One Child Policy of China and lessons for South Asian nations

[Hello_10]

Consequences of Rapid Population Growth

The growth in human population around the world affects all people through its impacts on the economy, social and environment sectors. Rapid human population growth has a variety of consequences which in this essay it would be separated becoming micro and macro levels consequences. The micro level consequences in this context are referred to individual and family things while the macro level consequences are referred to regional, national and global things instead.

At the micro level, rapid population growth has delivered to unmet need which significantly threat child and maternal health and family welfare (United Nations Population Information Network / POPIN website). If the number of family member increases while the family income still in low rate (poor family) and can not cover the family needs, so then children may be affected by micronutrient deficiencies and easily attacked by diseases which also have a detrimental effect on growth and development. Furthermore, most maternal deaths are due to unsafe practices in terminating pregnancies, a lack of readily available services for high-risk pregnancies, and women having too many children or having them too early and too late in life (World Population Balance website). On the other hand, lower fertility levels resulting in smaller families were thought to benefit both parents and their children directly, at least the wife has more chance as an employment to support family welfare (United Nations Population Information Network / POPIN website).

At the macro level, rapid population growth has delivered a number of consequences such as environmental threats, poverty, scarcities of food and fresh water and international security threat.

Environmental Threats

Rapid population growth will emerge the expansion of human activity. The expansion of human activity will cause the destruction of forest and the loss of biological diversity which may lead to instability of ecological systems and reducing ability of the ecosystem to combat global warming. As reality, the population growth is following by increasing of water pollution, erosion of hillsides and silting of rivers, increasing of greenhouse gases, rising sea levels, growing weather severity, disruption of agriculture, and increase the energy and resources consumption (Population Media Center website).

Poverty

Rapid population growth aggravates poverty in developing countries by producing a high ratio of dependent children for each working adult. This leads to a relatively high percentage of income being spent on immediate survival needs of food, housing, and clothing, leaving little money for purchase of elective goods or for investment in the economy, education, government services, or infrastructure. Lack of available capital continues to frustrate the attempts of many developing countries to expand their economies and reduce poverty. Only about 20 percent of the current world’s population has a generally adequate standard of living. The other 80 percent live in conditions ranging from mild deprivation to severe deficiency. This imbalance is likely to get worse, as more than 90 percent of future population growth is projected for the less developed countries ( Population Media Center website)(see Figure 1)

Scarcities of Food and Fresh Water

Productive agricultural systems have contributed to economic progress in many countries, both developed and less developed. The Green Revolution of the 1970s enabled some developing countries to become net exporters of food. Yet, global population growth during and since the Green Revolution is continuing to consume more and more of the expanding food base, leading to a decline in per capita availability of cereal grains on a global basis over the last 15 years.

The world’s agricultural systems rely substantially on increasing use of fertilizers. But now, the world’s farmers are witnessing signs of a declining response curve, where the use of additional fertilizer yields little additional food product. At the same time, fertilizers and intensive cropping lower the quality of soil. These factors will more and more limit the possibilities of raising food production substantially and will, at a minimum, boost relative food prices and resulting hunger for many. So will the mounting resistance of pests to insecticides, which are used increasingly by the world’s farmers. On a global basis, 37 percent of food and fiber crops are now lost to pests. At the same time, nitrogen-based fertilizers are yielding nitrous oxide, which adds to the greenhouse effect of the carbon dioxide humans produce.

At the same time, shortages of water are at a crisis point in many countries. At least 400 million people live in regions with severe water shortages. By the year 2050, it is projected to be approximately two billion. Water tables on every continent are falling, as water is pumped out at far greater rates than rainwater can replenish in order to provide irrigation for agriculture. "India, for example, is pumping out its underground aquifers at twice the rate of natural replenishment." Humans are already using half of the globe’s products of photosynthesis and over half of all accessible fresh water. Long before human demand doubles again, the limits of the ecosystem’s ability to support people will become dramatically evident (Population Media Center website).

