Why control population

Kieren.Wade.O’neill

2010
 Introduction
Population growth is a key issue facing the current and future world governments.
The Australian government wants to increase the population even though
Australia has already exceeded its carrying capacity. This report is a brief overview
of the main issues arising due to over population, and the impact this has on the
world’s resources and ecosystems.

Why control population?

Human population growth has historically been linked to several major

advancements.

The commencement of agriculture allowed humans to dispense with their

nomadic life styles and build communities and in doing so the opportunity to have
larger families presented itself. The industrial revolution gave the means to
increase the production of staples as well as giving individuals an income allowing
them to support larger families. Technological development and refinement as
well as medical advancements have improved the quality of life and increased the
average life expectancy.

Although there have been a large number of events that have affected
population growth, the events mentioned above have had the largest impact. The
result of this is an increased ability to sustain human life, allowing humans to live
longer and further abroad and populate a large part of the globe.

Some of the consequences of high global population are high food requirements
leading to the need for more agricultural land resulting in habitat and species loss

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and soil degradation. Emissions, pollution and global warming have also escalated
as well as food and water shortages.

Discussion

Definition

“Overpopulation refers to a situation where the number of people in an area

exceeds the resources and the capacity of the environment necessary to sustain
human life” (Hopkins 2007). For a population to be considered stable it needs to
be able to be permanently maintained without degrading the environment and
without having an adverse effect on the standard of existence; this applies to all
animals, humans included.

Overview

Although many developing nations have large populations, it is developed

industrial nations that have a greater effect on the world’s resources and
ecosystems, due to their high consumption and exploitation of these resources in
their continued pursuit of wealth at the expense of the environment. The
developed world bases its economy on consumerism and is constantly developing
new products to fuel this type of economy. Virgin forests are logged or cleared to
make the products we so highly desire or to make way for agriculture that uses
unsustainable methods compounding it's adverse affects.

These products mostly come from non-renewable resources, i.e. oil, coal and
other mined products. Large corporations encourage excessive use of these
natural resources in the pursuit of profit.

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It is now widely accepted that the burning of fossil fuels has played a large part in
the warming of the environment. Sceptics of this science seem not only to want a
higher use of such products but also want the population to steadily increase,
creating a higher demand for their products and consequently increasing profits.
Many governments support this view due to a high involvement with the business
sector.

The United States is one of world’s highest consumers of goods and the biggest
producer of CO2. By 2006 the USA had emitted cumulative over three hundred
thirty four billion tones of CO2 with a population size just over two hundred ninety
eight million. In comparison china produced just over one hundred and one billon
tones of CO2 with a population size just over one billion three hundred ten million
in the same time frame (Gapfinder.org). These figures show that high population
is not directly linked to high consumption, but that the more affluent a society
becomes, the more their consumption rate increases.

It could then be argued that resource consumption and not solely population
growth need to be controlled. This statement is particularly true in regards to
developed nations.

The Australian Government states that the population needs to grow to support
the aging population who will need health and financial support in the near
future. They fail to see that a higher population will in turn need to be supported
and the cycle continues. A high population in Australia will mean increased
pressure on health and social services as well as escalating pressure on already
inadequate infrastructure.

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Global warming

The excessive use of the world resources has led to many environmental issues,
including global warming. Global warming is the increase in average temperatures
of the earth’s atmosphere. Global warming or "climate change" is a hotly debated
topic with many arguments for and against. There have been a few feeble
attempts to address this issue, but a resolve with any affirmative action is yet to
be made.

Although it's causes are dismissed by some, global warming is a result of

excessive atmospheric pollutants being emitted through industry and transport.
The consequences of rising temperatures are still not entirely known, but with
such rapid change it is likely that many ecosystems and the vast numbers of
species that depend upon them will not be able to adapt and as a result, are
facing possible extinction. Global warming, if it is allowed to continue, will
significantly change the environment making many areas of the planet
uninhabitable, in turn creating vast groups of displaced peoples. Food supplies
will be threatened due to lack of suitable land for agriculture.

Habitat and species loss

High and continued population growth requires comparative growth in agriculture

and industry to be able to meet the demands of high global food requirements.
Current agricultural methods, although they are improving, require large areas of
land and can have extremely detrimental effects on the natural environment.
Broad acre monoculture requires large areas to be cleared of native vegetation
and consequently native fauna.

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“Between May 2000 and August 2006 Brazil lost nearly 150,000 square kilometres
of rainforest. Since 1970 over 600,000 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest
have been cleared. 60 to 70 percent of deforestation in the Amazon is a result of
cattle ranches and the rest is mostly a result of small scale agriculture” (Butler
2008).

