Population Extremes

Throughout the centuries there has been an increase in human population all around the world. The question that should be asked today is: How much can our planet hold? If a commuter was driving through the spaghetti bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada around 5am or 5pm, they would find bumper to bumper traffic. As of the year 2000 Clark County alone had approximately 634,306 residents and Las Vegas is the largest city in Clark County (Rigas, Hassenzahl, & Argo, 2002, p.5). As long as humans continue to over populate this planet there will be less room and less resources to provide for them. In order for anyone to ever appreciate the issues surrounding the population growth of our world they would need to understand the data, such as the surface area of the planet verses the necessary surface area people need to live within, the effects on the environment that the over population has, and what must be done about it.

Even though there are many planets and moons, the Earth is the only planet that is suitable for us to live on. Even if there were a planet somewhere in another galaxy that we might be able to survive on, we are incapable of transporting to it. Therefore, Earth is our only home and it is our duty to ensure its ability to sustain us. The surface area of the Earth is approximately 196,894,000 square miles (Pidwirny, 2008). The land covers approximately 57,491,000 square miles of the Earth (Pidwirny, 2008). The water covers approximately 139,403,000 square miles of the Earth (Pidwirny, 2008). The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has a publication called the World Factbook and it has information about each country, about 237 nations (The World Factbook 2009 -- Country Comparison :: Population, 2009). When taking the data from the CIA of the population in each country and adding them all up there is a total of 6,783,980,820 people on the Planet (The World Factbook 2009 -- Country Comparison :: Population, 2009). This is also assuming that there is a margin of errors due to some people not being included for one reason or another. Assuming that the normal size of living quarters for one person is approximately 800 square feet and when you take it and multiply it by the approximate amount of people on this planet then you will get 5,427,184,656,000 square feet or 194,673.5 square miles of the planet would be occupied. This may not seem like a lot of area being covered by people but when you consider that there is uninhabitable land where people cannot live. Examples of uninhabitable areas include some of the world's largest deserts, treacherous mountains, and land covered in ice (e.g. Arctic, Antarctic, and Greenland). There are approximately 20% of deserts and 20 % of mountains; some of these areas are uninhabitable (Chen, 2001). Therefore, there is an even more limited amount of space of land. Another thing that needs to be considered is that with our continued growth in population, it is "projected to reach 9.1 billion by midcentury" (Engelman, 2009). If this is the case then by using the same idea of living space being approximately 800 square feet we would cover about 261,134.1 square miles of the land on the earth. It is now important to understand what might be the effects of overpopulation might have on the planet.

The continuing over population of the planet raises the question: Can our planet sustain such a demanding and fast growing population of humans? There are signs everywhere that our planet is at its peak and it will not take much longer before it will not be able to sustain such a large projected population of people. The more developed countries have serious issues with pollution (e.g. air pollution in China). After all "according to the World watch Institute, the most developed nations in the world represent only 20% of the world population but contribute to over 50% of our resource consumption and produce 75% of the worlds waste" (Rigas, Hassenzahl, & Argo, 2002). People consume every kind of natural resource possible, from food that they eat to the metals that they mine in the ground. We are now starting to see how limited we really are on these natural resources. For instance soil depletion is occurring all around the world. This occurs when the soils are over used and all the nutrients needed to grow plants end up being depleted from the land. When this occurs it is necessary to put fertilizers and other materials into the ground to replace these natural minerals, sometimes with those that are artificial. In the long run there will be a time when the soil will become too depleted and we will not be able to grow food at all. Another problem that occurs in the environment that is due to the population increase is the decrease of fresh water. There are places around the world where fresh water does not exist, for example, Ethiopia. Either the water is being depleted or polluted. Poverty is also another issue and is increasing around the world in both the developed and the underdeveloped countries. After all, even though we have much more land being used for agriculture that there was in 1961 there are "more than 900 million people going hungry" (Engelman, 2009). Due to the supply and demand of the over population of people, there is a continuous need to make room for farms to grow food, building material, etc. Therefore, forests and jungles are being cleared or burned. This causes soil erosion, runoff, air and water pollution, possible extinction of species, and so much more. Although understanding the effects that people are having on the environment and the planet, is very important, it is also important to understand both sides of the argument like what to do about the over population of the planet.