Threats to International SecurityAs mentioned earlier, population growth is a major contributor to economic stagnation through its depressing effect on capital formation. With growing numbers of young people attempting to enter the labor force, many developing countries have extraordinarily high levels of unemployment. Often high rates of unemployment give rise to severe political instability, which ultimately threatens national and international security. Moreover, the combination of poverty and violence is adding rapidly to the number of refugees seeking to move into more stable and prosperous areas. Growth of refugee and migrant populations are contributing to political instability and economic dislocation in many countries. Intelligence agencies in the U.S. and elsewhere have long recognized the implications of population growth for international security ( Population Media Center website) (see Figure 2)

Consequences of Rapid Population Growth « Indonesians Resonance

High population density is greatest risk factor for water-linked diseases

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Water-associated infectious disease outbreaks are more likely to occur in areas where a region’s population density is growing, according to a new global analysis of economic and environmental conditions that influence the risk for these outbreaks.

Ohio State University scientists constructed a massive database containing information about 1,428 water-associated disease outbreaks that were reported between 1991 and 2008 around the world. By combining outbreak records with data on a variety of socio-environmental factors known about the affected regions, the researchers developed a model that can be used to predict risks for water-associated disease outbreaks anywhere in the world.

The research appears in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, a journal published by the Public Library of Science.

There are five different categories of water-associated diseases, depending on the role water plays in the disease transmission process. Population density was a risk factor for all types of these diseases. Prolonged and excessive heat was shown to be a driver of water-related diseases that are transmitted to people by insect bites.

The study shows that clusters of reported outbreaks tended to occur in Western Europe, Central Africa, Northern India and Southeast Asia. These regions, as well as Latin America and eastern Brazil, were targeted as potential “hot spots” at highest risk for future water-associated disease outbreaks ranging from E. coli-related diarrhea to dengue fever.

World health experts conservatively estimate that 4 percent of deaths – almost 2 million annually – and 5.7 percent of illnesses around the world are caused by infectious diseases related to unsafe water and sanitation and hygiene problems. Getting a better handle on the socio-environmental factors that affect the risks for water-associated disease outbreaks is a first step toward guiding policymakers as they prioritize the distribution of health resources around the world, the researchers say.

“We know water is essential to life, but we also know that water is a vehicle that can carry hazards. If we understand the risk factors of disease better, we can inform policy decisions because resources are limited. Second, we can provide an early warning to certain places that are undergoing global environmental change because our model shows how those changes affect outbreak risks,” said Song Liang, senior author of the study and an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Ohio State.

“We’re not going to address all of the questions in one study, but we hope to set the stage for studies that can move toward that goal.”

Most information on water-associated pathogens and infectious diseases in the Ohio State database came from the Global Infectious Disease and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON), a web-based database containing details on outbreaks for 337 recognized infectious diseases in 231 countries and regions. Liang and colleagues also collected extensive data from journal articles and health organization publications to supplement the GIDEON information.

Among the information included in the Ohio State database were disease-causing agents,
such as bacteria or viruses, and their biological characteristics; water’s role in disease transmission; disease transmission routes; and details about whether the recorded outbreak represented an emergence or re-emergence of a water-associated disease for a given region. These details were crossed with a socio-environmental database that contained data on population density, global average accumulated temperature, surface area of water bodies, average annual rainfall and per-capita gross domestic product.

Each disease tracked in the database was classified into one of five categories:

• water-borne (such as typhoid and cholera), caused by microorganisms that enter water through fecal contamination and cause infection when humans consume contaminated water. A subset of these, called “water-carried” diseases, result from accidental ingestion of contaminated water in a recreational setting;

• water-based (such as schistosomiasis), caused by parasites that spend part of their life in water;

• water-related (such as malaria and trypanosomiasis), which need water for breeding of insects that act as vectors in transmitting disease to humans;

• water-washed, caused by poor personal or domestic hygiene because no clean water is available; and

• water-dispersed (such as Legionella), caused by infectious agents that thrive in water and enter the body through the respiratory tract.

