World Population

Population Control -Worldwide

Imagine a world where freshwater is a rarity. No longer is clean water available for bathing, drinking, washing, and recreational use. Imagine a world where everyone lives off chemically engineered foods because of a dire lack of farmable land, because the waters have been depleted of fish and where forests once provided a home for animals have been turned into urban developments.

Wake up, this is no dream. This is the world we will soon live in if population continues to increase at its current rapid rate and nothing is done to conserve and replenish resources needed for good living standards.

The current world population is over 6 billion. By 2030, it is expected to be 8.9 billion, 13 billion by 2050. Natural resources are already under increasing pressure and feel the strain of supplying 6 billion people with the necessities of a decent life. Resources are consumed much faster than they can be regenerated and nature is exploited in attempt to meet present needs.

Unclean water and poor sanitation cause over 12 million deaths each year. Air pollution adds another 3 million and is rapidly increasing each year. This serious problem is becoming worse as urban population grow and the number of motor vehicles and their emissions rise. Freshwater supply is finite, and demand soars as population grows and use per capita increases. By the year 2025, when world population is projected to be 8-9 billion if growth occurs at a similar rate, 48 countries (containing 5 billion people) will face shortages.

In 64 of the 105 developing countries studied by the UN Food & Agriculture Organization, population is currently growing faster than the food supply. Population pressures have degraded some 2 billion hectares of arable land - this is the size of Canada and the United States put together, lost to increasing population. This number will continue to increase until arable land is but a memory.

Already forests are a rare sight in today's urban-based world. Nearly half of the world's original forest cover has been lost to development by humans. Each year another 16 million hectares will be added to this already devastatingly large number, being cut, bulldozed, or burned. Forests provide over $400 billion to the world economy each year. Current demand for forest products will exceed the limit of sustainable consumption by 25%. Plants and animals worldwide are some of the most widespread victims of overpopulation. Two out of every three species is estimated to be in decline.

Warming is due to greenhouse gas emissions, largely from burning fossil fuels. If global temperature rises as projected, seal levels would rise by several meters, causing widespread flooding. Inland global warming could cause droughts and disrupt agriculture.

We as humans consume much more natural resources than necessary. The rate at which we consume and degrade natural resources jeopardizes the health of the planet and threatens the availability of clean water for generations to come. With almost one-half of the global population under the age of 25, the choices families make today will ...