Overpopulation in Our World

- "Never before have there been one billion people age 19 to 24 alive at one time."

- "With a total world population of 6.4 billion people, our actions will determine either a better quality of life."

- "We can always find a substitute for oil, but we can never find a substitute for water."

-- Werner Fernos, spokesman on global population issues


Overpoulation is a daunting issue that faces our world today. Many countries around the world have managed to become extremely overpopulated, and while many believe that this is a situation that we can procrastinate on, it truly is not. As many of us have learned in our science classes throughout our middle and high school curriculum, the carrying capacity of a location is defined as "the number of individuals who can be supported in a given area within natural resource limits, and without degrading the natural social, cultural and economic environment for present and future generations." (Garrett Hardin in The Carrying Capacity Network). If we continuously populate our world, we may arrive in a catastrophic situation where we do not have enough resources to provide everyone's basic necessities. The following graph displays how our world population has increased over the years, and what we may see in our near future if we do not control our populations:

In our past, countries such as China have attempted to prevent overpopulation by creating a 'One Child Policy.' The country has proclaimed that every couple may only have one child and was established by the Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping in 1979. I believe that this was a great move by China because the country was facing an issue, and they enforced a rule over its people in order to prevent it. However, for the people of China, many of them were forced to do abortions because of the strict policy, and for those who need more children for the steady income had to endure not being allowed to raise a large family. The policy is extremely controversial among the Chinese, but drastic times call for drastic measures, and I believe that this is what we will have to resort to if we want to prevent a catastrophy in the future. In India, there are many Non-governmental organizations that are trying to educate women about family size and the effects of overpopulation. The country has had many failed attempts at controlling the population which focused on voluntary family planning, but India needs to educate the people more and instill policies with economic implications for the large or small families.

If I had to enforce a solution to this problem, I would create a policy similar to the ones made by the Chinese government, but in addition, I would have programs that encourage educating the world about this problem. Many people, especially in developing countries, do not realize the drastic effects of overpopulation and it is important that we spread knowledge across the globe. It is easy for us to blame the government, or even developing countries for the sudden mass increase of people, but we are all part of the problem and we should all be a part of the solution. So spread your knowledge about the issue, and be aware of the problem that we need to try and fix together!

The last two weeks have been hectic as usual. In Biology, we all had a Plant quiz that everyone pretty much bombed, so it's been crazy with everyone trying to do the corrections on them. In English, we have been watching the film Persepolis, and I really enjoyed watching it, except the ending could've been better! It's great that in world geography we have been learning about the culture and geography of Southwest Asia, and at the same time in English, we have been reading our assigned Middle-eastern novels. I think that classes should always focus on one similar subject because it's easier for students to learn, and I think that we are more interested about the topic this way. Other than that, I'm impatiently waiting for the end of the school year, so I'll talk to yall in my next blog!