As well as proving information on childbirth, education provides better jobs as well, benefiting the people. The world is benefited too. The population is informed about the all the aspects of childbirth thus limiting birth and reducing it.
STATEMENT 5: AIDS is now the biggest cause of death in many of the poorest African countries. It kills many people aged between 16 and 30.
Since the epidemic began, over 18 million lives have been claimed by AIDS – almost 15 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. The AIDS toll can be expected to double over the next decade since over 34 million people are now estimated to be living with HIV or AIDS, and around 5 million new infections occur annually. This is a tragedy for people as it effect them and people they know emotional and physically. The world population however, benefits from this epidemic; it lowers the population by quite a substantial amount each year.
STATEMENT 6: China has for many years allowed each family to have only one child. You have a licence from the government to have any more.
For the people, this statement is good AND bad. It is good because having one child only restricts the number of mouths to feed in China where there are 1.2 billion people and massive overcrowding. The bad point is that it provides individuals with less choice and reduces human rights to have a larger family. If the whole world took up this policy, the population would slow down rapidly which from the world’s point of view may well be what is needed.
STATEMENT 7: Each year, increasing numbers of people are killed in hazards, such as earthquakes, floods, and landslides.
This statement is not only bad for the people themselves; it is also bad for the community. When these things happen, not only does it destroy lives, it destroys property as well. But events like this only have a small death toll, and only in the very major cases have a larger one that is significant. Although it reduces the population a bit, it reduces the land which can be occupied.
STATEMENT 8: Although it does not happen very often, about every 5 years there is a major famine in the world. Usually these happen in African Countries.
African countries are mainly LEDC’s. Normally LEDC’s have a very large population; and when there is a famine in the country, lots of people will die, which effects the population drastically. However, the people are affected too. There is no need for people to die in a famine, that’s what most NGO’s or Charities aim is, they supply food and Medicine to the LEDC’s to help wipe out the famine. But, although it does affect the population drastically at a terrible cost, it does reduce the world population.
STATEMENT 9: Women are increasingly educated across the world. Educated woman have fewer children and are less likely to die at childbirth.
When women are educated, they get better jobs, get richer, and have fewer children because they know more about safe sex and protected sex. This is good for the people and the population itself. It reduces the population without death, so it is one of the perfect solutions.
STATEMENT 10: Standards of living are rising for about half of the world’s population. More and more people are better off. Better off families tend to be smaller, but they consume more things such as energy and resources.
Although the side effects are damaging, this statement does reduce the population. As people who are better off have fewer children, their affluence increases and they use much more energy. On the other hand, the consumption of energy will eventually use up natural resources unevenly with less benefit to the poor. But if the population of the world reduces, there are advantages.
THE POPULATION WHEN I’M 64
Since 1900, when it was around 2 billion, the population has raised a devastating amount. Today the population is around 6.3 BILLION people. If it carries on like this, in 2053, incidentally when I am 64 the population will be a devastating 9 billion! The graph bellow shows the population growth since 1900, and how it has risen every 25 years with an estimate of future growth:
PREDICTING THE POPULATION FOR 2050
To predict the population for 2050, because the rate of increase is roughly steady, I took ’25 year slots’ between 1900 and 2000 and worked out the average increase over the period. I then added the averaged increase to the current population. On that assumption, the population would be at about 9 Billion at 2050. Obviously, if there is a calamity like Aids becoming more widespread, the assumption will not be correct.
WILL THE WORLD COPE?
Because of the rise in population by 2053, the world will be very crowded. Villages will become towns, towns will be cities and cities will expand more and more and become urban spreads with less countryside. There are many aspects that need to be addressed. First, food. If genetically modified food is accepted this may help and do the job and feed the world, but if not famine and starvation will wipe out the population of many LEDC’s leaving barren areas of the world. Non re-usable resources will run out – petrol and gas are due to run out in about 50 years. This means that scientists have to find different ways of fuelling cities and transportation like cars, trains, aeroplanes etc. At one stage, nuclear energy was thought to provide the solution but concerns about nuclear accidents mean that many people are concerned about it. Solar power and wind power could be the solution but at the moment, its use is very limited. Coping requires finding an answer to this problem.
Introducing the one child policy in China has greatly reduced the increase of population in that country without killing people. If the world population gets out of hand, other countries will have to do the same although this would need a new approach to education in the LEDC’s and a complete change of approach on the part of the Catholics. It is therefore very unlikely.
The population might reduce through war or famine, disease (like AIDS) or natural disaster like earthquake but this will not necessarily help because if one country is destroyed or overcome by disease, there will be less land for those who remain alive to live in.
On the other hand, over the last century, man has developed beyond anything that anyone could have thought possible. Electricity, petrol, engines, telecommunications, space travel, and computers – these were all beyond all imagination but we have them now. Therefore over the next 50 years, we have no idea how new possibilities to save the world will be thought of and put into effect. We may be living underground or under the water, we may have new sources of food and energy – we just do not know. I personally am an optimist – we will cope – we have in the past and I think we will in the future. However, we do need to do something soon on population, food, energy and in our care for those who live in poverty,
WILL THE WORLD BE A BETTER PLACE?
This question is hard to answer because it depends on many things. First, will people learn to live together peacefully or will war break out again? If it does, and weapons of mass destruction are used, the world will quickly be wiped out. Secondly, will enough assistance and aid be sent to LEDCS to improve basic needs, like farming, education, health care? Everyone must understand about over-population and be willing to work towards dealing with the problem. Third, will technology develop soon enough to replace resources like oil and gas that will run out with enough re-usable energy? I hope that the world will deal with these questions sensibly. If they do, it will be a better place. If we do not deal with these issues properly, there is a risk that everything will just collapse: society, economy, industry and many other things. It all depends, if all governments come together and work together, the world will be a better place – without a war as governments try to find food to feed their people – with peace.
