Would you believe there were 2.2 billion people living on the planet in 1946. That’s a lot, now… what would you say about that being increased to 3.6 billion in 1972? How about the 7.2 billion today? How does that impact our planet? This workshop argued how the very fast rate of population will impact our economy and environment and as humans consume resources this will have a massive impact on CO2 emissions.
Our earth today has limited resources. Yes, we as humans consume resources, the more people there are on the planet the more “trouble” we as humans will have with our environment. So… What can we do? … Reduce waste? Persuade people to consume less? Promote smaller families? Or… stop CO2 levels by… Not reproducing, over populating or just stop breathing? This is what Sara Parkin is saying. This wasn’t something that chimed well with me. I do respect that we all do have our our opinions. Here are my thoughts.
Fact: 200 million women want to delay or prevent pregnancies. Sara Parkin believes by reducing the 40% of unplanned pregnancies by intervening, green house gas emissions will be reduced. I am not convinced. I think many unplanned pregnancies are miracles, abortion maybe an option, but not for everyone. I agree there are parts of the world which are over populated, and smaller families may be a short term plan. To me it is not clear cut, some people may not be able to get pregnant, so why limit those who can.
Mass increased over population will be a risk to our planet, however fertility levels have already dropped since 1950. In the past 30 years, the worldwide population growth rate fell from more than 2.0 percent to 1.5 percent a year. Would it be optimistic to say it may even out?
Image of statistics of a difference that half a child less will make.
Family planning however is an excellent idea, as women can have the right to choose, to plan their pregnancies and have safe sex. Thinking about educating children and teens in schools is great if we teach more about contraception to help reduce unexpected pregnancies. However you can not solely blame large families for increased CO2 levels. Importantly, more information should be provided to not just women but to men too about relationships. This workshop presented an extreme view, I didn’t see a voice for men.
However I do agree with the oppositions to forced marriage, I think that at 16 you are old enough to know your own mind. Women should choose for themselves how many children to have and when to have them.
A tale of sex and money has revealed to me the importance of family relationships and the importance of bringing a child into the world with love and in a stable environment. Each human being is special, we should procreate, and we should also love our environment, it is ours to keep. We can keep our natural world by working together and becoming more sustainable. Overpopulation is not the sole cause of climate change, it is the actions each and every individual will make that affect this.
As humans, we keep on adapting, the more humans there are, the more solutions we have to problems. I believe Esther Boserup’s theory on population is summed up in the one quote we all relate to: ‘The grass is greener on the other side’. We just need a delicate balance looking at optimum population as overpopulation is only relative to our natural resources available. With human innovation and technological advances we will:
“Together we can change today and protect tomorrow”
Hey!
Thanks so much for your comment! -Irrelevant to the topic… I’d love to see the northern lights!- Anyway, I am glad you too understand this view, we both -we all- know the population has increased over the years we have inherited our planet, and you are incredibly right, in my opinion education is the step forward.
We should educate children and teens about sustainable living as they are the ‘people of tomorrow’, however, we should not stop there! Our education and awareness should reach adults: mothers, fathers, cousins, grandparents, friends as they are ‘people of today’. Their choices will impact our future, and our children’s future.
This is due to our innate mechanisms as humans, it is in our evolutionary instinct to procreate (within reason).
Your comments are great, and if we all thought this way we would have a more sustainable future. Therefore the key is… this idea of education, it should not stop at school. It is never too late to get people interested in making their lives more sustainable and as you rightly said, we hope there will be solutions provided, that are not as extreme as terminating every unexpected pregnancy, (I hope it will not come down to this). It may be an option for one, but this cannot be generalised, like as you said children are a ‘blessing’.
Great fact by the way, I did not know that! There are lower fertility rates today as women are having less children than before. However this growing world of medicines reveal birth rates are higher than death rates, this is the sole cause of over population ‘quarrels’. I just hope the main thing we all deserve is quality of life. When that diminishes we have nothing. We as humans should aim to focus on this. I guess it is better said than done! Slightly off topic here I apologise!
Thank you again for your comment again! Your opinion is highly valued!
Morgan 🙂
Well done Morgan, some very interesting points.
I agree. The population has increased, granted, but intruding with humans choices to have babies isn’t the way forward in my opinion. Instead of this why don’t we use the population growth to our advantage and educate them to become more sustainable and raise our kids to be healthy and aware of the environment instead of depriving them of life at all.
Children are a blessing and teaching them correctly will, in my opinion, benefit the environment and humanity better than as suggested at this talk, (stop reproducing). Humanity is becoming increasingly intelligent and I believe will provide solutions, as it has done in the past, for whatever problems.
And a quick fact which a lot of people don’t know; It took humankind 13 years to add its 7 Billionth. Which was longer than the 12 years it took to add the 6 Billionth. In other words our population growth has actually slowed down. Just something for people who are “pro stop breathing” to think about.
E