotion of birth control was to be used in countries that were attempting to lower their birthrates. They also developed twenty-one possible resolutions to the population explosion. Among these were: Creating programs in rural areas, co-operating with international organizations, eliminating all social practices and legislations that discriminate on grounds sex, taking measures in education and training, equal participation of men and women in policymaking, intensify world 's food programs, make effort to cope with multidimensional and complex problems of population development resources environment. The United States single-handedly expanded research in human reproduction and population dynamics in order to find better methods to reduce fertility and increase birth control. Many departments of the government are specifically designated to form and clarify policies to help gather information on population, sterility, and family planning. In 1965, President Kennedy had established a group to attempt to create a policy to control the growing population. The group was known as AID, this organization was willing to help with certain funding but not with any funding for contraceptives. "Advisory teams from AID have been sent to India, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Jamaica to discuss family planning programs, and too many other countries to discuss population problems." (Lee 90) Although their efforts were valiant, they were not successful. The populations in these areas still continued to soar high and increase at extreme rates. Many fear that the attempt to control the rapid growing population will have an affect on human rights. Some are worried that soon the amount of children a woman can bear will be limited as it once was in China. "Yet such repression has been seen in a relatively few instances, notably in China from local enforcement of the one-child family policy. In the mid-1970s, the Indian government tried to enforce a three-child limit for government employees, for which Indira Gandhi lost her seat as prime minister." (Ehrlich 1) Other feel that if there were certain rewards for limiting the amount of children that a family has more would be willing to oblige. Another large debate is that of abortion, if it is made illegal how will the population be affected? If a woman does not wish to have a child should the choice be left to her or the government? If abortions were made a normal practice, would the population rise be affected at all? These are all valid concerns for women to consider, but most likely none of them are in the near future. In my personal view, I have found that what the United Nations and the United States are attempting to do now is not working. I believe if this problem is to be solved the focus can not lye only on the people and the birth rate, but there must be work done on the environment and resources in the mean time. If the United Nations can put an end to poverty then it could quite possibly have an affect on the lowering of the population. If citizens could afford contraceptives and family planning then they would no longer be forced to have numerous undesired children. In addition, if people we properly educated on the effect the population has on the earth they would put more consideration into having children. Political support from the highest levels in the state is essential in making family planning both widely available and widely used. I feel more funding should be put towards issues such as this and less towards the development of weapons and war. Today our world is being faced with many difficult problems. With new technologies come even more troubles. Not only as a Nation, but also as a planet a solution to population needs to be created. If the world wishes to flourish and go on for many years to come the population growth needs to be stabilized. Developed countries including the United States need to take a stand and help Developing Nations with funding for contraceptives as well as with funding for poverty and education. With simple steps such as these the population may see some drop in the rate of growth. Not only is it the governments job to balance the population, but people must make effort as well. It is the governments ' job to educate the people, but in the end the citizens make the decisions. Works Cited

Bayles, Michael D. Morality and Population Policy. University, AL: University of Alabama, 1980.

Black, Eugene R. "Population Increase and Economic Development." Our Crowded Planet, Essays on the Pressures of Population. Ed. Osborn, Fairfield. 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962. 83-91.

Darling, Frank Fraser. "The Population Explosion and the Natural Environment." Our Crowded Planet, Essays on the Pressures of Population. Ed. Osborn, Fairfield. 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962. 71-79.

Darwin, Charles G. "The Law of Population Increase." Our Crowded Planet, Essays on the Pressures of Population. Ed. Osborn, Fairfield. 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962. 29-35.

Ehrlich, Paul R., and Anne H. Ehrlich. Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1977.

Hardaway, Robert M. Population, Law, and the Environment. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1994.

Hertzler, J. O. The Crisis in World Population: A Sociological Examination, with Special Reference to the Underdeveloped Areas. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1956.

Lee, Philip R. "The Development of Federal Policies Related to Population Problems." The 99th Hour: The Population Crisis in the United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967. 84-94.

Managing Planet Earth: Perspectives on Population, Ecology, and the Law. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1990.

Sadik, Nafis. "World Population Continues to Rise." The Futurist Mar.-Apr. 1991: 9+. Questia. 11 May 2004.

Cited: Bayles, Michael D. Morality and Population Policy. University, AL: University of Alabama, 1980. Black, Eugene R. "Population Increase and Economic Development." Our Crowded Planet, Essays on the Pressures of Population. Ed. Osborn, Fairfield. 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962. 83-91. Darling, Frank Fraser. "The Population Explosion and the Natural Environment." Our Crowded Planet, Essays on the Pressures of Population. Ed. Osborn, Fairfield. 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962. 71-79. Darwin, Charles G. "The Law of Population Increase." Our Crowded Planet, Essays on the Pressures of Population. Ed. Osborn, Fairfield. 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962. 29-35. Ehrlich, Paul R., and Anne H. Ehrlich. Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1977. Hardaway, Robert M. Population, Law, and the Environment. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1994. Hertzler, J. O. The Crisis in World Population: A Sociological Examination, with Special Reference to the Underdeveloped Areas. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1956. Lee, Philip R. "The Development of Federal Policies Related to Population Problems." The 99th Hour: The Population Crisis in the United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967. 84-94. Managing Planet Earth: Perspectives on Population, Ecology, and the Law. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1990. Sadik, Nafis. "World Population Continues to Rise." The Futurist Mar.-Apr. 1991: 9+. Questia. 11 May 2004.