The Elephant in the Room That Nobody Seems to Care About by D.H.

The population of Uganda in 2013 was around 37.5 million people. By 2050, it is projected that it will be around 102 million according to http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke. Do you see a problem with this? The populations of developing countries is increasing without bound, while the country itself struggles financially to sustain itself. People in these countries are already struggling to support their families as it is, with the population exploding, it’s only going to make matters worse. The cities won’t be able to support its population. Many families will be displaced into slums, many will be struggling to find employment, crime will rise, and overall there will not be enough food to properly feed the country’s people.

This problem with overpopulation is much larger than people give it credit for. As of 2016, the population of humans on our planet reached the 7.4 billion mark, and is expected to steadily increase. We are projected to hit the 10 billion mark by around 2050. I feel like a reality check is necessary before we can really start to fix this problem.

Our massive consumption of resources and production of greenhouse gases are the main causes of climate change, and to those that don’t believe that it exists… it does. While we are making efforts to reduce the amount of emissions, adding more and more people to the planet is only going to increase consumption. Do you think that we can reduce overall emissions if we are adding more and more people to the planet each year? The answer is no, unfortunately.

With more and more people on the planet, we are going to need to find more efficient ways to properly feed the growing population. At the same time we are struggling to even feed a large number of our 7.4 billion already. Do you think it’s plausible that we could feed up to 10 billion if we have trouble feeding our population today? The answer, yet again, is no.

There are many steps that can be taken to address this problem, yet this topic is one that nobody seems to want to talk about, as if it’s taboo to our society for the problem of overpopulation to be discussed. Not only do we, as humans, think it is morally and culturally wrong to make efforts to control overpopulation, but our own system of government also opposes taking the proper steps to control population.

An article that on http://www.populationelephant.com called The Problems with “The Problem” beautifully discusses the ideas of how our own system opposing the idea of controlling overpopulation. It can be broken down into three areas: Democracy, Capitalism, and Religion.

Religion: As humans, it is our biological instinct to reproduce and raise the next generation of humans so that our species can continue to exist grow. The same applies for most religions. Whether it is though converting others to a religion or by being born into one, most religions like the idea of growing in size and continually existing through generations.

“What would happen to the Catholic Church if each Catholic couple only had one child? It would shrink dramatically – heaven forbid! That is why they continue with their completely irrational stand against birth control.”

This quote from the article that I mentioned above describes the problem perfectly. Making efforts to control overpopulation would have the side effect of lessening the power of religious organizations, as there would be less overall people in them.

Democracy: In our government, we have the luxury of being able to choose how we want to live our lives. This also applies to how much children we have. Why would a government whose main objective is to let its people choose how they live want to limit how many children they want to have?

Capitalism: This one is really simple. Our economy depends on consumption to grow. If consumption is high, then our economy is booming. The only problem is, making efforts to reduce the overall population would decrease the overall amount of consumption, which would cause negative growth. Our government cannot function properly with a net decrease in overall population.

I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Strode, an accomplished high school biology teacher who has a P.H.D in Ecology and Environmental sciences. He stated as humans advance in technology, we are raising what we thought was the maximum carrying capacity for a maximum sustainable yield for humans through the use of more efficient food technology. We are making steps towards being able to feed the growing population on our planet, but there is only so much land available to grow food.

Take a piece of paper and draw a square. This square will represent the area of the USA, which is 9.834 million kilometers squared. Color in around 60% of the total area of the square with any color of your choosing. The 40% that is hasn’t been colored in represents the total amount of farm area that is currently used to grow crops in the U.S. Now take a different color and color in around 80% of the 40% that is still uncolored. The little bit of the square that is still uncolored represents the total amount of farmland that is dedicated to growing crops to feed HUMANS. 80% of the total farmland in the US is used to grow crops not to feed us humans, but rather used to feed animals that we then eat later.

The reason that I am mentioning this is that it’s a potential solution to being able to feed the growing population. Who knows how many more mouths we could feed if instead of using most of our farmland to feed animals, we instead use it to feed humans. According to Facts on Animal Farming and the Environment, an article on www.onegreenplanet.org, it takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. Let that sink in.

