W01 Reflection: Overpopulation

W01 Reflection: Overpopulation?

            Overpopulation has been a topic of many controversial leading to political and religious concepts. It is defined as an undesirable condition where the number of the existing human population exceeds the actual carrying capacity of Earth. Many theories have flooded the media with the danger of food, oil, water, and energy shortage. Overpopulation is also a problem for job opportunities. As a result, it gives rise to crimes, pandemics, epidemics, political conflicts, and tension. There are basically two groups of people who are concerned with this issue. Group one is mostly scientists and politicians, while group two is religious and cultural.

Several factors such as natural resources scarcity, better medical facilities, poverty, and immigration are a few of the causes of overpopulation. Scientists (environmentalists and doctors) believe that human overpopulation has an impact on our planet which they measured as “ecological footprint”. They thought that one footprint per person is sustainable, more are destructive. Our global average is more than 1.7, so at least 70% above sustainability. Sir David Attenborough an English broadcaster, natural historian, and author told Radio Times back in 2013 “We are a plague on Earth. It's coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It's not just climate change; it's sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.”

            Unlike other continents, the majority of African countries celebrate fertility as a sign of acceptance by God. High fertility in Africa is driven by several factors such as the desire to have a big family, lack of family planning and budgeting, and unemployment. Over the past years, our population growth has drastically changed. The youth high population growth in many African countries is regarded as a treasure as it brings new innovation and enough men power for the country’s workforce and army. Religions such as Islam and Hinduism accept polygamy as legal practice thus increasing their population figure.

There are many solutions which we may take up to prevent overpopulation. The best measure is family planning. In order to do that, one can ensure proper spacing between the births of the children as well as improve our population's health and quality of life. With the world’s population to grow from 8 to 10 billion in 2050, there is a good chance that more and more countries will need their own products for themselves. There is a reasonably good chance that floods of people will trek all over the world searching for more food and welfare. Therefore, in addition to gaining a full understanding of overpopulation's harmful consequences, it would be ideal to also develop the attitude that taking action now is much better than delaying action and suffering the consequences later.