A Reflection on Population Growth

World population growth. Another “invisible” crisis. Maybe not in an extreme sense, but it’s still not a topic you hear about on the news every day. Maybe it’s not even a horrible crisis, but instead has potential to be beneficial. More people on the planet means more people who have the potential to cure cancer. More prospective leaders, more entertainers, more people who can make a difference. But the bottom line is that this growth has the ability to cause issues and ignoring its existence is foolish and irresponsible.

Some of the statistics are staggering: 9 billion people on Earth by 2045. 210,000 people added to the world’s population each day. Nearly 80 million added each year. I recently viewed a website that has real time world statistics on population; essentially a population clock. The overall number is constantly going up one by one at all times, never stopping or going backwards.

So why is this a problem? Will we consume all resources and space? Will it cause a quicker spread of disease? It’s interesting to think of our impact on the world by the numbers. Relatively speaking, 9 billion is not that much compared to some species. 9 billion is nothing to the insect population or the fish population. We simply have an incredible impact on the world per individual.

More people can cause more environmental problems. More people require more non-renewable resources like gas and coal which will eventually run out completely. Even non-renewable resources like water would be affected; there would be less clean water to go around. We could literally run out of space to live. The population densities of countries like India and Japan are already absurd; now imagine that density everywhere in the world. Disease would easily run rampant and the comfort of living would decrease.

But on the contrary, some argue that population growth can boost economic performance. So at the end of the day what do we do about it? Do we attempt to provide methods of contraception to those in third world countries since that is where most of the world’s population growth occurs? Perhaps we can employ something similar to China’s one child policy. Or do we just leave it alone and let Earth take over? I heard someone say the other day that the Ebola outbreak is the world’s way of controlling the population. Frankly, I think this is a bit outlandish and premature, but it’s still an interesting thought. Do we just leave the population the way it is because it’s good for the world?

In order to make a rational decision, it is crucial to be aware of the circumstances. Knowing how the world’s population is changing brings us closer to finding a solution. Why else would we have it up on the walls?