A word from an Ecology Professor!

Sorry Navdeep, I couldn't add anything on this, life has been too busy!

But I am enclosing a web copy of the editorial that I recently wrote for a local newspaper. It is enclosed, you can share it on the blog.

http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2007/12/clear-and-present-danger-to-planet-prof.html

Best wishes for the New Year!

Navjot

Human Population

We all know that the human population has been increasing at a rapid rate and there seems as if it is not going to slow down. We are currently at a world population of 6.6 billion and expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050! We have to do something to control our growing world population or else there will not be any more resources for the upcoming generations.

We know what we are doing and we know that we are destroying the planet, but why doesn't anyone do anything about it? We as humans have the power to control the population through parent planning or some other reliable method. I am not saying we should limit the amount of children a family has, because that would be unjust, i am just saying that if people are ready to have children they should instead of people just having children just for the heck of it and overpopulating the planet.

If we cannot solve the population problem, we might as well try to use what resources we have left in a sustainable manner. We here on the news everyday about problems such as global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps and the decreasing forest area around the world, but we just go on living our lives. We need to realize that what we are doing to the planet does not only affect us humans, it affects the other animals that inhabit this planet. When we use up resources such as trees and start to cut them down more and more, animals that rely on the trees as a habitat for themselves and their families have no where to go. We are closing in on animals around the world and causing them to lose their homes. If we cannot fix this problem of growing human population, we will not only suffer but other animals that are not at fault will suffer also. We know that the problem is more of a concern in the developing countries because they do not have the access to the same information that us developing countries have and are unaware on how to reverse their planet destroying actions.

We need to find a way that we can fix the problems where it will be easy for everyone to participate and spread awareness, or the world as we know it will become useless to us and that is the inconvenient truth.

Who will solve the problem she poses:

hello everybody

A big issue in the world today is intense human population growth. reasons for this recent, rapid, boom is due to expansion of agriculture and industrial production with lower death rates because of better hygene and medical technological advances. so right now the number of births and immigration is far surpassing that of the emmigrating and dying. because there are so many people for the earth to sustain, its resources have been, and will continue to dwindle. especially us americans, we tend to overconsume and therefore our "ecological footprint" is too big for our own good.

Yes, of course the fertility, and birth rates need to be controlled, but that's easier said than done. becasue of culture, and tradition, it is hard for some families and communities in developing countries, to "break the mold" and change the standards that define how a family is supposed to look. for example, India, yes... India. although we hear about it ALL THE TIME, its true, there are too many people. a factor of this problem is lack of educated women. traditionally, in India, a man runs the household, and has sole sayso on what happens within his family; including number of children. to the wife's liking or dislike she will have as many children as he wants; usually until she has a boy or two. but until then, she is stuck with, what seems like, five or so girls....that nobody wants. these girls are a burden, and as soon as the father can rid himself of her, she gets married...and the whole process starts all over again. this leaves an economically struggling nation with an out of control (and growing) population, with no means of sustaining them, or providing them with chances to enhance each and every person's (including women's) quality of life. thus, the need for family planning is evident.

explosion of human population is an issue that is hard to solve. an easier task would be eduacating the masses on how much damage our "privledged" countries are doing. currently the united states is the leader for overconsumption. it is time that we distinguish between "necessities", and "wants". if everyone lived off of pure necessity, the world would be in fine condition. but because we are so frivolous, and in constant desire of ... everything we are deeply affecting the natural wonder of this earth. because of pollution, and degredation of many natural habitats our resources are becoming scarce. basically we have too many people with too little of supplies. it is time for people to wake up and have some respect for this awesome place we live in (not necessarily Bakersfield). i think too many times, we take things for granted, and if we keep up the style of living it might all be gone.

so yeah... recycle, and give a tree a hug!

Dying Biodiversity

We are killing everything on the planet and don’t even realize that we are doing this. The problem is getting worse because the population is getting out of control. We are slowly increasing our resource use. We are also over fishing and destroying the environments important organisms live in. We are destroying the forests by strip cutting which also plays a role in erosion of the soil which prevents future tress to thrive because of the degraded soil. We are over fishing and seeing a decline in the bigger population of fish which will eventually lead to their extinction. We are the smartest organism on the planet but we can not find a way to help preserve the planet that we live on. Just because we are the most dominant species does not mean that we have killed everything that moves. Dinosaurs lived on this planet for millions of years and they did not kill everything that they came across. If we do not live in harmony and respect our planet soon there will be no planet to live on. What are we going to do when the biodiversity dies? Biodiversity is what keeps our planet going. However how can we ask people to care for our planet when they are barley surviving? Millions of people live in poverty today and you can not ask them to help do something when they are trying to receive the basic needs to survive; and yet even worse people that have money and do not have to struggle to survive still destroy their own body and then try and make everyone feel sorry for them later because they did not take care of themselves. The only way people are going to know what they are doing to the planet and the biodiversity is education. How people are suppose to help a situation when they know nothing about what is happening right out side their homes. With the standard of living going up areas are more crowded then ever before. Why is this when there is land out there that no one is living on. We need to spread out our population it is putting to much stress on the planet. we also need stricter rules on protected land and protected animals otherwise the problem will only get worse but I have not herd of any plan to start fixing it just ideas but actions speak louder than words so we have to act or life as we know it will cease to exist.

Population growth

Population growth has always been increasing, but lately the growth has become outrageous. Our planet population is roughly 6 billion. Scientist have estimated that between 2006-2050, over 6.6 to 8.9 billion people will be added to our planet. Much of the growing population comes from developing countries. Population growth is growing from 0.1% in developed countries to 1.5% in developing countries. This may seem like a small amount to some people ,but this little percentages will keep on adding up. Much have this has been because of the medicine we now have to increase the life span of humans, or dating back to history when the baby boomers were born Scientist have concluded that if a women would have 1.5 children in her lifetime then we could possibly dwindle down the population increase. I think that would help, but our planet has to do a lot more than that. We need to educate everyone, in both developing and developed countries, on how our planet can not withstand much more of increasing high population. We also must make sure governments have a family plan. If we do complete these tasks it will not get our population under control in 5 years, but maybe over the next few decades it will help lower the increasing rate of population growth.

Essentially, Humans ruin everything...

So, everyone knows that the human population is increasing exponentially. Right now, the population is already at an unstable 6.6 billion, and is expected to increase by 3 billion in the next 30 years. So when will humans finally learn the lesson of their constant reproduction? Well looking back at how well humans learn from their mistakes, probably never. We are devastating the populations of the species we share this earth with. But humans continue in their poaching, hunting, and tearing down habitats. Humans are ignorant and most could care less about other species as long as they are still alive.
Humans are like a cancer to this world, spreading rapidly and destroying everything with no way to stop it. So how do we cure cancer? People have come up with some really creative and good ways to control the population, but these actions will never be initiated unless people are convinced slowing population growth will really benefit them. Although steps are being taken all over the world to try and stop our rapid population growth, other drastic measures would have to be taken to repair what we have already destroyed. And I could list all the ways I believe population could potentially be controlled, but that's not what this is about.
This is about the biodiversity of all living things we are destroying on this planet. I really detest anything that has to deal with harming innocent animals, so I feel really strongly about stopping useless hunting and poaching. I don't see how some people can be so cruel to animals, they are so cute and innocent! Even so, things need to be done to protect not just animals, but also the biodiversity of plants. If we had things my way, I would put the death penalty on ANY person who harms ANY wildlife. That would get rid of the population problem, and the loss of biodiversity problem. Ok, now I'm kinda scaring myself....
Well all people definitely needs to be educated on the effects they have on wildlife. This would help some of the issues we have on loss of biodiversity, but would definitely not fix the big problem we are facing. We need these animals for many reasons, and even if we didn't, they still have the intrinsic right to live! I believe this is a hopeless cause, because people can not be taught to care about animals. Forests can be replanted, but biodiversity can never be restored...