Yes: The world should find a policy that will encourage population control

There are some people who say that even though there are ways to become much more self sustaining in the idea of energy, e.g. solar power, 'clone' food, etc. There should also be policies set in place around the world that could help control the population growth. There are many ways each country can control their population growth. There are options of birth control, abortion, education, etc. One of the earlier attempts to controlling population is the Chinese (Engelman, 2009). Their policy was to allow only one child per family (Engelman, 2009). With this policy they say that they have "spared the world's climate 300 million greenhouse gas emitters" (Engelman, 2009). Critics point out that this kind of policy allows the potential of being abused. For instance, boys might be the most favored in China and therefore most of the time if a girl is born they are either given up or killed so that they can have another chance at having a boy. However, if there was a better policy where it would limit the chances of abuse, then the potential of slowing down the population growth of the world would become greater. Even improving the education system and the economies would make a big difference in population growth. For example: "many developing countries-from Thailand and Colombia to Iran-have experienced comparable declines in family size by getting better family planning services and educational opportunities to more women and girls in more places" (Engelman, 2009). After all, some women just have children so that they can receive a bigger welfare check. Therefore, if we make stricter rules on this system, making it where a woman on welfare would not be allowed to have another child. No matter what peoples beliefs are or what their morals are; there is an urgent need to do something about the growing population. Otherwise we may even set ourselves in the downward spiral of our own extinction. However, despite this urgency there are still people who are against population control policies.

No: Population control should not be put in place

Even though there are consequences of having too many people on this planet, there are still people who believe that there should not be a policy to control population growth. Some do not believe that abortion and/or birth control should be a form of control. There are people who feel that having this kind of policy would take their freedom, of having as many children they want, away from them, for example United States Americans. Another issue with a policy for population growth is, as stated previously; these policies could make room for abuse. For instance there are countries might use it as an excuse to eliminate those who are disabled, permanently ill, and elderly. In some countries, the disabled, permanently ill, and the elderly are eliminated either against their will or voluntarily. A good example of abuse with this kind of the one child per family policy in China, a woman who was already pregnant with her own child had found an abandoned infant on the side of the street (Smith, n.a.). She could not allow herself to turn her back on it (Smith, n.a.). However, the authorities came to her door and they decided that she had to undergo a forced abortion because she had taken in the abandoned baby, and the law states that she can only have one child (Smith, n.a.). This all was allowed to be done by using the United Nations Population Fund (Smith, n.a.). Due to cases like this one in the eyes of the people who are against population control the chance for abuse is too great and that no matter what the risk, having a policy for population control is out of the picture.

Postscript: My point of view

As a Christian I believe that abortion should not be used as a form of population control. However, I am fully aware of the situation that this planet is in and what kind of situation we are putting ourselves in. Therefore, I do support the need to have some kind of population control policy put into place in each country. I believe that educating countries could also go a long way. For example women who have kids because of the lack of education. Therefore, if we educate people and provide them a way to earn an income, they may be less likely to procreate just for money. In conclusion, it is very hard to address an issue like the over growing human population, without pushing the wrong buttons with those who have strong beliefs and are very religious. References:

Chen, D. (2001). Area of Earth's Land Surface. Retrieved December 3, 2009, from The Physics

Factbook: http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/DanielChen.shtml

Engelman, R. (2009). POPULATION & Sustainability. Scientific American Earth 3.0, 19 (2),

pp. 22-29.

Pidwirny, M. (2008, June 5). Ocean. (E. J. Duffy, Editor) Retrieved October 28, 2009, from The

Encyclopedia of Earth: http://www.eoearth.org/article/Ocean#citation

Rigas, M. L., Hassenzahl, D. M., & Argo, L. (2002). Population Extremes. In D. A. Charlet,

Nevada Environmental Issues (pp. 5-17). Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Smith, C. (n.a.). The United Nations Population fund Helps China Persecute Women and Kill

Children. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from

http://www.nrlc.org/news/2004/NRL08/united_nations_population_fund_h.htm

The World Factbook 2009 -- About :: History. (2009). Retrieved October 29, 2009, from Central

Intelligence Agency: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-

factbook/docs/history.html