Among the reported outbreaks, 70.9 percent were water-borne diseases, 2.9 percent water-based, 12.2 percent water-related, 6.8 percent water-washed, and 7.3 percent water-dispersed. Almost half were caused by bacteria, with nearly 40 percent caused by viruses and the rest by parasites.

The analysis also showed that fewer water-washed diseases occurred in places with larger bodies of surface water, and that areas with higher average annual rainfall had fewer outbreaks of water-borne and water-related diseases.

“No single factor can explain this distribution,” Liang said. “And for different categories of diseases, the impact of those factors varies. This is the first time we’ve had large-scale proof of that."

“At this point, we’ve identified all of the reported outbreaks, but not every socio-environmental factor that influenced them.”

The model predicts that Western Europe, Central Africa and Northern India are at higher risk for water-borne diseases, especially E. coli diarrhea, and that the risk in Europe is primarily driven by water-carried diseases that tend to occur in recreational areas. Western Europe, North Africa and Latin America tend to be at higher risk for water-washed diseases, particularly viral conjunctivitis. Risks associated with water-based diseases, especially schistosomiasis, were highest in east Brazil, Northwest and Central Africa and southeast of China.

Even with all of the data available, the researchers suggest that their database and map represent just a fraction of the actual outbreaks that have occurred because the under-reporting of these diseases is a common problem, especially in the developing world.

They also were surprised to find that economic status did not appear to influence risk for water-associated disease outbreaks, at least on a global scale. “When we look specifically at an area on a smaller scale, we might find something different,” Liang said.

Liang and colleagues already have begun to take a closer look at two regions, Africa and Asia, to examine environmental and economic issues that are most likely to influence risks for water-associated infectious disease outbreaks on those continents.

This work is supported in part by the National Institutes of Health and by two Ohio State University programs: Public Health Preparedness for Infectious Diseases and Climate, Water and Carbon.

Co-authors, all from Ohio State, include first author Kun Yang and Bo Lu of the College of Public Health (Yang is now with the Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases in China); Jeffrey LeJeune of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center and the College of Veterinary Medicine; and Doug Alsdorf and C.K. Shum of the School of Earth Sciences.

High population density is greatest risk factor for water-linked diseases | College of Public Health

 

[Hello_10]

Impact of Population Growth

India is the best country to study the consequences of over population. Geometric growth in population has pushed our country into population explosion leading to number of serious consequences. Some of them are:

•Decreased availability of food and clothing.

•Decreased per capita food availability despite phenomenal increase in their production.

•Decreased per capita GMP and reduced standard of living due to ever increasing population.

•Increased pressure on resources like land, water, natural forests, animals etc. leading to many far reaching effects like:

a) Fragmentation of land below the economic level.

b) Acute shortage of drinking and irrigation water.

c) Denudation of forest (Deforestation) to increase the area under agriculture.

d) Pollution of water, land, food materials etc.

•Urbanistaion beyond a healthy developmental limit as more rural people shift to towns / cities in search of better work / earning. Urbanization has led to may problems such as

a) Increased housing problems in cities / towns.

b) Very high vehicular movement in cities / towns leading to accidents, pollution, etc.

c) Serious problem connected to vast urban waste generation and its disposal.

d) Serious drinking water shortages.

e) Unending demands for civic amenities like roads, transport, markets, etc.

•Unemployment problems of serious dimension both in urban and rural areas leading to reduced per capita earning, poverty, etc.

•Hunger deaths - because of reduced per capita food availability and poor distribution of food.

•Acute shortage of medical facilities including qualified doctors, medicines, dispensaries, modern health care facilities etc - due to high population.

