World Population

Population causes a heated debate among many people. The world's population has exceeded 6.5 billion and continues to increase about another 76 million each year. The three most populated countries are China, India, and the United States. Scientists have become worried that the population will double within the next 50 years, exceeding 12 billion people. With scarce natural resources and the strain that a doubling in population will cause on food availability, people become more wary about population control. What is population control? Population Control is the practice of limiting population increase, usually by reducing the birth rate (www.wikipedia.org).

The first country to adopt a population control policy was India, though that did not stop the country from passing the 1 billion mark. In 1952, 6.5 million rupees were made available to conduct studies in fertility and family planning (Samuel, 54). For the first five years (1952-1956), the Indian Government was not sure what to do with the information and the population continued to grow at a rate of two per cent per year. After 1962, the Indian Government decided to limit the size of families, yet did not have to put effort into persuading the people to favor the idea. However, the people lacked a serious motivation to limit their procreation (Samuel, 56). India's population continued to grow. Contraceptives were also introduced, yet even after the education of the people, they went unused. The women were not given a choice when it came to reproduction. The men did not want to use the contraceptives, and they could not be forced by their partners. It was said that without an improved standard of living and improved education, population control was bound to fail if introduced (Samuel, 58). The experiments were completed by 1962, and a policy of population control has been introduced.

Samuel states in his article, "The Development of India's Policy of Population Control": "This policy has not yet received the attention merited by its importance for India's development."

China leads India in population by about 2 million people, putting China at the top of the list with 1.3 billion people, roughly 20 per cent of the world's population (www.wikipedia.org). What has China done in the effort to slow the ever growing population? In 1979, China introduced a policy limiting one child per family. This was unprecedented. In 1986, the limit increased to two children per family, as long as the family was non-Han. (Han is the ethnic majority in China). Some rural Han families were also allowed to have two children, as long as the firstborn child was a female. The goal in doing this was to limit the population to below 1.37 billion by the year 2010. Some families refused to adhere to the family limitation policies. For example, they sabotaged government mandated contraceptives and paid doctors to claim to have performed abortions.

It has been 28 years since the policy was set, and there have been some gender fluctuation within the Chinese population. At first, the Chinese families only wanted male children in order to carry on the family name and honor. Many families with daughters born wanted abortions or simply killed the females after birth. In 1995, 1,166 male children were born for every female (Scharping, 290) The United States stepped in and adopted 70,000 Chinese girls per year in order to save lives. Recently, the male children of these families have grown into maturity and now seek mates. The problem is males now outnumber females significantly.

Third on the population list is the United States with just over 300 million. New York and Los Angeles are the most populated cities with 8 million in New York City and 3 million in Los Angeles. While the United States as a whole does not suffer from any overpopulation or any scarcity of resources, these massive metropolitan areas suffer from high pollution on a daily basis. On certain days in Los Angeles, the smog can blot out the sun. Overpopulation causes traffic jams that put cars at a standstill for an hour at a time. The United States Government mandated pollution controls on factories and manufacturing plants. Cars with lower and no emissions have introduced, but have not taken a real foothold in the automobile market. The United States can support its population, but is still having problems with pollution. The hungry can be fed, the poor can be clothed, but the pollution is still much higher that desirable.

The issue becomes a question of availability of natural resources and food. The question becomes "How do we produce more for a growing population on less land with less available water?" Is it ethical to control population? Should the government of any country mandate contraceptives or limit the amount of children a family can have? Does this remove the agency of the people? Can people themselves be trusted with the agency of how often they can procreate and how they feed, shelter, and clothe their children? It seems as though if population goes unchecked, mankind will wring out every last drop the Earth has to offer. The question then becomes: "What will we do then?"