economics as a solution

There are many problems that plague our planet today. However, I find that environmental activists have greatly exagerrated many of the problems. We recently watched a video with Edward Norton in it (what Edward Norton has to do with saving the environment is a bit of a mystery to me). In the video it has a segment in which a team of "conservationists" go to Brazil or some such rainforest and try to save it from some horrible purple plant. First of all i very much doubt that a purple plant will take over all of the Brazilian rainforest. Secondly, WHO CARES. it is a purple plant. purple, green what is the difference? Thirdly, if the Darwinian view of nature is true then what do invasive species matter? it is survival of the fittest. We just happen to have sped the process slightly. If a species takes aversion to the color purple and dies out then it obviously wasnt all that strong or fit to survive. Now you may be reading this and thinking to yourself that it is a digression and has nothing to do with the original problem at hand. however, it leads me back to the question of do i think that the human population explosion is a true threat?

There have been many booms and busts in human population. Human population as a whole has increased dramatically since the beginning of time. But so has every animal in the history of everything everywhere. To begin with there were not millions of reptiles, fish, mammals and birds. If darwinian thinking is true then only a few were spontaneously burst from the primordial soups. Now if this is true then there was a dramatic increase in animal population when they reproduced continually to create more organisms that inhabit our earth today. the same is true of human kind. I am not saying that there arent a lot of us. there are. but perhaps it is not the huge ordeal it is made out to be.

Industrialized countries are proven to have shrank in size after they have reached the post- industrialized stage (Japan, Germany, Italy, United States). Now if this is true then eventually once every nation has reached its peak of industrialization then its population will begin to reduce. this will not happen all at once. however one by one each nation will industrialize and its population will decrease. the truly worrying thought is that for some reason some nations may not industrialize. Given the right environment and support, any nation can become industrialized. the trick is keeping out dictators and those who oppress their people and keep them in a bondage of perpetual poverty. With the right stimulation from countries that have already industrialized this should be possible.

There have been many other areas that have been cast in a decidedly negative light. Global warming is a specific area that is described as definative and exact. There is much debate between scientists today as to the validity of global warming or even its existance. It is shown to the students today as an absolute truth. Perhaps it is, but there is simply not enough evidence to conclusivly say either way.

It is interesting to note on this graph that the CO2 level appears to increase BEFORE the temperature does. The theoretical proposition of some scientists claim that CO2 levels do not change the temperature, instead the temperature affects the CO2 levels.
this is never discussed or even mentioned in the class.
ineteresting

Duh!

Of course humans kill animals without thought, even animals kill animals without thinking about the consequences... they are hungry. Ok, I'm not advocating poaching, or killing the whales just because we are humans (and extremely superior... we do have brains and hearts and souls... that, yes, make us different and better) but I do think that killing animals around us for food, or comfort is no problem. I'm sorry but you can't compare how humans treat animals without looking at how animals treat other animals. When a tiger walks down the path and squishes an ant, it doesn't cry about it- so we shouldn't either. Yes, I understand that our living habits tend to kill more animals than necessary... like cows, but who cares... as long as they aren't becoming exinct (that is an issue). I don't think we should dictate our actions according to what might happen to an animal if we did the action. Basically what I am saying is that, yes continuous killing of animals that are necessary for the environment and biospheres to grow and prosper is bad, but at the same time I'm going to kill a cockroach if I find one in my bathroom, because I'm a superior human and they are gross.

The Human Population is a mess!!!!

Humans believe since their the smartest species on the planet they can destroy it. This sort of thinking is the one that got us to this disaster. We have finally noticed that we are reproducing to quickly, but still we make no effort in helping prevent it. I believe that their should be rules like in china where we can only have one child. We should all take that pledge like Dr. sighn has and make an effort and try to stop reproducing so much. The animals that we use to see in the zoo, like for example the gorillas, are no longer their because they are becoming extinct. Due to all the damages we have done as humans the species now have to pay. If we are the smartest then why don't we have the capability to stop harming the environment.

I think that humans are abusing their natural powers. We are the smartest species, and yet we are mindlessly popping out kids and killing any species we want, even our own kind. I really don't see any way to stop people from living in such a terrible manner. Humans have been destroying the planet for years, so what method could magically change their minds? 

I also think that some animals were put on this earth for us to kill and eat, but some people take this too far. Hanging up animals in your house to show off is pointless for you and the animal! 

Humans have just taken this way too far, and there really is no way to go backwards. We just need to see where we are now and how to slow down this process, and then maybe someday our population numbers will go down. But that day won't be in our lifetime, and maybe not in our child's lifetime. That is our fault and the doing of past generations.

In other words, hallelujah, we are doomed.

Ummmmmm....

Population has shockingly increased in the past few decades and that is due to the massive birth rates in some of the countries in the world. Some countries have an average of 5-9 kids living in their families and others have probably 2-3 kids in each family. Countries where the majority have 5-9 children really boosts the amount of people that are living in our country and i think that it could be terrible for the world in the future. Alot of resources could be used up with the greater population and the Earth could run out. Of course we could find substitutes to help make up for resources but if we dont than we might not be doing so well. If you think about it than greater population could lead to greater problems.
Really...there is nothing that we can do to brign down population besides telling people to not have so many kids. Researchers have found that alot of families in the United States and countries similar have a much lower birth rate than a third world country like Somolia or other African countries. A way that could decrease or limit the population to how it already is, is by telling people to only have a limited number of children. I dont believe that alot of them will listen, but some of them might just choose to. In a country like China or something, i think that they are limited to only one child because some of the families are trying to succeed in giving birth to a boy, which could, and might just take seven children to do so. I dont know why they feel like they have to have a boy, i think its personally kinda dumb because it uses alot of money and other things to take care of a child. I have heard of a few other ways to take care of human population, but i dont even think that they might work.

It's not too late, or is it?

Prevention is definitely the way to go, we've already lost a lot and we must start looking into preventing further losses. Invasive species need to be severely limited, once they are introduced we can't easily remove them... so our only good chance against them is to prevent them. We need to spend more money on our natural parks and other nature preserving agencies. If we don't, then many of our prized species will be lost forever very soon. We must also greatly reduce our deforestation, we can't afford to lose all of our tropical rain forests, which is most certainly where we are headed. Alternatives must be determined and put into action. I think with proper funding we could preserve a lot of the species and forests that we have, but it just isn't happening. Action must be taken soon or else we will lose countless species.

Who's the coolest guy you all know? Daniel B!

