Should the growth of the world's population be controlled?

Question

I need a yes or no and an explanation why or why not.

Answer 1

No, it should not. If the human race ever intentionally limits it's development, we will cease to advance in every area. Only those desperately affraid of the changing world advocate "sustainable" development. All that sustainable development means is that the person advocating it does not believe the evidence of the past 10,000 or so years that technological advance feeds itself and leaves surplus for even more. If we all want to live in conditions as horribly crowded and squalid as Manhattan, we could all live in Texas with the rest of the world as farmland. The devalument of human life implied by ideas of population control makes it a horrifying idea without any other reason, as well.

Answer 2

You mean limit the number of children by law and by force like they do in China? NO!

You mean should we encourage people to have fewer children somehow? No, I don't think that either.

People who are rich usually choose to have fewer children. The lowest birth rates are in the richest countries. If every country in the world were as rich as the U.S. then the world population would be shrinking. We need to make the world rich. And the world IS getting richer. And the birth rate IS falling in most countries. But not in Africa, because Africa is still so poor.

Answer 3

Should it be controlled?

Yes. The reasons listed by previous answers are correct.

Should it be controlled by government force and laws?

No.  That's oppression and just wrong in so many ways.

How should it be controlled? That's a tough one.  Education and empowering women in ALL areas of the world seems to be the best option.  A woman whose worth is based largely on her fertility and/or doesn't know or have access to birth control is a likley candidate for lots of babies!

The control MUST come from the individual.

What if it's not controlled by the individual? Well, the fear is that nature will take control with devestating results.

Answer 4

World population is controlled, or limited, by food & water supply, disease and war.

Answer 5

It is by disease.  

When there are too many people an outbreak of some disease happens and kills a bunch of them.

Answer 6

overpopulation is the primary cause of all the world problems

polution,desertification,water... ,food shortage ,deforrestation,loss of animal habitat ,you name it

people use and need land,so more and more is being changed to accomodate human growth and devellopment

the necessary flora ,which permits life as we know it, is disappearing.

Eco-systems are being exchanged for desserts , concrete or roads.

An environmentally destructive wave is in motion, caused by expanding populations,and expanding agriculture

an increase in desserts definately affects the global climate and is for a large part responsible for the climate change we are experiencing now

World population has doubled in the last 50 years exceeding the growth of 4 million years (since we became homo sapiens).

To satisfy the growing demand farmers are cultivating unstable lands , too steep or dry to be sustainable.

Mono cultures ,aided by chemicals Exhaust and pollutes the soil .

Adding to this the effects of overgrazing has resulted in large scale desertification.

Each year billions of tons of topsoil are blown or washed away by storms.

Arable lands and their farms are lost all over the globe. Many farmers sons abandon farming and head for the cities. The farmers that are left have to feed some 70 million more people than the year before but with less topsoil.

Northern China is drying up, what once were millions of food producing people,

are now hungry refugees ,running for their lives from the all consuming dust storms.

This will have a great effect on world food prices when they start buying at what ever cost, to feed their people.

Over the last half century,

Population growth & rising incomes have tripled world grain demand from 640 million tons to 1,855 million

In the near future the global farming community will not be able to feed every body ,food prices will continue to rise. .

SUGESTED SOLUTIONS

at a meeting in Kopenhagen in 1998 it was suggested to bring the world population down by 60%,one cannot help but wonder at how this would be archieved

population control in the past and present

War (past .present and future)

Natures way disease(today,past and future)

Manufactured disease(suspected today)

cures that kill(suspected today)

poisoned consumer goods (suspected today)

making children infertile or g*y,by raising the PH level in drinking water or even drinks (suspected today)

birth control,(in the past the Olmecs women ate yams to make them infertile,today we have several methods but most reach only the educated ,i handed out condoms to an native Mazatecca comunity in oaxaca ,and the church retrieved them all )

education on birth control(not enough,again the poor regions are excluded )

laws that limit childbirth per family(China

human sacrifice,may be the best option (Mayas ,Aztecs,druids)

Answer 7

Population growth should be minimized because we can no longer count on people to use common sense. At one time it was necessary to have several children, because there was land that needed worked, animals to be tended to, and elderly to be taken care of on a daily basis.

We live in a different world now. Machines do the work of many, and the elderly have hospitals and doctors to take care of them. There is no reason to have more than one or two children in developed countries. Third world countries still experience the same needs for more people, but that does not mean that changes cannot be made to control the situation.

At the current rate of growth we will not have arable land, water, trees, or many other natural resources soon. Who cares about gas (which will also be gone), I am talking about food and water. The things we need to sustain ourselves are going to be gone.