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Family planning is one of the best ways to deal with the overpopulation situation.
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPFF) is a global, non-governmental organization with the broad aims of promoting sexual and reproductive health, and advocating the right of individuals to make their own choices in family planning. It was first formed in Bombay, India, and now consists of more than 149 Member Associations working in more than 189 countries.
Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide. For more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood has promoted a commonsense approach to women’s health and well-being, based on respect for each individual’s right to make informed, independent decisions about health, sex, and family planning.
In Canada, in 2011, IPPF has been denied funding by the Conservative government due to lobbying efforts by pro-life groups. These groups do not seem to be at all interested in helping mothers to care for their babies, nor are they interested in providing food, homes, health care, daycare or any other kinds of help for babies once they are born, they just want the babies to be born. Does this seem like a good idea to you now that you understand the math?
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Planned Parenthood logo: Planned Parenthood
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D O  T H E M A T H - O U R P O P U L A T I O N G R O W T H R A T E I S U N S U S T A I N A B L E
World population doubling time
On page 4 we learned that the growth amount in any doubling time is greater than the total amount of all the preceding growth. The population of the Earth grows steadily, and has been growing steadily since humans learned about agriculture. Medical advancements have also reduced deaths and extended the length of time we live.
In 1969, the world population reached 5 billion people, growing at a rate of 1.7 percent per year. Your reaction to this might be that doesn’t sound too bad, that’s a pretty small rate of growth. However, if you calculate the doubling time, you will find it is only 41 years. If the growth rate had stayed the same the population would have already doubled. Fortunately, the growth rate has slowed a little.
| Population might double in 50 years or so, but resources such as food, water and fuel will NOT double in that time. The resources are "finite" - there is a limit to what is available for us. |
In 1999, the world population was 6 billion, and the growth rate had slowed a bit, to only 1.3%, possibly due to AIDS and other diseases, and the doubling time was now calculated to be 53 years. If the 1.3% growth rate continues, the population of the world will double by 2052. Even though the rate of growth has slowed, the world population is increasing by approximately 80 million people per year.
It is interesting to note that the rate of population growth slows in countries where women are educated and are allowed to make their own decisions about whether or not they want to have babies. In countries where girls are educated and women have equal rights the population growth rate is approximately 1%. However, in the Middle East parts of Africa, and other areas where women do not have equal rights, the population growth rate is close to 3% per year. You can check the current population growth rate, country by country, on the World Bank population growth chart.
Eventually we will get to a point where there will be zero population growth. Why? Because there simply won’t be enough food or water, and more people will die.
What can we do about overpopulation?
Increase Population
(Make the problem Worse) |
Decrease Population
(Make the problem Better) |
Procreation / motherhood
Large families
Immigration
Public health / sanitation
Peace
Law and Order (eg. speed limit)
Scientific Agriculture (less famine)
Accident prevention
Clean air
Ignorance of the Problem
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Abstention / Contraception / Abortion
Small families
Stop immigration
Disease
War
Murder / Violence (eg. more guns)
Famine
Accidents
Pollution
Educate everyone about the problem
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Note that everything in the first column lowers the death rate, which we think is "good" when it’s our death we are talking about. But anything that just lowers the death rate makes the problem worse. The things in the first column are only good if they happen after population is under control.
Good solutions or Bad solutions?
Obviously, things are going to happen, and they will be things from the right-hand list. We don’t have to do anything, except be prepared to live with the consequences of just letting it happen. OR we can choose first from the right hand list! We have to find something here we can accept, something we can choose to make happen.
Would you like more murder? More war? More famine? You can begin to see why this is difficult. Everything we regard as "good" makes the population problem worse. Many of the things we regard as "bad" help solve the population problem.
Of all the things we can do to help solve the problem, educating people to voluntarily have fewer babies is the only one that does not increase pain and suffering in the world.
It is the best solution. |
What about Education? Does it go in the right-hand column or the left-hand column?
Until now, we have used our education to provide for more people by learning how to grow more food, find ways to live in challenging climates, and find fuels to burn to make more things. But we have not used education to deal with the population problem.
What we need to do NOW is use our education to teach people how to reduce population growth. Of all the things we can do to help solve the problem, educating people to voluntarily have fewer babies is the only one that does not involve causing more pain and suffering in the world. It is the best solution.
Things are beginning to happen, such as the AIDS epidemic that is devastating the continent of Africa. When we start running out of fresh water and land we will be having wars over water and food. Are we going to wait for such things to force population decrease upon us, or are we humans smart enough to contol population in a voluntary way?
As long as population growth continues at its present rate, these things will continue and will get worse. And yet, some religious and cultural groups still tell people to “Go forth and multiply” (which means make more babies) and resist teaching about or using birth control. What we should be doing instead is teaching everyone how to plan the size of their families, and how to keep the families small.
The Earth is a finite environment. Let’s consider one more example of steady growth within a finite environment.
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