Maintaining biodiversity is a huge feat that doesn't seem possible. My favorite animal, the panda bear, is an endangered animal that is been fostered for a long time. Even though scientist across the world are trying to keep these lovable animals from dying out, it's just too much of an effort to keep them all alive. If you think about how many species around the world there are that are endangered, and what seems to be a dwindling amount of new scientist nowadays, there is no possible way to maintain biodiversity around the world. My opinion is that we need to focus on the species that actually affect the way that WE live. In all honesty I can see many animals in the world that don't NEED to be here, they just stick around making things worse for us and taking up our time when they get endangered. I really wish that I could say that we can maintain all the animals we have on the earth but really think about it, we don't need everything. There are animals like the cow and the chicken that help us out a lot by creating food and drink for us day to day, and then there are animals like, sadly, the panda that have almost no use to us. To maintain biodiversity we will need to first get to a point where we have only species that are useful to us and then preserve what we have. Once we get to that point there shouldn't be too much work for our scientists and we can focus on better things like creating a renewable energy source or even smaller iPods. This is the only way that I think we will be able to keep on living while maintaining biodiversity.

We Need to Act Now

The biodiversity of the planet has been decreasing for a number of years, but recently the decrease has become enormous. We are losing more species now than ever. A contributor to this decrease in biodiversity has been the human population explosion plaguing the planet. The increase population has used natural resources, degraded species' habitats, and led to a rise in extinction rates. The humans have to act quickly in order to solve this problem. If we continue at the rate we are going, species will no longer exists. So how do we fix this problem? Is there really a way for wild life and human to exist harmoniously? Yes and yes. Education is a key component to reversing the current cycle. Informing people on what is happening to the planet will raise eyebrows and increase awareness on the issue. For humans and wild species to coexist, barriers must be set to where humans can travel. There should be better limits on where developments are placed and how much of a specie's habitat can be destroyed and degraded. -Melody B.

brining too many unprovided people into the world

Okay maybe it isn't right for me to pick on developing countries because I know its our fault too, but I think parents in developing countries have a huge part in the growing population. Think about it they have as many children as they want with out even really thinking about their future. Whether they will have an education or substantial heath care, or live in intense poverty. I know there are a lot of women in developing countries that don't want to have many children but they are often forced or feel forced to have them by their husbands. In Bangladesh for example you have too be crazy, right to think that you can provide for many children, am I wrong? Nearly three quarters of all people in developing countries are already below the poverty line. Over 14 million children, under the age of 5, die each year from hunger, thirst, malnutrition, or from easily curable or preventable diseases. Yet, the death of a child or even a few because of this problem does not stop the families from having even more children. If we provide education and contraceptives I am aware this could have a huge affect on decreasing the population. And people in the U.S. if you rich that doesn't mean you should have a bunch of kids, why don't you just adopt the poor orphan kids, and have like just one of your own. I really hope that population decreases all around the world because we will have problems with having enough resources such as food and arable land.

Live and Let Live

I completely agree with Dr. Singh's idea of "live and let live". I don't think there's a whole lot we can do about the explosion in the human population, but I do think there are ways to live together with nature and the natural habitats of native species without completely destroying them. We shouldn't be destroying the entire Earth, simply because we are the most intelligent, most advanced, most adapted species. National parks, protected wilderness areas, and preservation of species through animal rehabilitation programs are fantastic ways to keep natural habitats and those animals that live there alive. I only hope that the rest of the world will establish national parks or preservation areas as the United States has done so well. I believe that there are many areas, especially in the United States, that are completely overpopulated, so many of those areas have lost native species and natural habitats. But what about the rest of the country? Places like L.A. and New York and Chicago are only popular because so many people live there. I think that we could better use the land in vast open areas like Kansas and the mid-West for human development, rather than destroying more habitats around those around already heavily populated cities. Seriously- no one lives in Nebraska or Kansas- why can't we live there???
I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with growth of the human population. Growth will happen; it's totally inevitable. However, the exponential growth we're facing now is completely out of control, and we are destroying one hundred times more than we are conserving or preserving regarding natural habitats and resources alike. I only hope that we can save those endangered and threatened species now that we see the major problems we've created that hinder their natural existence. :(

what's up with that?

The human population has obviously increased out of control over the past century or so. Of course, the reasons are apparent in our everyday lives if we compare it to the customs and lifestyles of a little less than a century ago. Think about it, if you were to get a common cold you would probably run off to the corner market and get an over the counter drug that would cease the symptums of this cold and ultimately cure it ten times faster than if it were to be let play out on its own. Am I wrong? The human population is growing because of the lower death rates which leads to higher birth rates. With the average person running off to the corner market everytime they get some sort of "bug", the rate that the products are being sold and therefore the need of the product grows, the more often the ingrediants are harvested to meet that need. This is a neverending loop that is one of the main reasons that our earth is not able to hold these many people. So, what can be done to try and reverse this pattern? Well, the most practical answer is to go with the ideas of family planning. Since this is offensive in some counrties, education and equal oppertunities for women will help in the decrease of the world wide birth rates. Other than that, I got nothing. So, until next time, toodle-pip!

Our responsibility as humans.

We [humans], probably the most intelligent creatures ever to walk the earth, have a moral responsibility to look after and take care of the other living organisms of our planet. We fail in this due to our own selfishness; we kill endangered species that we may take only a few choice parts and throw the rest away, we pollute the earths air and water, spread our filth and think nothing of it. We mustn't look only to the short term gain, these plants and animals we stupidly kill provide necessary services to our planet. If do not realize the ere of our ways and put aside our stupid pride, we will loose our rare plants and animals and in doing so spell certain doom for our own species.
.....

not so likely...

Ok I'm not trying to say that the world has no hope, but lets just think about this. How hard is it for teacher to get a class of 1st graders to listen to him? Pretty tough right. Well how in the world are we going to get the BILLIONS of people around the globe to listen to just the few environmentalists who are hoping to save this planet?! Its not likely.

The world is customed to certain things. In the U.S. we grow up, get married, and have 2 or 3 kids. In poor countries, they have a lot of babies because the chance of survival is low. That is just our ways of life. If they are being asked to automatically change the way they have been taught for generations they arent going to listen.

People are not going to see the danger in overpopulation until is directly effects them. When they start running out of clean water or food that is when they will start coperating. Until that point I highly doubt that anyone will realize that we our killing our precious planet and our chance for our future blood line to experience the beauty of a healthy life.

The dinosaurs went extinct for this???

byMore and more animals are going extinct because we "feel like it"??? I'm sorry, but what makes humans so important? Because we have thumbs? All we do is pollute, overpopulate, etc. I am very unaware as to why we are still here. soon enough, we very much are going to die, and i wont lie that i think we have it coming. People are being very careless to satisfy themselves. the dinosaurs did not live this way yet they went extinct so that we could evolve and mess everything up? we need to help the earth, that is why we are here. we need to help the animals that can't help themselves, the plants that can't grow themselves, the earth that can use the extra help. We need to help out and causing other species to go extinct isnt exactly taking part. I mean we have the most complex brains yet we are using them to be cruel? Hmm.


we deserve it

we're all gonna die!!!!*gasp*

We can easily just ignore the problem and just say, "Whatever it doesn't matter we won't miss them" but what about future generations especially children. I remember going to the zoo was just amazing for me let alone seeing them in the forest when I went to Camp KEEP. It's just crazy how animals that don't have the brain capacity humans have can keep everything in harmony and animals who go extinct do it for natural causes. Humans have a responsibility for taking care of the earths ecosystem [seriously how boring would it be if it were just humans,dogs, and cats on earth]. Governments should be more strict on environmental issues. We should have to recycle no matter what no more just throwing things away. National parks around the world should have stricter laws and harsher punishments for them. People should stop buying the "gas guzzlers" and just use something more efficient or just get rid of using gasoline all together.Developed countries should make it an issue to help developing countries get resources and help them to become a developed country too. World leaders should meet together it is not an issue that can just be dealt by individual countries. Also they should invest in family planning to hopefully persuade people to have less children.