•Shortage of education facilities including schools, colleges, qualified teachers.

•Serious shortage of power and problems connected with its distribution.

•Increased inflation.

•Increased borrowings from international organisations.

•Reduced care of young ones leading to increased child health problems as well as vulnerability of children to many diseases.

•Reduced health care to mothers.

•Difficulties encountered in implementation of all national and state developmental programmes.

•Increased government expenditure.

•Increased density of population.

In India, the over population has engulfed almost all our achievements in industrial growth, agricultural production, supporting services like medical care, housing, transport, education, banking etc. It has put serious pressures on every sector of our economy and every section of society. Almost all our national problems can be traced back to have their roots in overgrowing population.

At global level, China and India are facing overpopulation issues of highest magnitude. But rate of growth of population has reduced in China substantially in recent years.

Consequences of over Population/impact of Population Growth | Tutorvista.com

 

[manojb]

First we need indias mao. Then cultural revolution, ie, burn all geeta,quran,bible... then we will have tianman square of india... then one child policy.. then economic BOOM...

 

[mdcp]

I think we should have as many kids we can give them proper education, look after, better health
Some people they dont work and only make many children so they just ignore them later cuz they cant afford them which later on become burden on society
Its better to have few in quality than junk in quantity

 

[Hello_10]

"Science Summit" on World Population:

A Joint Statement by 58 of the World's Scientific Academies

In a follow-up to several recent initiatives by assemblies of scientists and scientific academies, most notably one taken by the Royal Society of London and the US National Academy of Sciences that resulted in a joint statement, "Population Growth, Resource Consumption, and a Sustainable World, '' issued in February 1992 (see Documents, PDR, June 1992), representatives of national academies of science from throughout the world met in New Delhi, 24-27 October 1993, at a ''Science Summit'' on World Population. The participants issued a statement, signed by representatives of 58 academies. The statement offers a wide-ranging if ex cathedra-style discussion of population issues related to development, notably on the determinants of fertility and concerning the effect of demographic growth on the environment and the quality of life. It also sets forth policy propositions, with emphasis on contributions that ''scientists, engineers, and health professionals'' can make to the solution of population problems. The statement finds that ''continuing population growth poses a great risk to humanity, '' and proposes a demographic goal, albeit with a rather elusive specification of a time frame: "In our judgement, humanity's ability to deal successfully with its social, economic, and environmental problems will require the achievement of zero population growth within the lifetime of our children. '' The text of the academies ' statement is reproduced below.

The New Delhi meeting was convened by a group of 15 academies "to explore in greater detail the complex and interrelated issues of population growth, resource consumption, socioeconomic development, and environmental protection.'' One of the convening organizations, the Nairobi-based African Academy of Sciences, declined to sign the joint statement, issuing, instead, one of its own. The text of this statement is reproduced below as the second Documents item appearing in this issue. Other academies that did not participate in the New Delhi meeting, or did not choose to sign the joint statement (whether for substantive or procedural reasons), included academies of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Spain, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Notwithstanding the African Academy dissent, representatives of six African national academies, among them four from countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda) were among the fifty-eight signatories.


The growing world population

The world is in the midst of an unprecedented expansion of human numbers. It took hundreds of thousands of years for our species to reach a population level of 10 million, only 10,000 years ago. This number grew to 100 million people about 2,000 years ago and to 2.5 billion by 1950. Within less than the span of a single lifetime, it has more than doubled to 5.5 billion in 1993.

This accelerated population growth resulted from rapidly lowered death rates (particularly infant and child mortality rates), combined with sustained high birth rates. Success in reducing death rates is attributable to several factors: increases in food production and distribution, improvements in public health (water and sanitation) and in medical technology (vaccines and antibiotics), along with gains in education and standards of living within many developing nations.

Over the last 30 years, many regions of the world have also dramatically reduced birth rates. Some have already achieved family sizes small enough, if maintained, to result eventually in a halt to population growth. These successes have led to a slowing of the world's rate of population increase. The shift from high to low death and birth rates has been called the "demographic transition."

