World Population Day 2008
Today is World Population Day and I couldn’t miss the opportunity. It’s been far too long since I wrote about this, and that’s strange because I see overpopulation as the worst problem these days. At first I wanted to have a series of posts on this topic, but after the first I just couldn’t bring myself to it anymore. It’s a big struggle to write this too because I feel I have to write it and I can’t want to do something I have to do, just how my mind works, and if I don’t want to do something obviously I can’t do it well, and when something this important turns out badly I feel like crap. But I feel like crap anyway…
The purpose of this day seems to be to create awareness about the availability of safe, affordable and reliable voluntary birth control. Some would say that’s enough to stop our population growth, but I don’t think so. It works with intelligent people who are interested in the big picture, aren’t driven by their instincts and don’t accept society’s norms, but that’s only a very small percentage of people. Yes, of course you’ll reduce the number of births and offer a lot of other benefits by eliminating unwanted pregnancies, but that reduction will not be enough, not to mention that making safe, affordable and reliable birth control available to all doesn’t equal eliminating unwanted pregnancies.
The problem here is that there is massive resistance to any attempt to limit births. Even in China’s case where such a rule has been implemented and considered successful by the authorities there are plenty of exceptions and loopholes, plus people who would rather have more children and face the consequences anyway. Many see it as their right to have children, maybe even as their duty! Whether for religious reasons, tradition or simply because they are driven by their instincts, people will not voluntarily reduce birth rates so much as to quickly begin significantly reducing the population worldwide. I think the fact that some people are trying to come up with cheap fertility treatments and their reasons for doing so proves that point.
Still, it’s a good sign that even financial institutions support reducing the number of births. The current world economy is designed like an ancient empire, it needs its base to continue expanding in order to be able to support itself, and the population is that base. But it seems that we have reached a tipping point, the base is too large to be sustainable anymore so the expansion has to be halted for economic reasons too. Never thought that’d happen…
Considering how influential the rich are, if the current population is becoming unsustainable from a financial point of view as well then there might actually be some hope. On the other hand, more people means more demand, resulting in higher prices and potentially greater profits. Some will stop their reasoning right there regardless of circumstances, even when it’s obvious that such a demand can’t be met anymore and that the only possible result of that is the population being reduced by famine, disease and war.
But maybe enough will see how things truly stand, look beyond today and be willing to make their resources available so this problem will eventually be solved. There are plenty of organizations trying to make that happen already, though some are going too far (if only because we still need to clean up our own mess). Some try to achieve that through education, others through legislation… I don’t think any one means is enough and perhaps not even all of them together could solve the problem quickly enough unless paired with a very direct (and harsh, wherever needed) approach, but everything helps.
What humanity as a whole needs to understand is that people are the only species that managed to override the laws of Nature on this planet. Or at least the only one which has survived (so far) after doing it. Everything that happens without being caused by humans should happen, whether good or bad that’s the natural order of things. However, when we get involved then everything should be judged according to the results, the effects each action has over the planet as a whole. And from that point of view we have a lot to answer for, and a large part of that is simply because there are so many of us!
The human population has more than doubled over the past 50 years! Knowing that, how do people expect anything other than our current problems? Of course there can’t be enough food or water for all of us, of course there can’t be enough room for all of us to live in decent conditions, of course there can’t be enough resources to create necessary items for everyone, of course there simply can’t be enough things to do for all to earn enough to make a living!
A hundred million people would probably be able to live well even without being too careful with the amount of resources they use, not to mention that they’d be able to settle only the most suitable regions and therefore have the best living conditions at all times. Two or three billion people could also live in decent conditions if they’d be at least somewhat careful, and I think that’s what we should be aiming for… Because nearly seven billion is just mind-blowing…
