Is Rapidly Increasing Human Population Environmentally Sustainable - Essay Example

Name: Student ID: Title: “Is rapidly increasing human population environmentally sustainable” How much can the world sustain human life? It’s a question that many scientists have been babbling with for a long time. In the early 19th century, Malthus Thomas kicked off the population sustainability debate when he predicted forthcoming doom for people. Thomas believed the world’s population was increasing at a geometric rate, while food was being produced at an arithmetic rate. In few years, human population is believed to outstrip their own ability to sustain itself in the mid-century, and there would be a catastrophe in term of employment, food sustainability, environmental degradation and population itself. Even though Thomas Malthus was wrong, his idea still remains influential in talk about sustainable population. The capacity of the earth to accommodate more people has been hotly contested. Scientists the earth is near its capacity already, others believe earth still can support more population. In this paper will discuss ways in which humanity can do to achieve a sustainable population. A sustainable population in the world is one that can be maintained without weakening, interruption, or loss of value qualities. In other words, a sustainable population is the one that can survive and thrive over a long period of time without either damaging its environmental niche in the process or running out of resources. The world’s overpopulation has created score of problems. For example, China’s huge population and growing economy has created a huge strain on its resource base (Croll & Davin 1990). The country is almost on the brink of its carrying capacity, and it is for this reason it has implemented many policies to slow its rate of population growth so that it can ensure there is adequate standard of living for Chinese population (Miller, Vandome & McBrewster 2009). The huge population in China is both the country’s greatest strength and weakness: large number of cheap labor in Chinese economy has attracted direct investment and has made China to cement its position as the world’s second largest exporter and third largest economy. On the other hand, Chinese large population has also created many problems such as spontaneous “squatter” settlements (such as slums), disease epidemics, abuse of the fragile environment, overstretched social services and vast volumes of waste. Population growth must be therefore be sustained (Goh 2011). China’s “One Child Policy”, although has been found to be flawed in many ways, has shown to be efficient in achieving a sustainable population in China. Since the introduction of this policy, Chinese government has been able to reduce the country’s Total Fertility from over 6 births per woman in the 70’s to the current 1.7 births. According to Chinese government, this policy has been able to slow their increase to 6.5 million per year, and has prevented their current 1.3 billion populations from being between 300 to 400 million more (Croll & Davin 1990). Although China’s One Child Policy has its critics, this policy has help China’s economic growth in the past years as it has helped the economy in creation of more productive, highly educated and skilled workforce (Goh 2011). Some institutions too such as University of California have credited this policy for slowing the Chinese population. For example, a study conducted by University of California in 2007 has shown the policy to be effective in reducing the fertility rate which was experienced in the past and hence it has helped the government to alleviate the acute problems of and overconsumption overpopulation (Miller, Vandome & McBrewster 2009). It is predicted by 2050 the world’s population will reach 9 billion, effectively adding two Chinas to what the world have already. At the same time, the Chinese, Brazilian and Indian economies are developing at a fast rate which means the populations in these countries will command a large ecological footprint than what they are experiencing now. In 2001, China’s ecological footprint was approximated to be 1.5 global hectares per individual. At the same time, 20 per cent of the current world’s population is found in China but only 13 per cent of land mass found in China is arable. Moreover, due to economic development has contributed to the rapid deterioration in natural environment, in addition to shrinking in the quality and amount of arable land; it is estimated that one tenth of China’s arable land (120 million hectares) is now contaminated. At this rate China will be unable to provide food security for its citizens. In these circumstances of rapid population growth China’s one child policy can be seen as ethical necessity and not simply a moral good. It’s impossible to deny developing countries such as China, India and Brazil the right to develop their countries economically. One element of this growth they have to deal with is their population size or rapid growth. From perspective of human rights, China’s one child policy can be seen as an invasion of individual privacy by the state. But from other perspective of ecological communitarian ethics, China’s one child policy can be seen as a way of fixing the carrying capacity or ecological limits of the environment that is able to support human life. Whatever people thing about China’s one child policy the need to think about “the right of life” from an ethical framework that constraints the natural environment that has been imposed upon the human beings. Demographers used to believe once fertility rate of a country began to decline, it will continue to decline automatically (Young & Cowper 1999). For example, Kenyan government made a modest investment in voluntary family planning in the early 70’s and as a result, the average family size in that country fell from 8 to 5. After sometimes the focus was taken off voluntary family planning, assumptions were made that the number of women giving birth will be declined proved sadly wrong. In 1998, demographers projected Kenyan population to reach 51 million. As a result of the Kenyan government not giving much emphasis to voluntary family planning and results of stall in fertility decline. Kenyan population is now projected to reach 85 million by 2050. Therefore, in order for women to limit the size of their families they should have access to contraception and accurate information about how to use this