The rate at which the demographic transition progresses worldwide will determine the ultimate level of the human population. The lag between downward shifts of death and birth rates may be many decades or even several generations, and during these periods population growth will continue inexorably. We face the prospect of a further doubling of the population within the next half century. Most of this growth will take place in developing countries.

Consider three hypothetical scenarios* for the levels of human population in the century ahead:

Fertility declines within sixty years from the current rate of 3.3 to a global replacement average of 2.1 children per woman. The current population momentum would lead to at least 11 billion people before leveling off at the end of the 21st century.

Fertility reduces to an average of 1.7 children per woman early in the next century. Human population growth would peak at 7.8 billion persons in the middle of the 21st century and decline slowly thereafter.

Fertility declines to no lower than 2.5 children per woman. Global population would grow to 19 billion by the year 2100, and to 28 billion by 2150.

The actual outcome will have enormous implications for the human condition and for the natural environment on which all life depends.


Key determinants of population growth

High fertility rates have historically been strongly correlated with poverty, high childhood mortality rates, low status and educational levels of women, deficiencies in reproductive health services, and inadequate availability and acceptance of contraceptives. Falling fertility rates and the demographic transition are generally associated with improved standards of living, such as increased per capita incomes, increased life expectancy, lowered infant mortality, increased adult literacy, and higher rates of female education and employment.

Even with improved economic conditions, nations, regions, and societies will experience different demographic patterns due to varying cultural influences. The value placed upon large families (especially among underprivileged rural populations in less developed countries who benefit least from the process of development), the assurance of security for the elderly, the ability of women to control reproduction, and the status and rights of women within families and within societies are significant cultural factors affecting family size and the demand for family planning services.

Even with a demand for family planning services, the adequate availability of and access to family planning and other reproductive health services are essential in facilitating slowing of the population growth rate. Also, access to education and the ability of women to determine their own economic security influence their reproductive decisions.


Population growth, resource consumption, and the environment

Throughout history and especially during the twentieth century, environmental degradation has primarily been a product of our efforts to secure improved standards of food, clothing, shelter, comfort, and recreation for growing numbers of people. The magnitude of the threat to the ecosystem is linked to human population size and resource use per person. Resource use, waste production and environmental degradation are accelerated by population growth. They are further exacerbated by consumption habits, certain technological developments, and particular patterns of social organization and resource management.

As human numbers further increase, the potential for irreversible changes of far reaching magnitude also increases. Indicators of severe environmental stress include the growing loss of biodiversity, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing deforestation worldwide, stratospheric ozone depletion, acid rain, loss of topsoil, and shortages of water, food, and fuel-wood in many parts of the world.

While both developed and developing countries have contributed to global environmental problems, developed countries with 85 percent of the gross world product and 23 percent of its population account for the largest part of mineral and fossil-fuel consumption, resulting in significant environmental impacts. With current technologies, present levels of consumption by the developed world are likely to lead to serious negative consequences for all countries. This is especially apparent with the increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and trace gases that have accompanied industrialization, which have the potential for changing global climate and raising sea level.

In both rich and poor countries, local environmental problems arise from direct pollution from energy use and other industrial activities, inappropriate agricultural practices, population concentration, inadequate environmental management, and inattention to environmental goals. When current economic production has been the overriding priority and inadequate attention has been given to environmental protection, local environmental damage has led to serious negative impacts on health and major impediments to future economic growth. Restoring the environment, even where still possible, is far more expensive and time consuming than managing it wisely in the first place; even rich countries have difficulty in affording extensive environmental remediation efforts.

The relationships between human population, economic development, and the natural environment are complex. Examination of local and regional case studies reveals the influence and interaction of many variables. For example, environmental and economic impacts vary with population composition and distribution, and with rural-urban and international migrations. Furthermore, poverty and lack of economic opportunities stimulate faster population growth and increase incentives for environmental degradation by encouraging exploitation of marginal resources.

