Overpopulation May Not Be The Future’s Real Problem

Overpopulation May Not Be The Future's Real Problem

As the world celebrated many records in 2012, one of the most important ones, even though it didn’t get the news coverage of a certain apocalypse scare, was that the world population hit the 7 billion mark.

As the world’s 7 billionth person was born, statistics say sometime in March, the planet is starting to feel the repercussions of overpopulation as resources like energy, clean water and food are starting to become increasingly hard to maintain at optimum levels.

This being said the world’s future may not be under the much publicized, much talked about danger of overpopulation as another, looked over but quite important milestone was hit in 2012. It took more time to hit the 7 billion mark than it took to hit the 6 billion mark, a sign that suggests the population growth is slowing down.

The 2 billion mark took us 123 years to hit, the 3 billion 33 years the 4 billion 14 years, the 5 billion 13 years, the 6 billion mark took just 12 years to hit while the 7 billion mark took, for the first time in history, longer to hit than the mark before it, respectively 13 years.

Actually experts predict that by about 2070, the world’s population will hit its max, at a sum between 9 and 10 billion, numbers that might put the overpopulation theory to rest.

The decrease in child births is something ignored in the U.S. as immigration and the constant bombardment by media outlets kept the attention on the overpopulation issue. However, the decreasing birthrate is not news for the rest of the planet.

Western Europe as a whole, especially countries like Germany (1.36) or Italy (1.4), has some of the lowest birthrates on the planet, a fact that will most likely decrease its population from 450 to about 360 million in the next century so overpopulation might not be a true concern.

The same decrease is experienced in other parts of the world especially ones that seemed to have the biggest troubles with overpopulation and explosive birthrates. India, for example has seen a decrease in birthrate from 6 to 2.5, Mexico has seen a decrease from 7.4 live children per woman to 2.4. China’s birthrate fell severely because of its one child policy, and even sub-Saharan Africa who has an impressive 4.6 live births per woman is expected to fall well under replacement rate by 2070.

This could mean that the problem the future might hold for us is not the dwindling of resources like food and water, but the never-ending economic stagnation, and social problems that may arise from the demographic shift.

Overpopulation might be the smallest issue as longer life expectancy coupled with fewer births, could plunge us into severe economic troubles, with a workforce that is unable to sustain the numbers of retirees.

Guest Writer: Grindu V

Posted by Grindu on Thursday January 10 2013, 3:50 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health, Original. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0