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Revision as of 08:29, 1 August 2002 by 65.238.10.46 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Overpopulation is a critical global issue. Many scientific models have suggested that there are already too many people living on the Earth for the Earth to sustain. Other studies suggest that the current population levels of over six billion may be supported by current resources, or that the population may even grow to ten billion and still be within the Earth's capacity to support, but these ideas are based on strong assumptions that the systems of our world will continue to function in the ways to which human society is accustomed. In other words, such assumptions are not allowing for large-scale catastrophes such as global drought or global warming.
It's certainly true that the world's current agricultural production is amply sufficient to feed everyone living on the Earth today, but this is only possible because of immense investments of petrochemicals and petroleum energy, and is also due to relatively benign climate trends in the important food-producing areas such as the Grain Belt and Great Plains of the United States. Even so, economic and political realities of our world are preventing much of this food from reaching those who most desperately need it.
Many critics point out that, in the absence of other measures, simply feeding the world's population well would only make matters much worse, quickly causing the population to quickly balloon to absolutely unsustainable levels, and resulting in mass famine, disease and other human misery on a scale unimaginable even today.
One solution offered is to provide a combination of help targeted towards population control and self-sufficiency. One of the most important measures to be taken in this effort is the empowerment of women educationally, economically, politically, and in the family. The value of this philosophy has been substantially borne out in cases where great strides have been taken to this goal: where women's status has dramatically improved, there has generally been a drastic reduction in the birthrate to more sustainable levels. Other measures include effective family planning programs, local renewable energy systems, sustainable agriculture methods and supplies, reforestation, and measures to protect the local environment.
In the meantime, history has amply demonstrated that when population pressures become too great, the results may include war, famine, epidemic disease, and environmental devastation.
--John Knouse
mailto:jaknouse@frognet.net