On the consumption side of the problem, our advancements in technology will allow us to help other countries “leapfrog” over excessive consumption. Countries in Africa don’t need to go through the industrial revolution again as they develop. Instead, we help them skip generations of technology in order to reduce overall future consumption. One big example of this would be through renewable energy. Where we would help developing countries set up wind turbines or solar panels, effectively reducing overall consumption as they develop.

Dr. Strode briefly talked about a time where he saw the effects of overpopulation first hand. He was in the Lome, a small country on the western side of Africa. He took a walk through the city and saw what exactly what happens when you have too many people and not enough resources. Trash was littering almost everywhere and there was sewage in the streets. People were living extremely close together in run down homes with tin roofs. There simply wasn’t enough resources to take care of the growing population of the city, there wasn’t proper waste disposal, and the overall quality of life is absolutely abysmal.

Maybe because we live in a highly developed country, we don’t properly see the devastating effects that uncontrolled population growth can cause. It’s fairly easy to get lost in our everyday lives and not really worry about the consequences that our rapid growth can cause. As of now, I would say that the best course of action to take is to simply spread the word. The beauty of our country is that it is run by the people and for the people, and this is a relevant problem that people need to know about.

The Monster Under The Covers by B.M.

Remember when you were little and you were scared of the monster under your bed?

When you got older you thought it wasn’t real. There is a monster that is very real and very dangerous. The monster’s name is Overpopulation, and the solution starts on the bed and under the covers. Our weapon against this monster is sex education, and birth control. The monster looms out of sight, and waits. We as humans are living longer and healthier lives, this feeds the monster. Think about a bus. When people get on the same number roughly should be getting off at the same time, but if less people get off than get on then it gets too crowded. The earth is the same way, the estimated capacity for our earth is around 10 billion according to livescience. Any more after that, we’ll start to run out of food. We’ll fall victim to the monster and meet our end.

The best way to combat the monster is to educate. Educate all people how to protect themselves. Teaching people about safe sex and sex in general could help fight this monster, along with another beast that lives among us. Disease is a beast that has ailed us for many many years. Things like STIs and AIDS have been affecting and even killing humans for many years. In fact before a proper treatment AIDS could kill very easily, but now with development of antiretroviral drugs we have reduced the rate of fatalities from AIDS to almost zero in the U.S. Because of these drugs, the rate of death from HIV and AIDS has dropped 41.1% since 2005 according to the World Health Organization. These drugged partnered with the proper education could destroy the monster. Knowledge of these diseases can be a motivation to fight the beast.

A difficult battle we must win in this fight against the monster is getting through religion. Most religions mark birth control and sex education as immoral making many shun the idea of protecting themselves. From a report by the CDC in the U.S alone over 62% women use contraceptives with the most common being the pill. This is in a first world country like the U.S where most are not strictly religious, and money is not a huge issue. For many in other non developed countries. Money and religion play into the population, and countries like this they are hurt the most by population. In a country like Uganda a mother tries, and barely succeeds in feeding her children. She doesn’t eat so that her 4-5 children can eat. This is where the monster lurks and feeds. On families who need to have mony children to support themselves and maintain their farmstead. However this further causes hunger among themselves and feeds the monster.

Some may fight the beast by having no children or only one. This is the route China forced upon its people. The one child policy had the right intention, but was much too drastic. Now the generation of people who were born during this, and are of working age are vastly outnumbered by the nonworking generations. Now a Mother and Father work tirelessly to support their child and their parents and grandparents. The custom in china is for families to live together  in one household. The Chinese economy will take a large hit in the near future. For us to defeat the monster we must only  have the children to replace us in the world. A total of two children is what will bring down the monster and allow us to balance the world population.

There are many groups of people who dedicate their time to educating people about birth control and sex. One of which is known as SHAPE. SHAPE stands for Sexual Health and  AIDS Awareness Peer Education. It’s a group of teens who a meet biweekly to discuss STI prevention, healthy relationships and birth control methods, and also hold workshops and travel to schools to educate students. As well as each mentor carries condoms at all time to hand out to anyone who asks. This was the answer from Olivia, a mentor in SHAPE whom I interviewed to find out more about a group who is educating people on sexual health. Groups like this are at the fore forefront of fighting the monster.