Both developed and developing countries face a great dilemma in reorienting their productive activities in the direction of a more harmonious interaction with nature. This challenge is accentuated by the uneven stages of development. If all people of the world consumed fossil fuels and other natural resources at the rate now characteristic of developed countries (and with current technologies), this would greatly intensify our already unsustainable demands on the biosphere. Yet development is a legitimate expectation of less developed and transitional countries.


The earth is finite

The growth of population over the last half century was for a time matched by similar world-wide increases in utilizable resources. However, in the last decade food production from both land and sea has declined relative to population growth. The area of agricultural land has shrunk, both through soil erosion and reduced possibilities of irrigation. The availability of water is already a constraint in some countries. These are warnings that the earth is finite, and that natural systems are being pushed ever closer to their limits.


Quality of life and the environment

Our common goal is improving the quality of life for all people, those living today and succeeding generations, ensuring their social, economic, and personal well-being with guarantees of fundamental human rights; and allowing them to live harmoniously with a protected environment. We believe that this goal can be achieved, provided we are willing to undertake the requisite social change. Given time, political will, and intelligent use of science and technology, human ingenuity can remove many constraints on improving human welfare worldwide, finding substitutes for wasteful practices, and protecting the natural environment.

But time is short and appropriate policy decisions are urgently needed. The ability of humanity to reap the benefits of its ingenuity depends on its skill in governance and management, and on strategies for dealing with problems such as widespread poverty, increased numbers of aged persons, inadequate health care and limited educational opportunities for large groups of people, limited capital for investment, environmental degradation in every region of the world, and unmet needs for family planning services in both developing and developed countries. In our judgement, humanity's ability to deal successfully with its social, economic, and environmental problems will require the achievement of zero population growth within the lifetime of our children.


Human reproductive health

The timing and spacing of pregnancies are important for the health of the mother, her children, and her family. Most maternal deaths are due to unsafe practices in terminating pregnancies, a lack of readily available services for high-risk pregnancies, and women having too many children or having them too early and too late in life.

Millions of people still do not have adequate access to family planning services and suitable contraceptives. Only about one-half of married women of reproductive age are currently practicing contraception. Yet as the director-general of UNICEF put it, ''Family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race." Existing contraceptive methods could go far toward alleviating the unmet need if they were available and used in sufficient numbers, through a variety of channels and distribution, sensitively adapted to local needs.

But most contraceptives are for use by women, who consequently bear the risks to health. The development of contraceptives for male use continues to lag. Better contraceptives are needed for both men and women, but developing new contraceptive approaches is slow and financially unattractive to industry. Further work is needed on an ideal spectrum of contraceptive methods that are safe, efficacious, easy to use and deliver, reasonably priced, user-controlled and responsive, appropriate for special populations and age cohorts, reversible, and at least some of which protect against sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.

Reducing fertility rates, however, cannot be achieved merely by providing more contraceptives. The demand for these services has to be addressed. Even when family planning and other reproductive health services are widely available, the social and economic status of women affects individual decisions to use them. The ability of women to make decisions about family size is greatly affected by gender roles within society and in sexual relationships. Ensuring equal opportunity for women in all aspects of society is crucial.

Thus all reproductive health services must be implemented as a part of broader strategies to raise the quality of human life. They must include the following:

Efforts to reduce and eliminate gender-based inequalities. Women and men should have equal opportunities and responsibilities in sexual, social, and economic life.

Provision of convenient family planning and other reproductive health services with a wide variety of safe contraceptive options. irrespective of an individual's ability to pay.

Encouragement of voluntary approaches to family planning and elimination of unsafe and coercive practices.

Development policies that address basic needs such as clean water, sanitation, broad primary health care measures and education; and that foster empowerment of the poor and women.