Do it for the panda's!!!!!!!!!!!!

Human Population Acting Like Rabbits?

Human Population Growth is estimated to reach about 9 billion by the year 2050. Although human population is expected to grow this high there has been significant progress in countries such as America, Japan, and Europe in maintaining the 2 babies per couple replacement rate. In some countries such as Japan population is expected to actually decline by the year 2025. However in most countries such as India and Africa population is projected to continue to increase sharply. This is largely due to a failure to recognize these problems. The sooner we recognize our population growth as a problem the sooner we can fix this problem. The answer for both of these countries lies in family planning programs and equality of both women and men. Until these standards can be achieved female babies will continue to killed causing more births for the want of a male baby to support the old parents.

Monoculture!!

The speed at which we are destroying the biodiversity on this planet is going to leave us alone pretty soon! The unprecedented growth of human population is taking up more and more space making the other species to run away, die, or leave their habitats. We have the highest rate of species extinction at this point. Fragmentation, deforestation, urban explosion and habitat destruction are some of the terms we should be watchful for!

If we are the smartest species on this planet; does it mean that we have some special rights to kill every other living thing? Are we saying that the other species do not have the rights like us, they are dispensable? How can we live on this planet in harmony with the other species? How can we use the same philosophy for the other creatures and say, “Live and let live”.

MY way or the DIE-WAY!

As alluded to by my title, there are two possible solutions to saving this planet. There is way number one (MY-WAY) and way number two, the (DIE-WAY). I see it like this: we all have the power to make complex decisions in our lives, and once made, those complex decisions have the capability of either destroying or strengthening us as a person, but ultimately as an entire world population. Now a complex decision does not necessarily mean something thats difficult to choose, rather something simple thats chosen for a very well-thought and planned purpose. For example, I may make the "complex decision" to only produce one child once i have married and am ready for children. It's a simple choice to make, but the greater idea behind it (reducing the population) is what makes it a complex decision or idea. MY-WAY is that everyone follows the same sort of "pledge" that Dr. Singh was talking about. If the educated people of the world made the simple decisions in life like to reduce the number of children they had originaly planed on having, or to do one thing everyday (no matter how small) to help clean the enviornment, weather it's picking up trash at school, or recycling your soad cans at home, we can begin to possibly reshape the world. It would take dedication, and a vast understanding of the greater picture until before we know it, all the complex decisions we'd been making all add together to strengthen the world by reducing its poputaltion or pollution, or whatever it is the complex decisions were foucused on helping. (in this case hopefully Population.) It seems like many of the decisions people are making end up as a detriment to the poputlation rather than a benifit. if we could change those decisions as a nation to be positive, we could possibly change the outcome of the world's population........this sounded smart when i was writting it....now it sounds dumb.
THE DIE-WAY!!! this is my other solution: In order to save the world from the terrible fate that surely awaits it, we do absolutely NOTHING! we live exactly how we are living today and change nothing. Eventually we will greatly exceed our carrying-capacity and a VAST majority of us will perish, which will once again ballance out our population and make it like starting over. Something will shake out world and almost everyone will vanish accept for a couple thousand people like those darn lines you can never quite get rid of on an etch-a-sketch no matter how hard you shake it! It is then in the hands of these people...and God of course...to rebuild the world.

A Pledge!!

Our planet is facing some serious issues that are in the public eye. We are worried about global warming, air pollution, water pollution, ozone layer depletion, soil depletion, fossil fuel depletion, energy crisis and food crisis. All these problems have one root cause, the human population explosion!

Most of us, when we look at this gigantic issue, we resign and say that nothing could be done. When we think about the slums in Bathinda (India) or any other part of the planet, its logical to say that how can we teach those people anything?, and how can we make them aware of this complex issue? In the past, I did the same myself, whenever I analyzed the problem of human population.

Now, when I look at my five year old daughter, and I see the dark-brown sky outside, and I read all the gloomy news about the destruction of our planet; I don't want to sit back and say that nothing could be done! I want to pledge to myself that I will do something! It could be a battle of one man, but I will fight!

I pledge! I have found a cause, for the rest of my life; this is the cause I will fight for. A few years ago I thought there was a book growing in me, now I think instead of shoving the idea of the book aside, I should go ahead and complete the book. The book on "the perils of human population explosion"!!

overpopulation to the maxxx

It is fact that all the contributers to this blog are aware of the dangers and problems facing the world with overpopulation, and in some cases, a severe lack thereof; but it is those that are completely unaware of the impending population explosion that we should be concerned about. There are billions of people on this planet who either don't know, don't care, or don't realize the impact of humans to the environment and the global community. This is all clearly known. Scientists talk about overpopulation quite often, there are countless websites, journals, magazine articles, newspaper stories, television broadcasts and books devoted to the subject of overpopulation and the dangers it poses on the planet, but that simply isn't enough. People actually need to DO something about it.
Some countries, such as China, have woken up to the issue of overpopulation and have restricted their citizens to having one child per couple. While this has been successful in part to preventing an estimated 400 million births, it was mostly a government forced effort. These people didn't only have one child to truly help the planet and prevent overpopulation, they had no other choice. While on the surface it seems to be working to reduce the future population of China, it is actually causing different problems that could become more severe then overpopulation. The ratio of boys to girls is becoming severely imbalanced, because boys are considered more valuable in the Chinese culture. The futures of these boys being able to find wives is growing slimmer and slimmer, which can eventually lead to a fast decline of population in the nation, and possibly an eventual collapse. Also, there have been reports of the wealthiest citizens of China having two, three, and four children, because they can simply AFFORD to pay the fines imposed on having multiple children. This shows a lack of care in the ultimate goal of slowing world population increase.
Do these people really simply just not care about the exploding population? Personally, I think its less of a "lack of care" and more of a "lack of knowledge" on the subject. Children, all around the world, need an increase in education. And not just in reading, writing, and arithmetic. I hear small children talk about what they want to be when they're older, when they want to be married, and how many children they want to have, and often, I hear little girls wanting anywhere between two and six children. If we started educating our youth in elementary school about the horrendous population problems now, the future generations could be actively controlling the population, VOLUNTARILY.
It is a hard task to spread this idea through the world, especially in areas that are in severe poverty, or areas where having many children is simply part of the culture. However, this is a global problem that needs to be addressed, and action MUST take place. I agree with the policies of educating the women and young girls, giving them the choice and teaching them to have respect for themselves as equals to men in deciding things about their own bodies, families, and lives. Many argue that the whole child policy and reducing the numbers of children people have is ruining the cultures of many countries, where having many children is expected, and almost required. I don't agree with this idea. I think the GLOBAL CULTURE should be looked at, and taken care of, otherwise there will be no cultures left because humans destroyed the world.
Education is key to helping relieve the population stress on the globe. While the planet is relatively large compared to most planets out there, we really shouldn't push the levels of population any further. Some people said to spread out to places less populated, but what does that do to the animals, plants, forests, and simply nature in general? Global warming will be at a rise, trees, rivers, grasslands, deserts and arctic tundra will be traded in for apartments, houses, office buildings, factories, roads and railroads. Is this what we want? This isn't what I want. I want the world to be beautiful and not covered inch to inch with people. I want to live comfortably and not have too many children, that way my quality of life isn't dragged down by a bunch of bratty little kids who care more about Barbie dolls and transformers then the world population anyway. I also think that adoption should be widely promoted, thus, children already on the planet can get a safe, clean, loving home to live in, and not shoved around more orphanages. To families that adopt children, they should get rewards in ways of financial aid and monetary incentives, seeing as people will do anything for money. We need to make a great effort to help those already on the planet, and not ADD more. Teenagers should not be having children. Education also plays a key element in this as well. Teenage girls should be respecting themselves, and know that they shouldn't be having babies, therefore, they shouldn't be doing things that could lead to babies.
Although I think it is a pompous attitude to have, I must admit that the United States is a great influence on the entire world, and we as a nation should really set the bar for the beginning of a population overhaul. Education at an early age about the problem and ways to solve it, adoption incentives, education about family planning, and making family planning and contraceptives available to everyone should be ways to start locally controlling the problem. And instead of invading other nations to force them to follow our ideas, we should approach other countries and share our tactics, and work together as a global community to solve this issue of global overpopulation.