Food security

According to the United Nations Secretary General’s high level task force, in early
2008 there was a large rise in global food prices, posing a major threat to global
food and nutrition security, as well as causing many humanitarian, political and
socio-economic issues. The crisis exposed vast underlying structural problems in
the food systems of poorer nations, it presented challenges for low income
countries and a great risk to the world’s most vulnerable. This is an issue the
current world leaders are faced with and will only intensify if population numbers
continue to increase at the current rate.

Water security

Over 75% of the earth is covered by water, and of that, only 3% is fresh water. Of
the 3% fresh water 68.7% is locked up in ice caps and glaciers, 30.1% is ground
water, 0.3% is fresh surface liquid water and 0.9% is in other forms. The world has
approximately 1.386 million cubic kilometres of water and of that, only 1% is fit
for human consumption (US.Geological survey). The world’s largest populations
inhabit some of the driest parts of the globe. In some of these places it is not
uncommon for people to travel up to 5 kilometres for access to fresh water and
even then, the water is of a poor quality as it is shared with grazing animals. In
some cases water is polluted by agricultural chemicals and stock faeces. Drinking
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water is often contaminated by sewage entering the water ways causing sickness
and death. With global temperatures increasing and extremes being longer and
more severe, the availability of fresh water is already on the decline. If
populations were to increase these issues already faced by many will be
amplified.

Land degradation

A continued need for increasing agriculture will have adverse effects on intricate
and delicate ecosystems. The use of fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides in
modern farming have led to high concentrations of salts in the soils and in some
cases have caused such high soil degradation that the land has become totally
devoid of life. The over tilling of already structurally weak soils and clearance of
vegetation have caused wide spread erosion. Often the eroded soils end up in
water ways and river systems along with a high concentration of agricultural salts,
causing the destruction of river systems and the huge decline in the species
dependent on them.

Cultural displacement

As populations grow and the supply of food and water become scarce, some
extremist political groups take advantage of the most vulnerable and commit
atrocious acts of violence and corruption, causing thousands of people to flee
their homelands in fear of their lives. Many of these people end up in large
refugee camps that are incapable of self sufficiency and can remain in these
camps for years. These camps lack basic services and infrastructure, sickness and
disease are always present caused by poor hygiene standards and absents of basic
nutrition.
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Pressure on infrastructure

Health and social services of developing and third world countries are already
inadequate for their current population size. An increase in population would
mean even higher demand on these services. Global aid filters in but much more
is required to pay for building of schools, hospitals, and essential services.

Different views

There are a wide range of views on this topic. Some have convincing arguments
and some are driven by personal agenda.

Sarojini Krishnapapillai (2000) of Friends of the Earth Australia claims that racist
ideologies are fuelling the population debate and are “Shifting the Blame” to
developing nations. She gives examples of political groups who use
overpopulation as a guise for their own racist agenda to stop immigration to
Australia.

Economist and author Jacqueline R. Kasun (2002) believes overpopulation to be a

falsehood and calls it an “ideological threat”. She claims that there are “countries
who already sterilise and abort their citizens by force” in order to control
population. She failed to provide any evidence to support her wild accusation.

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 Conclusion

The need for the world’s nations to unite and become one economy and one
government is becoming more apparent. Population growth and resource
management need to be regulated on a global level. Cultural differences need to
be critically analysed, negotiated, understood and overcome. Complete
involvement from all nations is required to effectively control population growth
as well as the many environmental, health and cultural issues which stem from
over population. As a multi-cultural country, Australia country has an ideal
position on the world stage and should be the main leader of social and
environmental change.

Populations need to be controlled in order to limit the negative effects of over

population as well. There also needs to be a more sustainable use of resources.
Developing countries need access to advanced technology and financial
assistance to combat the many facets of poverty. There is also a constant need for
peace keeping throughout many of the world’s poorest nations. Corrupt
governments need to be removed so a fair democratic society can exist.

With education and improved infrastructure the current populations can exist
with relative comfort but global population growth needs to be reduced to the
point of maintaining zero population growth.

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 References
#Anon1 (2010) Australia to 2050 future challenges:

#Anon2 (2009) Where is earths water located: US Geological survey

Ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater

#Anon3 (2005) Causes of climate change: NSW Primary Industries

www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/reserch/topics/climatechange

#Anon4 (2008) Global food security crisis: United Nations

www.un.org/issues/food

#Anon5 (2004) Agriculture and the environment: OECD publications

www.oecd.org

#Butler,Rhett.A (2008) Deforestation of the Amazon:

www.mangabay.com

#Gapfinder.org

#Hopkins,James (2007) Human population crisis:

www.cosmosmith.com last updated 2010

#Kasun,Jacqueline.R (2002) overpopulation:

www.lifeissues.net

#Krishnapapillai,Sarojini (2000) shifting the blame:

www.foe.org.au

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