"The adoption of a smaller family norm, with consequent decline in total fertility, should not be viewed only in demographic terms. It means that people, and particularly women, are empowered and are taking control of their fertility and the planning of their lives; it means that children are born by choice, not by chance, and that births are better planned; and it means that families are able to invest relatively more in a smaller number of beloved children, trying to prepare them for a better future."*


Sustainability of the natural world as everyone's responsibility

In addressing environmental problems, all countries face hard choices. This is particularly so when it is perceived that there are short-term tradeoffs between economic growth and environmental protection, and where there are limited financial resources. But the downside risks to the earth—our environmental life support system—over the next generation and beyond are too great to ignore. Current trends in environmental degradation from human activities combined with the unavoidable increase in global population will take us into unknown territory.

Other factors, such as inappropriate governmental policies, also contribute in nearly every case. Many environmental problems in both rich and poor countries appear to be the result of policies that are misguided even when viewed on short-term economic grounds. If a longer-term view is taken, environmental goals assume an even higher priority.

The prosperity and technology of the industrialized countries give them greater opportunities and greater responsibility for addressing environmental problems worldwide. Their resources make it easier to forestall and to ameliorate local environmental problems. Developed countries need to become more efficient in both resource use and environmental protection, and to encourage an ethic that eschews wasteful consumption. If prices, taxes, and regulatory policies include environmental costs, consumption habits will be influenced. The industrialized countries need to assist developing countries and communities with funding and expertise in combating both global and local environmental problems. Mobilizing "technology for environment" should be an integral part of this new ethic of sustainable development.

For all governments it is essential to incorporate environmental goals at the outset in legislation, economic planning, and priority setting; and to provide appropriate incentives for public and private institutions, communities, and individuals to operate in environmentally benign ways. Tradeoffs between environmental and economic goals can be reduced through wise policies. For dealing with global environmental problems, all countries of the world need to work collectively through treaties and conventions, as has occurred with such issues as global climate change and biodiversity, and to develop innovative financing mechanisms that facilitate environmental protection.

What science and technology can contribute toward enhancing the human prospect

As scientists cognizant of the history of scientific progress and aware of the potential of science for contributing to human welfare, it is our collective judgement that continuing population growth poses a great risk to humanity. Furthermore, it is not prudent to rely on science and technology alone to solve problems created by rapid population growth, wasteful resource consumption, and poverty.

The natural and social sciences are nevertheless crucial for developing new understanding so that governments and other institutions can act more effectively, and for developing new options for limiting population growth, protecting the natural environment, and improving the quality of human life.

Scientists, engineers, and health professionals should study and provide advice on:

Cultural, social, economic, religious, educational, and political factors that affect reproductive behavior, family size, and successful family planning.

Conditions for human development, including the impediments that result from economic inefficiencies: social inequalities; and ethnic, class, or gender biases.

Global and local environmental change (affecting climate, biodiversity, soils, water, air), its causes (including the roles of poverty, population growth, economic growth, technology, national and international politics), and policies to mitigate its effects.

Strategies and tools for improving all aspects of education and human resource development, with special attention to women.

Improved family planning programs, contraceptive options for both sexes, and other reproductive health services, with special attention to needs of women; and improved general primary health care, especially maternal and child health care.

Transitions to economies that provide increased human welfare with less consumption of energy and materials.

Improved mechanisms for building indigenous capacity in the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, social sciences, and management in developing countries, including an increased capability of conducting integrated interdisciplinary assessments of societal issues.

Technologies and strategies for sustainable development (agriculture, energy, resource use, pollution control, materials recycling, environmental management and protection).

Networks, treaties, and conventions that protect the global commons.

Strengthened world-wide exchanges of scientists in education, training, and research.


