Population Growth
The “control of population sizes” is a very touchy subject that can quickly degenerate into full scale genocide of one or other segment of society rationalized by a perceived need to quickly reduce population size and this is clearly evil and wrong and against the principles of justice and world peace because there are good and bad people in every generalized classification of a group of people.
However, it is true that the consumption of the Earth's resources is proportional to population size. Therefore, it is also true that a reduction of population growth would help to reduce the strain on the Earth's resources. However, population control should not be a substitute for human beings to learn true principles of sustainability and harmony with the Earth, which is still essential for any program of long term survival for the human race.
An organization out of Washington DC called “The Population Institute” put out a paper in 2007 called “The Population Challenge: Key to Global Survival”, researched and written by Terry M. Redding, a communication consultant with a major of Arts in applied anthropology in a “public affairs series” called The 21st Century Papers. This paper says, on page 2, “at the core of addressing population growth is managing unmet need. There is well documented unmet need for family planning, especially among the 2 billion people living on less than $2 a day....As demographer Ruth Dixon-Mueller explains: 'Population control policies and programs would probably be unnecessary if women could exercise their basic economic, political and social rights and genuine reproductive choice. In addition, programs need to address the widespread unmet need in many countries for reproductive health services that would enable women to regulate the timing of their childbearing and, in particular, help women to avoid unwanted and mistimed pregnacies and unsafe abortion.'” Footnote 8: Dixon-Mueller, Ruth, Population Policy and Women's Rights: Transforming Reproductive Choice, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1993, p. xii.
On page 3 of this paper, it points out the following numbers: “One calculation shows 113.6 million women (both married and unmarried) have an unmet need for contraception in the developing world.” Footnote 12: Ross, John A. and William L. Winfrey, “Unmet Need for Contraception in the Developing World and the Former Soviet Union: An Upgraded Estimate” International Family Planning Perspectives, 28(3), September 2002. “The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 120 million couples worldwide do not use contraception, despite wishing to limit or space their children.” Footnote 13: World Health Organization, “Promoting Family Planning”, WHO website www.who.int/reproductive-health/family_planning/index.html, October 2007.
On page 3 it says: “if every woman in the developing world with unmet need for a modern method used one, 52 million unwanted pregnancies could be avoided annually.”
On page 1 it says: “By the year 2050, world population is projected to grow from its current 6.7 billion to 9.3 billion”. Footnote 2: Population Reference Bureau, 2007 World Population Data Sheet. It also says on page 1: “less optimistic calculations, based on fertility not declining from 2006 rates, place the figure at nearly 12 billion”. Footnote 3: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision Highlights. New York: United Nations, 2005, p. vi.
On page 24 (summary) it says: “A focus on population growth and international family planning programming, including commodities, distribution, and education, should be a part of any resolutions discussed for the myriad problems reviewed in the report. Family planning is one of the most proven and cost-effective components for reaching real solutions to many of the world's more pressing problems. It is recognized that reproductive health and family planning issues are complex and involve history, politics, local agendas, ethics, cultural norms and values, power relations, health, women's and human rights, economics, poverty, education and myriad other components and realities. All are urgent, and effective programs must include a comprehensive understanding of all issues....Countries in which family planning is a routine part of health care have stabilized their populations, seen economic growth and political stability, and have provided education and health care for a greater share of their population. Tunisia, Egypt, Indonesia, and Mexico are just a few success stories for international family planning efforts.”
The last sentence on this paper says: “How well the world responds in providing information, education, and supplies to those in need will be the key to managing the numerous, potential threats of the modern era.”
Page 15: “The United Nations has stated that more than 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages by 2025...and another 2.5 billion will live in areas where it will be difficult to find sufficient fresh water to meet their needs.” Footnote 61: BBC News, “UN Warns of Looming Water Crisis,” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1887451.stm, March 22, 2002.
Page 18: “Livestock accounts for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while forestry and deforestation is responsible for 18 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Rice production is perhaps the main source of anthropogenic methane, emitting some 50 to 100 metric tons per year.” Footnote 69: FAO Newsroom, September 10, 2007.
Page 18: “Climate change in Africa is a life or death situation,” said Menghestan Haile, weather expert for the world food program. “I think global warming will affect everyone. The difference is our capacity to respond and adapt to it.” Footnote 74: Haile, Menghestan, quoted in “Climate Change: The Hungry on the Front Line,” World Food Programme website http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&key=2542, July 6, 2007.
Page 18: “Once again, the poorest countries will suffer the most. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the population may increase by 80 percent by the year 2020” (Footnote 73: Pinstrup-Andersen, Per, “The Future World Situation and the Role of Plant Disease,” The Plant Health Instructor, http://www.aspnet.org/education/feature/FoodSecurity/top.html, 2001), “setting the stage for potentially dramatic consequences. During the same time time period, agriculture fed by rainfall could decline 50 percent in some African countries. As a whole, over 95 percent of Africa's agriculture depends on rainfall.”
Page 19: “Some 40 percent of the world's agricultural land has been degraded. The worst affected regions are Central America, where 75 percent of land is infertile; Africa, where one fifth of the soil is degraded; and Asia, where 11 percent of land is now unsuitable for farming.” Footnote 78: Sample, Ian, “Global Food Crisis Looms as Climate Change and Population Growth Strip Fertile Land,” The Guardian, August 31, 2007.
Page 20: “The world produces enough food to feed its entire population. There is simply not enough funding and political will to distribute the food evenly.”
Here are some of my own ideas that might help with population control:
There was a role-playing game in the 1980's called Paranoia that was set in the future where things were so bad that they had “voluntary termination booths” where people could go to be terminated or killed voluntarily to put them out of their miserable living conditions. I think something like that today might not be such a bad idea. Today I feel that there are people living in such pain and misery that it would be beneficial for the to simply sign some form and be voluntarily terminated so that their suffering could end. This would be one way to help reduce population size in a completely voluntary way. Of course, if we actually did eliminate poverty and “unmet need” as discussed above, then a lot of this suffering could also be avoided in a much more humane way.
Another way to reduce population size is to give people in prison the option to take a voluntary death penalty instead of an endless prison sentence that crushes their spirit totally. This and the termination booth methods both voluntary should allow quick and painless death the same way pets are sometimes “euthanized”. I know that I, for one, would voluntarily choose an immediate death penalty any day of the week over a life prison sentence or even a prison sentence of a long period of time. The torture and torment that is inflicted on some people is often not worth it to them and a death sometimes is a more humane way of taking compassionate care of certain people.
A third way to limit population would be to mandate that any parent cannot have more than 2 children. I think measures like these may be warranted and necessary because there are currently more people on the planet Earth than can be sustainably supported, and if that is the case, then we need to bear responsibility and reduce the burden on the planet Earth in a way that is voluntary and acceptable to all people. Of course resolving population issues with family planning, dispersal of modern contraceptive techniques, meeting unmet need, an end to poverty and slavery, more responsible farming practices, and conservation of water are far preferrable methods and should be pursued as soon as possible.
This page last updated on 4/26/2021