World Population Growth Essay Research Paper Our

World Population Growth Essay, Research Paper

Our Earth has changed more dramatically in the 20th Century then in any other time period previous. During this time the health of our planet has also been both harmed and improved in dramatic ways. Two examples are that in this century, we have produced more air pollution then ever before, but our nature conservation efforts are working. Based on that type of logic, it is usually very easy for a scientist to tell if a particular change in our environment during the 20th Century, was good or bad for our planet. That is where population growth comes in and breaks this idea. Is population growth good or bad for our world. This is a question which scientists around the world have been debateing about for decades. The purpose of this essay will address that question. It will also talk about the future growth rate of our world’s population, what if any relationship can be drawn from over population and the GNP and literacy levels in a country, what types of population control measures the four largest countries use, and finally determine if there are any population problems and find solutions for them. Despite extensive population control measures, the country with the largest population is China. In fact China contains almost one-fourth of the world’s people at around 1.2 billion. During the 1950’s the population grew at a rate of 2% per year. The rate of growth slowed to 1.3% by 1990, in part due to population control measures. China’s population control measures are based around a creul policy allowing parents only one child. This policy has led to higher levels of abortion, sterilizations, and inficide than in any other country in the world. The dramatic declines in China’s population growth rate have however taken place well before the one child policy went into effect in 1979. This further confuses experts who study population and try to determine why population rates flucuate. Some of these experts suggest that aside from the one child policy China’s growth rate might have decreased from 2.0 to 1.3 percent because of major improvements in infant mortality rates. Thus parents had more confidence that their children would live to maturity. Also, as China has moved to become a more industrialized country families have chosen to reduce family size. For example in our country 200 years ago families were large because the more kids a family had the more successful the farm would be. Those are a few reasons the population rate in China might be lower than in years previous and continue to slow down. One interesting thing about population growth is the corilation between a high population growth rate and poverty. The author of this essay does not believe that population growth causes poverty, but instead that poverty is what makes population growth a problem. This issue will be discussed later, so for now lets look at the GNP per capita in China. That figure is on the low end compared with other nations at, $510 per working person. However, this trend will not last, for China has the fastest growing economy and it is because of there enormous population that they will be a major economic superpower in the 21st Century. Their literacy rate is about average at 78% however, that will also increase as China becomes more industrialized. But what of China’s ability to produce food for their current population and a larger one to come. Well, China is the world’s leading rice producer, their production of food grains has increased by more than 25% due to new technologies and their fishing catch is very successful. India has a population of over 940 million, second only to China. Unlike China however, India does not have birth restrictions on its people. However, the President of India at one point called for female government employees who have had more than three children to be sterilized. There was such public disapproval to this policy that it was soon cancelled. Other then that, India does allow and incourage family planning and abortions. The population control in India is like what we have in America, yet it goes a little bit farther. Some would see this as a lack of population control on India’s part. It is once again however that we find that this so called lack of population control is not the main reason as to the high population growth rate of 1.9%. Instead the reason can be found in the fact that due to India’s poverty and the fact that farming is a way of life there. In fact 60% of India’s population is directly involved in farming which encourages large families, because the more children you have to work the more sucessful the farm is. It is painfully evident however, that the population growth rate will be reduced not through government policies but India’s economy. India is a good example of how a poverty can make the population growth rate greater. However, it is also important to notice that the large numbers of population aren’t helping out the economy much. Usually it is not the population but the government or lack of natural resources that can be blamed for the poverish conditions of that countries people. This country might be one of the few exceptions in which a large population causes poverty. To start with the GNP per capita in India is a pathetic $350 one of the lowest outside of the countries of Africa. Because of India’s high population six million Indians enter the job market each year leading to high rates of unemployment