Action is needed now

Humanity is approaching a crisis point with respect to the interlocking issues of population, environment, and development. Scientists today have the opportunity and responsibility to mount a concerted effort to confront our human predicament. But science and technology can only provide tools and blueprints for action and social change. It is the governments and international decision-makers, including those meeting in Cairo next September at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, who hold the key to our future. We urge them to take incisive action now and to adopt an integrated policy on population and sustainable development on a global scale. With each year's delay the problems become more acute. Let 1994 be remembered as the year when the people of the world decided to act together for the benefit of future generations.

Reprinted from Population and Development Review, Vol. 20, no. 1 (March 1994):233-238

overpopulation -- NOW A SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS

 

[Black Widow]

This is the one thing I like about China

 

[Ottoman-Turk]

this policy is extreme and very bad , how can you not let a family have more than 1 child , this shouldnt be a policy it should be normal but just persuasion that one child policy can be good but still familys choice .

 

[Hello_10]

this policy is extreme and very bad , how can you not let a family have more than 1 child , this shouldnt be a policy it should be normal but just persuasion that one child policy can be good but still familys choice .

then take few millions from Bangladesh and prove your stand, at least the 30mil Bangladeshis who have come to India, who just wanted to run from over populated Bangladesh. will you?

 

[Ottoman-Turk]

what is the statement i said got to do with immigration? its talking about chinese having 1 children , how could you stop a family having a son and a daughter , just so your country develops better , first should be 'PEOPLE' for countries.

 

[scherz]

what is the statement i said got to do with immigration? its talking about chinese having 1 children , how could you stop a family having a son and a daughter , just so your country develops better , first should be 'PEOPLE' for countries.

U mean its talking about HAN-Chinese have 1 children...
Other chinese ethnics can have as many as they want...

 

[Hello_10]

what is the statement i said got to do with immigration? its talking about chinese having 1 children , how could you stop a family having a son and a daughter , just so your country develops better , first should be 'PEOPLE' for countries.

did you get any lesson from the articles I posted in this thread? like posts #62 & #65 of this page itself? I tell you few things in case of India as below:

1. Total share of agriculture in Indian GDP is hardly around 17% but over 52% population, 650mil, is based on this sector. while only a third of it, 200mil, is required to have this level of agriculture production, the maximum. and this way rest of 450mil population based on agriculture is only a waste, a burden on Indian economy who live because of hefty subsidy for agriculture, which is over $20bil right now. would you like to take this excess 450mil people?

2. even in small to large cities, out of total population 600mil living in these small to big towns, at least 200mil live life in either slum or not good, who always try to find a reasonable job which they can't get. enough government spend to keep then alive also, like free medicines for poor etc.

this way we find 450mil+200mil=650mil excess population in India which is of no use and only a burden on the Indian economy, and consume subsidies. the heavy subsidy which may be used for higher growth, making credible infrastructure...........

its all about, "how much population you would have to maintain a 'fit' relationship with 'resource consumption' and maintain a reasonable level of green house gases emission?"

 

[S10]

Look at Middle East and Africa where they don't have population control. Their economy cannot sustain their population. In most Arab countries, young people have an extremely high rate of unemployment. You say it's a crime to deny people the freedom to have kids? I say it's a crime to give birth to kids when you can't take care of it. How do you plan to feed all those employed young men and women?

 

[Rhino]

If china don't abondone this policy next chinese century will be of GAY's or they will have to IMPORT BRIDES from neighbouring countries..

 

[S10]

If china don't abondone this policy next chinese century will be of GAY's or they will have to IMPORT BRIDES from neighbouring countries..

You worry about your own population first, which is set to surpass us pretty soon while ours is nearing the peak.

 

[ajtr]

one child policy implemented through forced abortions can be termed as genocide.abortion bears a huge mental and emotional effect on moms.One child policy should not be encouraged as a forced govt. policy it should be voluntarily implemented by couples.Like in india majority educated/middle and upper middle class families right from 1980s decade voluntarily implemented 2 child policy.