Many say it cannot be done, it is simply a task too large to get the entire planet involved. What I say is this: if you want it bad enough, you'll find a way to do it.



-Sincerely,
lisabivs!

Time for a poll:

Ok guys. Let's get some interaction going on here.

Rukayat posted a thread earlier that I enjoyed. Here's an excerpt from my comment about that thread:

'And about this: "We cannot simply tell people they should limit how many children they have..."

Why not? Even if doing this would preserve human life on earth?

What's better:

1) millions* of starving babies
---OR
2) A few thousand* happy, affluent people?'

You can read her original post a little ways down from here. But anyway, let me know what you think. Should humans have rights for how many children they can have?

love,
John

*Numbers are hypothetical to make a point (millions > thousands, numerically).

The Culprit

I think the root cause to the problem of population explosion is the 'poverty' which the developing countries are facing today. Poverty leads to illiteracy which makes such people devoid of any vision to see the things in a larger perspective. Most of the people who produce too many children are slum dwellers, illiterate and far below the poverty line, for whom the main worry in life is to arrange for their next meal and a place to sleep at night. So how can we expect them to be concerned about bigger issues such as population explosion which may not be effecting them immediately. More so,in their case the parents are not too much concerned about the survival and upbringing of their children after a particular stage and these children learn the art of surviving independently from very initial stages.

Coupled with the lack of vision to see beyond their immediate needs,another reason for over-producing the children is that after struggling the whole day for their living, such people can ill afford any means of entertainment to relax themselves. So they have no choice but to resort to the natural means available to them without worrying for the consequential birth of the children.

In my view, a person can exercise the birth control if he thinks logically, he can think logically once he is educated, he can be educated only once his basic needs are met and his basic needs can be met only only if he has adequate income. Therefore, there is an urgent need to ensure adequate income for everyone. This would need a concerted effort at global level and not only at the level of those nations which are currently facing this challenge, since it is not a threat to a particular region or a community but a threat to the mankind.

the syd solution

Okay, Dr. Sighn, if you say my comment is wrong, you're going to be #1 on MY hate list. :-) Now, Earth is a huge planet. Like really, really huge. Compared to other planets like Jupiter and Saturn (the best planet) maybe not so huge, but in general, it is. There is lots of room for us humans to stretch out and start making babies. There are states in the US like South Dakoda and Wyoming that have populations of like 14. Let's spread out! Everybody needs to just get up and move to these scarcely-populated areas. Yes, I understand that no one really wants to live in really sucky states like Montana, but they need to suck it up and take one for the team. What's everybody doing cramming themselves in countries like India and China? We need to spread the love and move out. Also, it is SO true that people could live on other planets in the near future. Maybe it's just because I'm a space nerd, but I seriously think it might be a possibility. NASA is planning to send a space shuttle to Mars in 2030 (I'll be on it), and following the discovery of standing water on the red planet, who knows what they might find. As for overexploitation of resources, let's just get on top of that recycling business and help slow that whole depletion thing down. There's also renewable resources, too, like wind and solar energy. Scientists are really smart these days, I'm sure they'll come up with ways to more frequently utilize these plentiful resources. Solar powered cars are already being used more frequently, and they're cutting down pollution, too. Population, shmopulation. People are wonderful, and this world needs them. Yes, the government should try and help limit growth so that Minnesota and other sucky states aren't swarming with people, but I think this world has bigger problems to deal with. Additionally, if people would stop popping out babies at age 13, maybe they wouldn't have so many in their reproductive lifetime. Some problems are just uncontrollable, and this may very well be one of them. However, environmental science is definently the best subject there is, so in that respect, this is one of the biggest pressing issues facing humanity today.

The Girl Child

The single most important factor in the human population is the girl child. Countries like India and China cannot claim to have a better status or treatment of girls. The preference for the males has lead to the skewed population proportions in most of the Indian states. In Indian society a girl is a liability and the boy is the most coveted one due to the family structure and social addiction. Aging parents in India lack social security, their dependence on male child in the old age creates this "boy frenzy". In many Indian religions a male child is supposed to light the funeral pier to open the gates of heaven for the deceased parent! Due to these paradigms the girls in the same family are not treated fairly and are not given the same human status.

Then again, the generalizations are mostly faulty. India is a country with a wide spectrum of people. Those who are rich, their life style is very much like western families. The Indian middle class is also in par with the Western cultures; but the big section of the Indian population lives in the villages and in urban slums. This section of India is under the poverty line and this group shows the most social vices.

Most Population Scientists agree on the idea that if the girls are educated on this planet, the fertility rates will drop drastically. Becasue education brings the awareness, about self, about family size and about contraception.

In Indian philosophy there is a word called "Karma", it means "what goes around comes around". It will be worth watching how this World treats the girl child in the coming years, because that "Karma" is going to decide whether we have a planet or not!!!

Desire for the male child etc.

Sean you are right! - Desire for the male child in many developing countries including India is one of the main reasons for adding more and more children into the family. There are many socio-economic as well as religious connections to this problem and most of them have been proved wrong time and again.

Poor people add male children to the family to increase earning hands!!! For others, having a male child is a sure ticket or visa to heaven!!! So they will produce a number of daughters while trying their luck or 'bad luck' for a male child.

Someone on this blog mentioned about being educated to plan a family. This is not just about education or economic status; there are as many educated, well placed and rich people as there are less privileged ones who desire for the male child. This is sort of a mental disease if I am allowed to put it this way. Even in this high-tech age, couples who have only daughters are asked this silly question many a times - "Do you have any children"? As if daughters are not children.

The mindset has to change.

A World of Problems

"Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice." - George Orwell

We are currently living in a world riddled with many problems. Thanks to the site on John's blog, here are some of the problems we are living with today:

• A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.
• Number of children in the world: 2.2 billion
  Number in poverty: 1 billion (every second child)
• 20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods.

Do you see the problem yet? The world's developed nations, a mere minority, control most of the world's wealth, while the large number of developing countries are left with barely enough for some of their people to survive. If we can increase education in developing nations and the lives of many of its people, especially women, the world's population will decrease, as well as all of the problems with poverty. Also, if we could impliment family planning policies that only allow for 1 - 2 children (REGARDLESS OF GENDER), the world's population would heal itself.

