World Population Essay -- Environment Populated Essays Papers

World Population Works Cited Not Included Population causes a heated debate among many people. The world's population has exceeded 6.5 billion and continues to increase about another 76 million each year. The three most populated countries are China, India, and the United States. Scientists have become worried that the population will double within the next 50 years, exceeding 12 billion people. With scarce natural resources and the strain that a doubling in population will cause on food availability, people become more wary about population control. What is population control? Population Control is the practice of limiting population increase, usually by reducing the birth rate (www.wikipedia.org). The first country to adopt a population control policy was India, though that did not stop the country from passing the 1 billion mark. In 1952, 6.5 million rupees were made available to conduct studies in fertility and family planning (Samuel, 54). For the first five years (1952-1956), the Indian Government was not sure what to do with the information and the population continued to grow at a rate of two per cent per year. After 1962, the Indian Government decided to limit the size of families, yet did not have to put effort into persuading the people to favor the idea. However, the people lacked a serious motivation to limit their procreation (Samuel, 56). India's population continued to grow. Contraceptives were also introduced, yet even after the education of the people, they went unused. The women were not given a choice when it came to reproduction. The men did not want to use the contraceptives, and they could not be forced by their partners. It was said that without an improv ed standard of living and improved education, ... ...t. The United States can support its population, but is still having problems with pollution. The hungry can be fed, the poor can be clothed, but the pollution is still much higher that desirable. The issue becomes a question of availability of natural resources and food. The question becomes "How do we produce more for a growing population on less land with less available water?" Is it ethical to control population? Should the government of any country mandate contraceptives or limit the amount of children a family can have? Does this remove the agency of the people? Can people themselves be trusted with the agency of how often they can procreate and how they feed, shelter, and clothe their children? It seems as though if population goes unchecked, mankind will wring out every last drop the Earth has to offer. The question then becomes: "What will we do then?"