Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
7
Population
Control
Applying Population Ecology:
The Human Population
Land
CASE STUDY
Is the World Overpopulated?
have as many children as they want. Some developing
countries and some members of minorities in devel-
oped countries regard population control as a form of
genocide to keep their numbers and political power
from growing.
Proponents of slowing and eventually stopping
population growth have a different view. They point
out that we fail to provide the basic necessities for
about one of every five people on the earth today. If we
cannot or will not provide basic support for about 1.4
billion people today, they ask, how will we be able to
do so for the projected 2.4 billion more people by 2050?
Proponents of slowing population growth warn
of two serious consequences if we do not sharply
lower birth rates.
First,
the death rate may increase
because of declining health and environmental con-
ditions in some areas—something that is already hap-
pening in parts of Africa.
Second,
resource use and
environmental harm may intensify as more con-
sumers increase their already large ecological foot-
print in developed countries and in some developing
countries, such as China and India, which are under-
going rapid economic growth.
Population increase and its accompanying rise in
consumption can increase environmental stresses such
as
infectious disease, biodiversity losses, loss of tropical
forests, fisheries depletion, increasing water scarcity, pollu-
tion of the seas,
and
climate change.
Proponents of this view recognize that population
growth is not the only cause of these problems (Fig-
ure 1-10, p. 14). But they argue that adding several hun-
dred million more people in developed countries and
several billion more in developing countries can only
intensify existing environmental and social problems.
These analysts believe people should have the
freedom to produce as many children as they want,
but only if it does not reduce the quality of other peo-
ple's lives now and in the future, either by impairing
the earth's ability to sustain life or by causing social
disruption. According to their view, limiting the free-
dom of individuals to do anything they want, in an ef-
fort to protect the freedom of other individuals, is the
basis of most laws in modern societies.
The world's human population is projected to increase
from 6.5 to 8-9 billion or more between 2005 and 2050
(Figure 1-1, p. 5), with growth occurring especially
rapidly in developing countries such as China (Fig-
ure 7-1). This raises an important question:
Can the
world provide an adequate standard of living for 2.4 billion
more people without causing widespread environmental
damage?
Is the earth overpopulated? If so, what measures
should be taken to slow population growth? Some
argue that the planet is already too crowded, espe-
cially in developed countries such as the United States
where high resource consumption rates magnify the
environmental impact of each person (Figure 1-7,
p. 11). Others would encourage population growth as
a means to stimulate economic growth.
Those who do not believe the earth is overpopu-
lated point out that the average life span of the
world's 6.5 billion people is longer today than at any
time in the past and is projected to get longer. Accord-
ing to them, the world can support billions more peo-
ple. They also see more people as the world's most
valuable resource for solving environmental and other
problems and for stimulating economic growth by in-
creasing the number of consumers.
Some view any form of population regulation as a
violation of their religious beliefs. Others see it as an
intrusion into their privacy and personal freedom to
Figure 7-1
Crowded streets in China. Together, China and India have
37% of the world's population and the resource use per person in
these countries is projected to grow rapidly as they become more
modernized.
x
H
OW
W
OULD
Y
OU
V
OTE
?
Should the population of the
country where you live should be stabilized as soon as pos-
sible? Cast your vote online at http://biology.brookscole
.com/miller11.