In many developing countries, married couples still tend to the belief that a male child will equal success, while a daughter would be a shame. In many of these developing countries, we need to remove the ultrasound machines and outlaw abortion so that there will no longer be such a large gender imbalance. Those countries also need to crack down harder on illegal abortions so that no one will try to have an abortion.

Yea or Nay?

Several students in prior blogs have offered statistics as to how much money is spent across the world in different aspects of life, with some numbers being ridiculous to the point of humor, whether it be the $50 billion spent on cigarettes in Europe, the $12 billion perfumes, or the $11 billion in ice cream.
No person can reasonably argue that cigarettes or ice cream are exceptional for your health (especially the former); therefore, the current amount of money being spent on these items should be reduced greatly, perhaps even cut in half. Although this may cause discontentment among many smokers and ice cream fans alike, I am sure that the businesses (who would, at this time, be able to raise their prices due to the lesser amount of said products) would not complain, and a few hurt feelings are a small price to pay in exchange for healthier lungs, smaller waistlines, and even less pollution (due to the fact that less chemicals would be burned, either from cigarettes, or the matches/lighters used to light them).
All of the money saved by cutting this spending would, of course, be used to implement thorough and organized education in numerous developing countries, with the focuses ranging from simply basic literary skills for women, to family planning for both men and women. Furthermore, many (if not all) of the classes or programs used would be mandatory for the citizens of the developing countries, thereby ensuring that all the people are at least presented an opportunity and a means by which they can improve their own lives as well as the condition of their respective countries.
In addition, the United States loves to perpetuate an image of helping other countries (and their peoples), or that it is simply a good-natured, "Christian" nation. With this in mind, it is impossible to argue that acts of charity or simple kindness to others is not appropriate in any way. Sure, one can assert that it is not necessary to help others economically, but unless one is willing to delve into arguments of sub-conscious greed and self-satisfaction (which I sure as hell won't go into at this time), there is no plausible argument against charity. Also, if the United States is comfortable acting as a police force for the world, supposedly aiming to grant "freedom" to people of oppressed nations, then it should have no trouble seeing the present need for its intervention in countries where inhabitants lack freedom from fear or freedom from hunger (which the United States did advocate as a necessary freedom during WWII), and where inhabitants are oppressed by either social systems that disable women from improving their status, or by rampant diseases (HIV/AIDS).
Therefore, if a portion of our already-mandatory income taxes was to be utilized in providing education to people in developing countries, then with merely several years, a change would be seen, especially if said education was offered to the women of the countries in need. This "portion" of our taxes could simply come from the large amount being spent on military matters currently, as it is indeed the $780 billion used for military that dominates the world's overall spending, which is most definitely in stark contrast to a mere $6 billion in basic education across the world.
Also, let's face it: this would save everyday middle-class Americans the trouble of filling out any paperwork to donate to various charities -- our government would be doing it for us! Since it would be mandatory, one can expect that within several years, the citizens of the U.S. would accept it as part of their responsibilities (despite it in essence being forced kindness), and any dissenters would be dealt with just as the U.S. deals with dissenters today: IRS agents.

Voila.

(and thank you, John, for that useful page on globalissues.org)

Is there anything we can really do?

So, I have to agree with the majority that humans are ruining the planet. Our population is out of balance in basically every country, whether it be India with its crazy population growth or Europe with its severe drop in population. World population is out of hand, and while it may seem beneficial to have countries such as Europe experience large drops in population, it is ruining the economy and changing all of the country's dynamics.  And there are obvious reasons for countries like India causing negative impacts on the planet with the billions of people using up the earth's resources. I really don't think that there is much we can do to help our current situation. Lowering the population causes problems, but so does keeping the rates high. How are education and raising awareness of the problems that we humans are causing on this earth going to help/change anything? If these methods were to truly work, everyone on the planet would have to be involved and willing to comply with family planning efforts as well as efforts to create a more sustainable earth, but honestly, I think there is no hope for a change any time soon...

There is little that can be done.

I do not think that there is anything we can do now to stop our increasing population and save the world from destruction. We cannot simply tell people they should limit how many children they have; it is their right to have as many as they want. We cannot control people like they do in other countries. In some countries things such as family planning are used to limit population increases by providing education on pregnancies and giving out such things as contraceptives. Family planning is great idea because it does limit those who do not want to have children but do so because they cannot stop their actions. But family planning can only do so much for the world because not even country has access to such things as family planning. If we want to be able to combat this problem or at least slow down the rapidly decreasing time we have on earth we have to learn to conserve everything we are doing. If we can conserve our resources we might be able to leave enough for the next generation to use as converativley as we did. It is true when Dr. Singh said that we as humans are "the smartest species but making the dumbest decisions." Even though this is true like I said earlier there is little that can be done to what damage we have already done to the earth; we will just continue to be growing population wise and use up the limited resources we now have because some of us have this mentality that we are doing nothing wrong so have no desire to change their ways to save this planet that we call home.

Rukayat

Overpopulation

I think the desire for more children in under developed countries is more culture then anything. My family is from Egypt and the man is supposed to get a job and support his family and the women is expected to get married as soon as possible and have kids. The nicest places in Egypt look like they came straight outta Compton. As you pass the city it looks worse and worse. Homes in the country side usually are little huts or half torn down buildings they are trying to live in. In America we adopted the single lifestyle at a young age so we have less kids.
Most people do not want to get married until their late 20's. To help keep population down we should have the one family one child law in the countries that are over populated to encourage them to have less children. When it comes to the earths resources everybody is pushing it off and letting the people who it really affect to deal with it. We should filter out the bad and stop polluting our environment. It will probably be years before people want to change how we do everything. People are now just starting to buy hybrid or gas efficient cars. When they first came out nobody wanted to change what they were driving until gas prices skyrocketed.

Saving the World?

The world as we know it is coming to an end. It is depressing, indeed. As you all know, I'm not talking about the kind of ending in movies like Armageddon, or even all of those apocalyptic, end of the world movies. Instead, I'm talking about the obvious fact that humans are taking advantage of the earth's precious and limited resources. The problem with today's society is that even though we want to believe that this is a well-known problem... it isn't. We live in such a materialistic society, where just about everyone seems to be in some dreamland where there are no worries of the end of the world or resources being depleted. Many people in developing countries are simply uneducated about this problem, and are totally oblivious.
And for population growth??! The world seems to be growing like mad! However, there might be an opportunity for improvement. With more developing countries receiving access to education and family planning programs, more women will use contraceptives, thus helping the population growth be a little more sustainable. With more employment opportunities for women, they are more likely to focus on work outside of the home, and not have as many kids as before. This, in the long run could bring about some stability in the human population, but it could take years. China has already realized that they have a population almost too large to handle, and has put a limit on the number of kids a family can have. However, if we were to attempt this in other nations... people would protest and riot.. and it would cause more chaos.
And, it would be beneficial if we look at what we actually NEED and try not to be so excessively wasteful with our limited resources. Paying more attention to our economic footprint and trying to reduce this won't necessarily 'bring back' some resources.. but will definitely help to preserve them so we can use in moderation. I honestly believe that at the rate we are headed, there isn't much hope. However, if we can provide more education, worldwide, about the enormity of these problems, we can hope for the better.

