What Policies Can Be Implemented to Reduce Human Population Growth Essay Example Essay Example

What Policies Can Be Implemented to Reduce Human Population Growth? Essay Example Paper What Policies Can Be Implemented to Reduce Human Population Growth Essay Introduction The global rate of human population growth peaked during 1963. The number of people living on Earth, who are currently sharing limited resources, such as water and food, has amplified by more than two-thirds since 1963! Astonishingly, the world population is a bit over 6. 6 billion today. Human population is anticipated to exceed 9 billion by 2050. A majority of Environmentalists agree that most, if not all environmental problems will arise, such as climate change, species extinction, and overzealous resource extraction. According to Population Connection, the increase of human population since the 1950’s resulted to the clearing of 80% of rain forests, the loss of thousands of plant and wildlife species, a rise in greenhouse gas emissions, and the commercialization of half of the Earth’s surface land. Environmentalist distress that in during the approaching decades half of the world’s population will be exposed to water-scarce conditions, which are expected to d eepen the difficulties of meeting the consumption levels, and cause devastating effects on our delicately balanced ecosystems. To allow the people of the world to enjoy a decent living without draining natural resources and causing severe climate change, demographic trends must be reversed and a balance must be achieved between population and resources. A number of countries are already aware that their population growth rate is too high and some, (such as China) have taken actions to decrease birthrates, which is the best way to check population growth and relieve pressure on the planet’s environment. Most developed countries objective is to reduce the world’s population down to 4 Billion during or hopefully earlier 2100. What Policies Can Be Implemented to Reduce Human Population Growth? Essay Body Paragraphs This objective can be reached by establishing a Restricted Family Policy, meaning a maximum of 2 children per-family in all countries with high population densities. This would lead to a fertility rate of less than 2. 1, the level required for population replacement. It would be a good idea to take advantage of China’s experience over the past 30 years, despite the bad press China’s single child policy has gained, it has resulted in the avoidance of around 400 million births and the fertility rate has fallen from 5. 4 in 1971 to 1. 8 during 2005. The goal of the Restricted Family Policy is to reduce the fertility rate as rapidly as possible to 1. 5 in all countries that have over 10 million inhabitants. Why did scientists set the target rate at 1. 5? Simply, because it is urgent that we decrease the number of consumers so the world total population doesn’t reach 9 billion by 2050. If we want to dodge resource depletion and intolerable environmental deterioration the Restricted Family Policy must be carried threw efficiently. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), â€Å"World greenhouse gas emissions attributable to human activities have grown since the preindustrial era. Between 1970 and 2004, the increase was 70%. † Most importantly during this process developed countries have an obligation to help decrease human population since they are the largest consumers and polluters in the world. As one may see below, policies in a number of developed countries to encourage large families must be abolished and increased immigration quotas encouraged, as they do not lead to an increased world population. 2006) Fertility rates and total population Country or Region Total Population (million) Fertility Rate China 1,313 1. 73 India 1,134 2. 81 Africa 922 4. 67 South America Caribbean 558 2. 7 United States 300 2. 05 Indonesia 226 2. 18 Pakistan 158 3. 52 Bangladesh 153 2. 83 Egypt 73 2. 9 France 61 1. 89 United Kingd om 60 1. 82 Therefore, one can see that much remains to be done to decrease the fertility rate to 1. 5. Once the balance between population and resources has been reached, the fertility rate can be allowed to increase to 2. 1 to ensure population replacement, this is why the Restricted Family Policy (which is known worldwide) is very important. The United Stated has also taken action by increasing education, especially considering environmental issues (since studies have shown that affluent families have fewer babies), strong availability of birth control, less restriction on abortion, charging for kids medical care, and hopefully during the near future limiting the number of births per-family. The already difficult task of reducing poverty and bringing about sustainable development in the developing world will, be made even harder, because of the predicted addition of several billions of people by the middle of the next century. Efforts to slow this population expansion have to foc us on reducing fertility. There are action and policies of reducing unwanted fertility and the unmet need for contraception by enforcing family planning programs. Roughly one in four births in the developing world (disregarding China) are unwanted, meaning a larger proportion of births are unexpected, this is mostly because of lack of education, and this is why family planning programs are necessary. In addition, an anticipated 25 million abortions are presented each year in less developed countries. One may ask, â€Å"Why do individuals fail to practice contraception? † The answer is a result of a mixture of social and health service related reasons. Such as lack of access to services or information was and remains a key obstacle. In addition, other factors such as fear of side effects of contraceptive methods and overt or suspected disapproval of husbands and other family members—are significant barriers to use in many societies. To be effective, programs must theref ore go beyond the simple establishment of services, and address social and health concerns as well. In the 20th century, population control proponents have drawn from the insights of Thomas Malthus, a British clergyman and economist who published An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798. Malthus argued outlined the idea of positive checks and preventative checks are factors that Malthus considered to increase the death rate, and decrease birthrates. His theories is what created many policies. Preventative checks† were factors that Malthus believed to affect the birth rate such as moral restraint, abstinence and birth control, in many countries it has become a policy for the government to provide birth control pills, and educated teens on the consequences of pregnancy in order to lower birth rates (for example, in the United States many teens between the ages of 14 and 18 get pregnant). He predicted that â€Å"positive checks† save humanity from itself. Malthus we nt on to explain why he believed that this misery affected the poor in a disproportionate manner. Finally, Malthus supported the right for lower class people to be educated in order for them to be aware of how they impact the environment and the importance of moral limitations; this resulted to another policy, where every human being has the right to be educated, and government schools were established where lectures about the dangers of human population increasing, and pregnancy were given. Finally, Eco-scientists discuss many policies that can implement and reduce human population growth. Legalizing â€Å"compulsory abortions,† and forced abortions to be carried out against the will women who have already given birth to 1 or 2 children, this is very common in China. Babies who are born out of wedlock or to teenage mothers to be forcibly taken away from their mother by the government and put up for adoption, its believed that this will result to mothers demonstrating to the government that they can take care of a child, scientists believe this will result to a policy, where one must have a licensing to take care of a child. Implementing a system of â€Å"involuntary birth control,† where both men and women would be mandated to have an infertility device implanted into their body at puberty and only have it removed temporarily if they received permission from the government to have a baby. Permanently sterilizing people who the authorities deem have already had too many children. Supposedly, in the future all these policies would be overseen by a transnational and centralized â€Å"planetary regime† that would utilize a â€Å"global police force† to enforce the measures outlined above. In general, if the world does not take action in reducing human population, it will result to the depletion of resources. Earths life support system will all be under stress due to more people consuming more resources and numerous of organisms will be extinct. Scientific solutions that can help improve the environment will not be practiced until rules or laws are imposed and enforced. By decreasing population renewable resources will not be exploited beyond their sustainable yield; this will insure a sustainable lifestyle. Population control has been a major issue for years, and it is time to enforce policies to insure a sustainable lifestyle for the long-term future. A wise man once stated: â€Å"Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, maybe we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment. † ~ Sir David Attenborough We will write a custom essay sample on What Policies Can Be Implemented to Reduce Human Population Growth? 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