The Population Growth - Research Paper Example

Teacher’s Critical Response Colin D. Butler makes a number of assertions in his paper regarding the planet’s limited ability of supporting population and health crisis. He has tried to paint a full picture of looming danger through discussing past eras. Population growth has raised various health issues and scarcity of resources, along with it has imbalanced Earth’s life support system. Earth has capacity and capability to produce for humans, but as a matter of fact population and in some of the way; humanity is destroying its inheritance. Population growth and reduction in resources has been a widely discussed dilemma since nineteenth century. However, initially the idea of lack of resources was put forward in 1789, by Reverend Thomas Malthus; his worst fear was global starvation. He pointed out, when growth of a population is not controlled with rapidly depleting non-renewable resources and degrading the capacity of the environment to support its inhabitants; such area is overpopulated and soon becomes the victim of famine, disease or war and requires reducing its human overload. Malthus advocated delay in the time of marriage to check overpopulation, which was purely hypothetical and its implementation was difficult. Malthus predicted overpopulation and tried to stabilize the long term economy of the state, but his theory of late marriages became rather controversial and was considered impractical (Overbeek, 1977, p 4). His theory was condemned by many critics, as it failed to identify the source of the problem and didn’t provide any potential solution, to increase food resources through science and technology. His theory put a stop on the enthusiasm of some of the scholars, who considered growth of population as a sign of development. None of the attention was shed on the subject as his theories were considered misanthropic in that time. Colin D. Butler further explains the scenario by giving examples from the start of 1934, when biotechnological research reached their pinnacle and increased life expectancy, thus decreasing global food supply to nourish the increasing human population. This situation also alerted politicians, demographers as well as the common public and US presidents of different time periods increased their support to different family planning campaigns in different zones of high population. Almost every Theorist and Scientist accept the kind of stress the world is facing and most of it is due to lack of resources. Arguments arise when reasons of these deficiencies are being discussed. Anup Shah in Global Issues suggest that the reason to most of the problems might be related to the way we produce, consume and waste our resources, which also reflects our lifestyles and its related issues. (Shah, 1998, p 3) In 1970, new crop strains were introduced by “Green Revolution” which in the period which was predicted to be shadowed by famine, war or disease. Fortunately, this period turned out to be a period of optimism for health sector. The introduction of contraceptives reduced the fertility rate, but did little to control the annual global population growth which concerned many global demographers and scientists. Norman Borlaug, father of Green revolution warned that the organization can feed three decades, only with correct fertility control measures. After which, China announced its one-child policy in 1979. Infliction of forced abortions and restriction on birth caused more psychological problems than ever. This has imbalanced the natural process of reproduction and is an artificial method to control the population, which shows not an extensive change in economic condition. Thus, it has become a reason of reduced production in human capital. (Chow, 2007, p 203) Butler further described extensive revolutions that occurred in the economic environment of many countries during 1970s that led to the concern of overpopulation fade away. US decreased its foreign aid, but continued its policies such as Keynesianism, which provided full employment and social security. J.M Keynes was also involved in the establishment of World Bank as well as in advancement of global justice and equality between nations. Keynesian policy failed due to stagflation (the rise of unemployment with inflation) or vice versa. Afterwards, in 1980, President Ronald Reagan considered the concern about global population as immensely overstated and abdicated its leadership in global family planning. Foreign aid budgets reduced and as a result target of a healthy society in the Third World also slipped away. Instead of aid, market deregulation policy was promoted which produced disastrous results. Life expectancy decreased in many sub Saharan countries, though this can’t solely be blamed to overpopulation and lack of resources. The list of causes of reduced life expectancy is very long and complex including reasons as alcoholism, ethnic hatred, AIDS, poverty etc. Demographers are more concerned about population ageing and European under population issues than global overpopulation issue. Butler further proves his point by giving the example of Rawanda, where economic development was limited due to its high population growth rate and low resource supply. Country had little export, tourism and industries and mainly depended on agricultural products which were also scarce. Violence became the means to survive in the area. HIV/AIDS , decline in income and food supply ,epidemics declined the rate of development with loss of teachers, experts of different fields and farmers and the situation worsened due to lack of appropriate leadership to quell the epidemic and overpopulation, which was the basic cause as stated by the author. Writings in this specific area of research are often vague, problematic, essentialist and contradictory and thus authors and researchers undermine their own arguments. Resources have always been a main objective of war. Destroying lands and increasing poverty caused much more severe problems than others. (Shah, 1998, p 1) Rapid rise in population needs a fresh view and full concentration of governments all around. It has caused many uncontrollable problems, which are swiftly increasing. If human growth persists, the inability to cope up with the increased number of humans would not only cause scarcity of resources but would increase crime and many other problems. Therefore, immediate actions are required to control it. Bibliography: (MLA) Overbeek, Johannes. The Evolution of Population Theory: A Documentary Sourcebook. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1977. Print. Chow, Gregory C. China's Economic Transformation. Malden, Mass. [u.a.: Blackwell, 2007. Print.Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Sah, Anup. Global Issues That Affect Everyone. S.l: s.n, 1998. Internet resource. Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Read More