We've made it to 7 billion people. Or, at least, that's what they say. There's no way to really know, because of several reasons including: 1. Many third world countries have very few, if any, birth and death records. 2. There are all kinds of homeless people and "wild people" that a lot of people don't even know exist and certainly can not count with a census. 3. There are all kinds of missing people out there, and we don't know if they're alive or dead. 4. There's the simple possibility of human error.
Anyway, the point is, we know there are a ton of people on this planet, and for the longest time, the consensus has been that planet earth was not made to support more than 1 billion people. Well, of course, it would seem that this overpopulation matters, since we supposedly have 7 times as many people on this planet as we're supposed to have. However, the reasons we're not supposed to have so many people is because we supposedly can't support this many people. By that, I mean we supposedly can't house or feed that many people. However, with growing technology, we've been able to double, triple, quadruple, you name it, the amount of food we can produce in a small period of time. And obviously we've either found homes for people, or they've been forced to live on the streets. Obviously the streets aren't ideal homes for people, so here's where a problem arises. When there are tons of homeless people on the streets, people always say "They should just go to a shelter and stay there." Well, that's not so easy, because shelters become full and have to turn people away. Then we've got tons of people (some sane and some totally bat shit crazy) on the streets! This is a problem for them, but it's also a problem for us, because we don't need crazy people on the streets. It's dangerous. Also, there's another similar problem that people don't think about which stems from our population problem. Because we can't house all criminals in jail, criminals are getting out after only spending about half their sentences in jail. Doesn't that sound like a problem? Doesn't that sound unsafe? And it stems from our overall population issue!!!
There are also population problems in the food department. Since we have proven that we can mass produce food in a short period of time to keep up with the growing population of mouths to feed, it would seem this overpopulation doesn't matter. However, you may have read, in my last note, about how corrupt the mass meat production industry is. Mass producing food is unhealthy, for the most part, and the mass production of meat is torturous to animals and factory workers. Not to mention, it carries along with it serious environmental repercussions. You have hopefully read that note, so I won't bother to explain all this here.
Here's something else most people don't think about: fossil fuels. We have already used most of the fossil fuels on the planet to produce enough electricity for a huge, growing population. Well, once we've used all of these fossil fuels, we will be forced to figure out a different way to produce electricity. That's another issue, but the point is that growing population is causing us to blast through our precious fossil fuels faster and faster. Even when we do figure out something to use in the place of fossil fuels, will it be able to be mass produced? Probably not for awhile. So we're going to have a lot of trouble producing electricity for the 7 billion + people, at least until we figure everything out. Along with fossil fuels, a large human population uses up all kinds of other valuable resources such as timber, stone, brick, etc. that are used to build cities and sustain human lives.
And then there's the population size limiting factor of space. There simply is not enough space for all the people who live on this planet at the current time. Bunching people together in extremely tight living spaces like heavily populated cities, Atlanta for instance, is a major cause of widespread disease. Trade that goes along with highly developed cities spreads disease even farther, potentially around the world. And creating more space for people to live contributes to environmental problems such as deforestation and extreme atmospheric and water pollution. It's possible you guys need a recap from your high school biology class that taught you about the issues associated with deforestation, pollution, habitat loss, species extinction, and the Butterfly Effect that leads all of this to affect humans. For instance, did you know overfishing in coastal areas of the ocean can lead to the depletion of entire kelp forests? That is because overfishing can get rid of all of the sea otters in the area, and since these guys feed on sea urchins, this can cause a sea urchin population explosion. Sea urchins eat kelp, so if there are too many sea urchins, then kelp forests are doomed. Kelp have been useful to humans for purposes of entertainment, food, navigation, etc. This is just one tiny example of how humans can impact the environment, which can in turn cycle back and impact humans later.
Furthermore, having too many people on the planet is uncomfortable. It creates all kinds of discomfort, more notably in highly populated areas. For example, I previously talked about diseases that are more easily transmitted in highly populated areas, but also it is uncomfortable for people to be forced to live in together in tight spaces and to have to sit through hours of traffic just to drive 20 minutes from our houses to work. This traffic causes terrible air and water pollution and depletes our fossil fuels faster, like I mentioned earlier. Furthermore, discomfort from overpopulation can also come from food shortages that could possibly occur during seasons of low production in many places around the world. Think about the extreme air pollution in China that causes people to have to wear air pollution masks just to walk around in certain cities. This air pollution is from too much resource usage by too many people in overpopulated areas of China. Think about how uncomfortable it must be to live in that mess. There's a photo of this below if you aren't familiar with what this looks like.
If you want more information on why human overpopulation is dangerous and the environmental imacts that come from humans, check out Charles L. Redman's "Human Impact on Ancient Environments." This book, along with my own personal knowledge and beliefs surrounding this topic are why my answer to the first question in the first paragraph is yes. It does matter that we are overpopulated. If you read this note and my last one, I think you can also understand my standpoint.
