World population - Essay Example

Although the world’s birthrate has declined in recent years it has doubled since 1960. (BBC News. 1999) In fact data gathered by the United Nations’population division reveals that the world’s population has tripled over the last 72 years. (Population Reference Bureau) The forecast of the world’s population has given way to some alarming predictions. Predictions that the population explosion threatens to compromise the world’s food supply are nothing new. Therefore one might be compelled to argue that this prediction is unfounded since it has yet to come to fruition.

Hundreds of years ago Thomas Malthus forecast that the world’s population will surpass the earth’s feeding resources. In fact Malthus predicts that a world population collapse will result from the over demand for the world’s food resources by an overly large population.(World Population) After all these years, the world population continues to boom and although there are a large number living in abject poverty, it is not as a result of a lack of food. There are those who argue that the over population is on the decline as a result of increased infant mortality and low birthrates.

Moreover, humanity will come to an end as a result of depletion of the earth’s ozone layer, pollution and toxic waste long before the population begins to die out as a result of an imbalance between food supplies and population numbers. When one looks at the distribution of the world’s population it is arguable that as long as the population growth is stable and sustained in countries such as Canada, the United States and European nations, the world’s food supply will not be endangered.

Moreover, immigration to cities will not become a fact capable of threatening civilization as we know it. The significance of the population growth locations is relevant to the consumption of food. American’s consume almost 40 times as much food as Asians. Canadian’s and Europeans eat almost as much as the Americans. In other words there is more than enough food to go around. But thankfully, North American and Canada are not among the countries experiencing massive population growths.

(World Population) Sixty percent of the world’s population is located in Europe. China alone hosts 20% of the world’s people. India, hovers dangerously close to China with 16% of the world’s population. Africa is not far behind with 12% of the world’s population. Europe hosts 11% of the world’s people and North America accounts for 8% of the world’s population. (World Population) It has been argued by a number of population experts that the implementation of ‘a one-child policy, similar to that operating in China, should be adopted worldwide.

’(BBC News. 1999) This argument must fail on the basis that China has the world’s largest population despite the one-child policy. Besides, other experts counter this suggestion by maintaining that science will serve to compensate for the world’s imbalance between food supplies and over-population. They also argue that the world’s birthrate is ‘beginning to level off.’ (BBC News. 1999) Be that as it may, the population explosion is endangering the world’s financial resources as it becomes increasingly difficult to employ every employable adult.

As the world’s population grows, so does the increase in pollution which can eventually have catastrophic results. The unfair distribution of the world’s wealth will only grow more and more imbalanced since the United Nations projects that the majority of the world’s population will be poor and illiterate.(World Population)SourcesBBC News. 1999. "World population reaches 6 billion." BBC online network (Oct 12). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/471908.stm Viewed November 11, 2006Population Reference Bureau http://www.prb.org/.

Viewed November 11, 2006World Population. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population Viewed November 11, 2006