Mockery

In my last post I mentioned that taking pictures in Indian slums is a gut-wrenching experience, most of the times. But sometimes you find moments that haunt you for ever. I remember vividly going to this slum to take pictures. A bunch of people from different families were gathering up to pose. I took hundreds of pictures and came back. I uploaded the pictures in my computer and started to look at them. When I looked at this shot my mind just stopped with a gasp! Something did not match up! These were the people who were living in the most destitute parts of the planet and they had almost nothing. How could they smile like that?? Is it not the goal of every human on this planet to achieve happiness?? Over the years I have seen people living in million dollar homes and driving expensive cars but they carry dead faces that are incapable to smile. Are we missing something?? After consuming the resources million times more than these people, are we happy? Can we smile like them?? Because if we cannot then these people in the picture are mocking us!!!

The sad truth...

It is so true that we are creating this inconvenient population explosion in our world as we know it. Humans consume so much and we continue to pay the price with such high demands and as a result there will be an enormous lack of resources necessary for sustainability on earth. Because of the fact that we all find certain wants and needs, it may sometimes not seem as though we are decreasing our life and depleting the abundance of natural materials and environmental characteristics. The increasing rate of population will only add to the problems we face today and prolong the time spent on trying to improve our lives. Poverty in many countries is dominating their population and in some cases, a decrease in birth rate, such as in Japan, isn't helping either. It's unbelievable to think about the billons of dollars humans spend on materials, both necessary and unnecessary. Wasting essential products and not controling rapid growth rates of areas such as population, are not only occuring today, but will have a negative effect on the future if we cannot change our ways.

But do we have enough time?

Personally, I think that many countries are learning from their overpopulation mistakes. China, over time, has finally started to see a reduction in population growth, and I think India will eventually learn too. Japan has an opposite problem, and although they still aren't accepting immigrants, they have started to promote families with more than one child, simply because they are realizing the aging of their population and the future shortage of young adults in the the work force. Many women today in countries like India and China are being educated to a much greater level than ever before, although not nearly as much as women in the United States, but the male-child preference certainly is dropping to some extent as younger generations have more modern views of their old-fashioned cultures and societies. Education regarding contraceptives has spread worldwide, but there is still much more we can do.
Overall, I think that, if humanity was given enough time to correct the problem, the population explosion would correct itself. That's not to say we shouldn't be doing all we can to resolve the problem now through education, employment opportunities for women, missionary trips, etc. But humanity has overcome two world wars, the bubonic plague, the Great Depression, and so much more. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and you should always learn from your mistakes. However, in our case, there may not be time to learn from this mistake because the problem is so enormous to begin with.
If a fire was approaching a village, and only those on a hill high above the village saw the fire, they would act immediately to save their homes, even if they were the only ones doing so. Eventually though, those in the very heart of the town would see the fire too, but by then it would most likely be too late. I think the same thing has happened to us. If we were given the time, ability, and resources to change, global population growth would decrease. However, this planet is running out of natural and nonrenewable resources. No environment can support infinite population growth and expansion, and Earth is no exception. There is no way to know for sure what the outcome of such a situation would be because one has not happened yet. There is no way of knowing whether the problem would fix itself or we would all die from the exhaustion of Earth's natural resources. The only sure way to know the exact end result is to live through it and watch it happen firsthand....

Overpopulation

Human overpopulation is a growing concern, but I aslo agree that human ingenuity will prevail. Rather than simply waiting to die, humans could take action . We definently need to spread social awareness of this concern since many people are unaware of this issue. My theory is this, one day all of the world leaders might eventually settle their differences and find solutions to this problem. I don't think we give humans enough credit-only over the past 100 years some amazing technological advances have occured. Running away from our problems ( such as flying to the moon or mars) won't solve anything in my opinion. Certainly we could do more rather than exclaim, "We're doomed!". Possible ways of reducing population gowth is to reduce poverty, help developing countries, improve the status of women, and increase involvement in family planning. If worse comes to worse, we could build a time machine (in the future of course) and stop this mess from ever even happening...

What is the fix?

I think we need to implement multiple strategies for differently developed countries. The developing countries generally have a population problem, whereas the developed countries tend to be using to o many resources, or at least too wastefully. More money needs to be spent on education of contraception in the developing countries. If contraception is made widely available and understood it will likely be used and consequently we will have a lot less births. The developed countries need to look into using resources more efficiently, and avoiding/preventing pollution as much as possible. We only have so many resources, and we are using way too much already.

Personal Observations about China

So the human population is growing exponentially and the earth's natural resources are being depleted; what's the big deal? Human ingenuity will come up with some way to save the planet. Kinda like people were smart enough to save us from the bubonic plague...or the Great Depression...or global warming. Wait, looks like we're all gunna die. So I guess we could blame all of our problems on Margaret Thatcher, or we could try to find ways to protect the planet. Although I choose the former, here are some personal observations for those who prefer the latter.
Traveling through China this summer, I noticed great discrepancies in wealth, education, resource consumption, living standards, etc. The poor have almost nothing while the rich live extremely lavishly. Many of the poor beg or sell trinkets/harass tourists to try to make a living. Women have such limited freedom compared to men that they are left without the tools they need to improve the lives of themselves and their children. Pollution is a terrible problem, especially since so many people live on the streets. (We saw several families sleeping on the rooftops of buildings that were scheduled to be demolished.) Most Chinese people don't even have access to public restrooms, or at least anything that we would believe would resemble a restroom. Instead, they just have holes in the ground that serve as bathroom facilities. The water is green, the press is censored, and people cannot own property (they have to lease it from the government for 99 years - and its expensive!).
Those are just a few comments from my experience, but it looks like we're going to need a lot more family planning, education, and campaigns to raise public awareness of the problem in order to avoid catastrophe.

Who knows, maybe Poseidon can save us...just a thought.

With all my love and affection,
James Creech

P.S. Global spending on education: $6 billion.
Global spending on reproductive health for all women: $12 billion.
The look on Dr. Singh's face when he found out he had Student X in class again this year: Priceless.

All This Talk About Population

All this talk about population growth and the future population of the world is very eye opening. Many high school students these days are always wanting something better, or something more. Frankly, it is very disappointing that we live in such a materialistic society. Americans use whatever they can get their hands on. It is frightening to know that all this pollution, and use of our natural resources can effect us all in the near future. Scientists predict this huge population of 8 to 12 billion people in the year 2050. That is in our generation, us kids will be grown adults and will probably have children of our own. Our future, and their future, can be completely different from our society at the moment just because we are using so much. We are causing so much harm. Hopefully people and governments can rethink things, and make sure our future and the generations to come are secure.

*A few statistics.

I found this site on google.

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp

My favorite highlight:

Global spending on education: $6 billion.
Global spending on reproductive health for all women: $12 billion.
Global spending on narcotics drugs in the world: $400 billion.

Spend some time on this website. I found it worth my time.

A lot of it is economics jumble, but some of it jumps out at you.

love,
John

how to save the planet

even tho i don't think a fast way to save the planet exists with out killing people we could do more subtle things to save it in the meantime. we can enact population controls wherever possible, begin terraforming other celestial bodies, use cleaner energy, and conserve our natural resources.

or... we could just unleash a super virus like mission impossible 2 or tom clancy's rainbow 6

One Planet. 6 Billion People.

Humans were given one planet to survive on, earth. We are taking advantage of its resources and overpopulating its environment. There are other species on this planet and so many of us do not recognize that fact. We share this earth and that is not a natural thing for us because all humans are selfish by nature. Most humans have not recognized the rapid population growth that has occurred on our planet over the last couple of years, and this is because some women do not have the education and resources to prevent having many children. The key to this problem is education and the equality of women on a social status. Once women around the world are educated and feel like they have some sort of important role in life, then they could start to realize they have control over their own bodies and use birth control. This would set our world free of this problem of overpopulation.