So, if you choose to believe as I do, then I'm sure you think we need to do something about it, right? Because the answer to every issue is to change it...make it better. Well, here are some possiblities. Obviously people won't control the number of babies they have. There are teens and young adults who accidentally get pregnant and decide to have the babies. There are people who are mentally unstable and people who simply don't want kids, but when they get pregnant, they still have the kids, give them away, send them into foster care, keep them, what have you. And even though there are plenty of beautiful, amazing, perfectly good kids who need a home, people continue to ignore them and have their own children. I understand why people want to have their own kids. I don't think I'll ever feel that way, since I believe we should give homes to the kids that need homes before bringing more into the world, but that's only one person's stance. The point is, what can we do about the overpopulation? We could always do as China does and regulate how many babies people have. We could tax people who have more than one or two babies. (This would be hard, since there are so many divorces and blended families, but I'm just thinking out loud here.) It seems like this would be a simple enough solution, since it would certainly get the population under control. (Or maybe it would just give the government more control, make people worried and anxious, move us one step closer to becoming a communist nation like China, and of course, make the government rich on our hard-earned money.)
So we're going to move past the question of whether or not a plan like China's would work here, or whether or not it's MORALLY right, or whether or not it would actually do what it's supposed to do, which is cut down on the population. We're going to go straight into the question of whether or not it's a violation of our constitutional right to free choice. We should be able to choose how many children we have, right? Well, what about if it's for the good of mankind to implement such a plan? What if the world will someday become so overpopulated (if the population continues to grow at this rate) that the world will not be able to sustain us all? In that case, it's definitely for the good of mankind for the government to step in and save us from ourselves. If you have read all my previous notes, which I don't think anyone has, then you know my general standpoint on when the government should be allowed to step in. I'm a green libertarian, so my views on government in particular are fairly conservative. I think that, if it can only potentially hurt you but won't hurt anyone else, then the government shouldn't be allowed to control it, whatever "it" is. If it's not hurting anyone, then it's our inalienable right to be able to do it, if we so choose. So then it's our right to have as many babies as we want, right? Well, in this case, since it may potentially hurt the entire population, not to mention the earth, it has turned into something the government should be allowed to control, if we go by my beliefs on government regulation. However, that's a mighty big thing for a government to control. This is why there is so much debate and indecision over this topic. I can't even tell you what I think would be the better decision. I, personally, think the government should keep its nose out of my business. But this issue is just too big. It's too big for the government to stay out of it, and it's too big for it to just stand by and watch the death of the world happen.
So now we're back to square one. What do we do about this? A lot of people maintain that everything will level out in the end. Have you ever heard of the Demographic Transition Model? It's composed of 4 steps: 1. First the population is leveled out with high birth rates and high death rates. 2. The population begins to grow, as modern medicine slows the death rate, so the death rate is low, and the birth rate is still high. 3. Then, once there are more opportunities for women, they stop having so many babies, so the birth rate slows down. 4. Then the birth rate and death are back to leveling out, and the world is back where it's supposed to be. This all happens as a country's economic system evolves from a pre-industrial one to an industrialized one. Well, first off, this may be true. Maybe, at some point, the population will level out. But, for instance, what if we reach 12 billion people (pulling a number out of my butt,) and then finally the population levels out, like the model suggests. Well, then we're stuck at 12 billion people. It's a good thing that the population won't grow anymore, but we're still stuck with way more people than necessary on the planet. So, just because everyone always says, "Oh, it'll level out at some point," that doesn't mean it will level out where it needs to be! Does that make sense? Everyone always says that everything will fall into place in the end. Did that happen for the dinosaurs? No, they became extinct. So if you believe it'll all work out for us in the end, even if we just sit back and watch what happens without doing anything about it, then you need to re-think your strategy, in my opinion. Because we could just as easily become extinct someday. I think it's almost inevitable, but maybe we could prolong it if we do something about it. The only problem is, we can't find a solution that will work for everyone, for fear of invading everyone's freedom of choice, and without corrupting the government, and without this, and without that...Well, since we can't figure out what to do on a large scale, which is ultimately what matters, all I can tell you is what we can all definitely do on a small scale. Just stop having babies if you don't want them. Stop having babies if you can't take care of them (mentally or financially.) Stop having babies if you're going to just give them away. And if you must have babies, keep your number to a minimum, for the sake of everyone. There's simply no reason to have 19 babies. Just think about the problem you're contributing to when you bring into the world way too many kids or when you bring into the world a kid that you never intended on having and/or can't take care of. I know this is blunt, and I know a lot of you won't agree with it, but you all must know that there's a problem, and that there's no easy solution, but that we need to find a solution. So this is just my ten cents on the matter.
I'm just going to add one more thing onto this. Going back to our population problems in jails, my idea for this problem (at least, it's one idea that would help a lot) is to legalize drugs (at least soft drugs like marijuana,) since it is a breech against our inalienable right to not allow us to handle our own bodies. Legalizing drugs would open up TONS of space in jails, and we'd be able to lock up real criminals. And then, we also wouldn't be wasting our time worrying about people who commit petty crimes, or in my opinion, people who do things that aren't even crimes, since there's no victim involved. Give it a thought.
You can see that the world population reached 6 billion by the year 2000, and at the rate we're going, we are expected to reach 12 billion people by the year 2050 (38 years from now, people!) By the year 2300, assuming the human race has survived by then, the world population is expected to reach around 400 billion people! Where are we going to put everyone??? How are we going to feed everyone? I don't think we'll make it to that population, because people will start dying off due to lack of available food, water, and resources. But the point is, look at how far the world population is expected to go, and look how FAST it's rising. It's skyrocketing out of control.
The air pollution in some parts of China is so bad that people have to wear air pollution masks even just to walk around these affected cities.
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