Paul Limbrick Overpopulation
There are many problems that effect that world today. I believe that over population is one, if not the biggest problem of the twenty-first century. Many people do not know that every second of the day an average of 4.3 babies are born in the world. (Population Reference Bureau [P.R.B.], 2001.) “ The 20th century began with a world populate by 1.6 billion people and will end with 6 billion inhabitants-with most of the growth occurring in poor countries, demographers estimate.” (Feinsilber, 1998. P. 1) Today entering the twenty-first century the population is about six billion. (P.R.B., 2001) Also, every year the world’s population will grow over seventy-eight million. (Sullivan, 1999. P.3) Meaning the world may very well already be over populated. We as the people living on this earth need to do something about it for the future generations.
The human population is growing rapidly for various reasons. The rise in living standards plays a big role in the increase since the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution provided a lot more jobs that were available for the people in the community. The pay has even increased which allows people to have more children because they have
the money to support a larger family. Medicines, better doctors, better housing, and a better way of life than before all increase the life expectancy of humans on this earth. Everyday newer medicines and vaccines are created to help people fight disease and sicknesses that used to kill off humans in the past years. Mothers and their newborns because of highly educated doctors, have a much better chance of survival during birth. Which in earlier times would often be rare. (For both mother and child to survive) Even a lot of religions today in the world discourage the use of birth control. Keeping the control of how many children a family has up to “God” or whomever is being worshiped. Also in this world, the husband of the family feels the need to continue the family name. In order for this to happen the family must have a boy. While these families try for a boy they can never be certain, instead they might have four or more girls before the mother gives birth to a baby boy. Immigration, which is the movement of people into a country, plays another role in the growth of the population. As people move into other countries with more jobs and better medicinal services the desire to have children rises. Knowing that their children’s future will benefit from the specific country they immigrated too. (Cunningham-Saigo, 2001. P. 151-152)