contraception (Young & Cowper 1999). The Demographic and Health Surveys, which have been conducted in countries which are developing show that 215 million of sexually active women don’t want to get pregnant in the next 3 years, or ever, yet they are not using modern method of contraception such as pills (Letts 2006). If the world has to achieve a sustainable population will depend on level of access to a variety of contraceptive methods and should be available to both men and women and backed up with reliable information (Letts 2006). . Making family planning method readily available means changing policies, doing away with the bottlenecks in the supply line, and increasing the family planning budget to the poor. Family planning is a choice, not diagnosis, and people should be empowered and educated to help themselves. For example, in Ethiopia, the Bixby Center and Venture Strategies, working with the local people, have shown volunteers in their family planning programs can safely dispense the injectable contraceptive (Letts 2006). The world will not be able to contain its 8 billion populations without women having access to safe abortion. This is true even in Catholic countries such as Malta, where abortion still remain illegal. Statistically it has been noted Malta women travelling to neighboring countries to have safe abortion. The world will have a sustainable population if safe abortion is made available to women. This is not because more abortions with be performed to women, but because women have safe abortion will be equipped with contraceptive counseling. In Ethiopia, studies have shown when a woman have safe abortion, is more likely to adopt a method that will prevent unwanted pregnancy. In Ethiopia, safe abortion and medical abortion are transforming women health. For example, in remote part of Ethiopia, 70 per cent of women admitted in hospitals were as a result of botched abortions. Once health workers were taught how to provide safe abortion, women suffering was virtually eliminated, and women had a choice on modern contraceptive choices (Letts 2006). The greatest challenge people in the world experiences are to move to an ecologically sustainable global economy. If governments fail to meet this challenge, then people will drift to damaging the environment with most massive extinction of animals and plants since the Jurassic times that eliminated the dinosaurs. For example, Netherlands as a country imports timber, food, and other resources from around the world. The greenhouse gases Netherlands put into the atmosphere is believed to spread from the Antarctic to the Arctic. The population of Netherlands is approximated to be 17 million people, while the country footprint is believed to be eight times the total land mass. By 2050, if people and factories don’t stop polluting the environment the major concern will be that planet’s land, water and atmosphere will not be able to sustain world’s population. it has been predicted 95 per cent of the population between now and 2050 will happen in countries that are least developed; countries that are least able to educate, feed, and employ their growing population. While, the poorest 2 billion people in the world are believed to contribute only 3 per cent of the greenhouse gases that is responsible for climate change (Young & Cowper 1999). Environment protection is important to achieve a sustainable population especially in poverty reduction. Change in population size, rate of population growth and distribution of the population has been found to have far-reaching effects on development prospects and on the environment. It is the responsibility of governments to promote the integration of population factors in national development frameworks, environmental management and planning and poverty reduction strategies. In addition, governments around the world particularly in developing countries should take action and promote health programs during the demographic dividend. Because poor health among the people is a cause of looses in household income. Reducing unwanted pregnancies also hastens the changes in age structure that advance development. Nations should also concentrate on policies that create jobs; to absorb young people or teenagers coming to age. One way in which government can achieve this is through open trade policies that have the ability to drive faster growth during the window period. Another ways in which the world can sustain its population is through sustainability in agricultural practices. A sustainable agriculture will be able to meet the needs of both the consumers and farmers through creation of agricultural systems that produce food for a large growing population in a country in a way that is able to protect the fragile environment and at same time is able to supports healthy and dynamic communities (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2009). These concerns are substantial in most developing countries particularly in Africa and Asia where the agriculture sector- the most important sector for poverty reduction- has been undermined by depletion of soil organic matter, lack of adequate plant-nutrient and soil erosion (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2009). More importantly, governments should adopt policies that promote technologies which enhances productivity. For example, in arid and semi-arid region, farming technologies should be adopted that enhances water retention capacities of soils. In addition, farmers in these areas should adopt farming technologies that rely mainly on renewable farm resources (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2009). Reference List Croll, E & Davin, D 1990, China's one-child family policy, Macmillan Publisher, New York. Goh, E 2011, China's One-child Policy and Multiple Caregiving: Raising Little Suns, Taylor & Francis Publisher, London. Miller, F.P, Vandome, A & McBrewster, J 2009, One-child Policy: One-child Policy. Only Child, Family Planning, Reproductive Health, Missing Women of Asia, Population Control, Total Fertility Rate, Compulsory Sterilization, Alphascript Publishing, London. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2009, Sustainable agriculture: concepts, issues and policies in OECD countries, OECD Publisher, University of Michigan. Young, C & Cowper, A 1999. Family planning: fundamentals for health Professionals, Chapman and Hall Publisher, New York. Letts, E 2006, Family Planning, NAL Accent Publisher, London. Read More