We ArE kIlLiNg ThE pLaNeT

All of the earth's nonrenewable resources are being used up. But why is this happening? The answer is population and it is getting worse. In most countries their age structure is completely out of control. Most don't even think about it because it is not currently effecting them. They will not realize what they are doing until it is to late. They just fill up the tank of their car and complain about raising prices. They are going up for a reason it is a scare resource that takes millions of years to get back!!! We are watching our own planet deteriorate before our very eyes and doing nothing to help it because we are worried about who we are going to date next or what movie they are going to see. Well when we are all crammed and have to struggle to survive, kill all the animals, and use up all of our resources what are we going to do then, complain? Or are we going to do something now and secure our future generations with a place to live and call home?

Humans ingnore the fact that were harming our own evironment!!!

I believe we could make a difference in our planet, and maybe perhaps better our standards of living. Theres one problem though; while some people are so involved in stoping global warming, others don't want to care. They ignore the fact that we are harming the planet to the point of extinction. They believe theres other problems. For example, what am I going to make for dinner or what should I wear today. They try to block out the big problem and not deal with it. I believe that unless all the human population comes together and tries to help stop global warming it's not going to be possible. We as humans are selfish people and don't realize the big problems we have until it's too late.

So what's the deal with this population growth??

I don't know about you, but I don't want to die by my lungs giving out because of the carbon dioxide ridden air. Dying from natural causes is more my style. But why would I die that death? Because our fellow human beings are depleting the the earth's natural resources. Mind you that they are not doing this on purpose, but their offspring, and their offspring are doing damage to the earth. The repercussions of all this population growth will in fact be the doom of the earth's future. If we continue on our path, our offspring and their offspring will no longer have a earth to "chill" on. So what do we do to stop this growth? Countries have tried to implement solutions, but many have not worked. Family planning was attempted in India, but failed to solve the problem. I think the ultimate solution is family planning with lots of support behind it. Yes, family planning didn't work in India, but it didn't have the support that it needed. A world wide association should be developed in order to provide adequate education. This world association would also help in developing policies within countries in order to curb this population growth. So, if you still want to "chill" on this earth help stop the warming. - Melody B.

Piercing Eyes!

Whenever I go to India, my favourite past time is to shoot pictures. Of course I have a mind set for "animal" and "nature" photography. But for the last few years I have developed this big fascination for "Indian Slums". I drive to these areas, walk in and shoot non-stop. Most of the times it is a gut-wrenching experience! Here is the picture that I took a couple of years ago. The girl who is sitting on the cot seems to be less than twenty, and pay attention to the number of kids on the cot! Her eyes seem to be telling a long story, that is very easy to read!!!!

THE POPULATION

The world's population is out of control. In some areas population growth is slowing too much, while in most areas the populations are growing at a rapid rate. While learning about the exponential population growth and depleting natural resources I have realized just how much humans do affect the planet. We don't only affect the earth, we are killing it. People don't realize how many resources we use during our life time, some of these resources can never be brought back! It's going to take more than a couple thousand people to be aware of these thing, attention needs to be brought to these statistics before it's too late. People need to be educated on this problem and work together to fix it... but this isn't a perfect world and to raise attention to this topic would be a lot of work. For now, i agree that family planning is a good method as well as awareness.

Move them!

I think it is so sad that there is such an imbalance on Earth. In the video we watched, we saw that places in Japan are just as under-populated as India is over-populated. I wish there was some way to move these people from one country to another without being insensitive to their cultures and the lives they have already established. (If only Japan would accept immigrants!) I really wish this idea could be possible, because I have seen so much open space that should be used instead of living 10 people in one small house. I used to live in North Dakota where the population in my town was only 500. Now, if some people in New York and California could pack up and take up all of that space, wouldnt that be helpful! Of course I agree that the world is too over-populated and that we will eventually use up all of its resources, but I have a little hope left because I know what real blue skies and un-polluted lakes look like. We should start using some of the untapped resource in the Midwest and places like it around the world instead of running other resources dry and piling people on top of each other into space that we dont have. Too bad I realize that this is insanely unrealistic =/

The Power of Prayer

For those of you who believe that the world is in danger, you have been sadly mislead. The world may appear to be in trouble but together, we can stop any evil that may threaten us. By simply praying, we can ask our own higher power, whether it be God, Allah, or whoever you worship, to help save us from any possible tragedy. For example, if we pray enough, we can convince God to cool down the Earth for us, and thus, end global warming. Furthermore, if we pray, we will learn through our religious principles to not have unlawful pregnancies, or abortion, which would greatly improve our infant mortality rate, and in a greater view, our population growth. However, for those who do not whole-heartedly believe in this concept, we can help limit population growth through effective family planning and acceptable resource depletion.

Eh, I think we are all doomed!

The world is already way too overpopulated and it is only going to exponentially grow. There is nothing that can be done, its too late. The only thing that could stop human usage of the world's resources is a disease, or bacteria that has the capability to deplete the human population like the black plague of the middle ages. Education will not come soon enough and people have no desire to change their ways of life. Even if there is a major disease that could drop the population numbers, human intelligence would most likely develop a way to overcome it. Sadly, we are too smart for our own good. Basically there is nothing we can do, just go eat a lollipop and watch the brown and gray sun set over huge, nasty piles of pollution!

Daniel knows how to save the world.

There are many things we can do to save the world but I think one of the important things we have realize in the world is how much waste that we create and how much of it is unnecessary. Once we truly realize that we can conserve so much more than we are right now only then will our life on this planet last longer. Even then it's hard to tell that we can even save the planet after wasting so much and all the overpopulation. Another thing we have to do as a world is to spend more money on learning more about other planets, like Ryan said, and making them livable. Another thing that we need to spend money on research is how to create some sort of artificial food, like Soylent Green(/sarcasm). The funding for such programs could come from all the money that we are spending on wars and research on nuclear weapons etc. I don't think that it is possible for us to be able to start creating more resources than we are using because the world will never come together in peace to allow every single country to drop its military and start focusing on what is important. It is a sad thing to realize that human extinction isn't far from now when you think about it in terms of how long the planet has been around and how long the planet WILL be around.

A Perfect Solution

Alright, for all you people that are worried that we are destroying the earth, I have a very simple solution that will put an end to this problem. Putting restrictions on the amount of children a family can have, to making sure that countries are cutting back on the amount of pollution they produce. And when the day comes that we turn the planet Mars into a liveable enviroment,

The Ignored Horror

I think all of us are living in a dazed reality, thinking that nothing is wrong with this planet and nothing is wrong with us. We have books filled with Alexander the Great taking armies across the World carrying swords and shields. There is something wrong with that picture. The first humans when started to use the metallurgy, made a destructive statement that we are going to mess with the core elements of this planet. This is a beautiful planet that can boast of something miraculous called life. But for the last couple of hundered years there is one species that is bent on killing the rest. Our planet is a middle age planet, half of its life is gone (5 Billion) and the other half is left. If this planet has to live and support life, it is in the dire need to get rid of the one species that is causing the most damage, and that one species is us. The humans, the smartest species that is making the dumbest decisions. It seems if we continue on this path we will consume and destroy everything. The question that we have to ask ourselves is---can we do something or is it too late?