There is a major conflict today that people struggle with. This conflict is population.
Malthus says, “that the population when unchecked goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years” (1993: 196). The question, “Are there too many people in the world,” is often asked after hearing Malthus’ fact in hopes to get a real, straight forward answer. This question sometimes strikes fear in the people or person, which must answer it. Since this is such a controversial issue this question can be determined by two possible answers: yes and no.
There are many reasons why “yes” could answer this question of over population. An obvious clue to deciding whether or not there are too many people is the lack of nutritious food in some countries. This lack of food is caused b two possible factors. First, the people in other wealthier places inhabiting the earth are taking up much of the more nutritious foods. Secondly, people and the growing industries inhabit the land needed for growing food. Here locally in the United States the congested traffic is a population problem.
Too many people cause too much traffic. From this traffic lies another potential answers to the over populated areas, pollution. This pollution factor plays an important role in deciding this age-old question of over population. The amount of population on the earth is a direct correlation towards the idea of “too many people”.
Pollution will increase if the amounts of people increase. Another clue for over population would be technology. People from all around the world have been pulled towards higher technological areas so that their families and themselves may eventually prosper. The population increase due to technology seems to run its course through the population like how a snowball greatens in size.
Like a snowball, technology works in this way: once a person creates something new someone else takes that idea and tries to make it bigger and better. Likewise people will live where technology continues to improve upon itself. For instance the oil Edwin Drake drilled. This oil which he found made it easier to run tractors, which now makes it cheaper to produce food (Hardin: 1993, 194). This new and improved technology has kept the population size up also because people are now living longer.
Keeping people well and alive has made the population grow on account of technology. Technology not only increases the population but also aids in the depression of higher populated areas. One change the technological increase has made in the depression of over populated areas is the amount of children a family must have to survive. These families in the past had many children so that they could be used as “employees”.
For instance, if a family lost one child the family had other children to take the place of the lost “employee”. Where technology comes into play is that this new technological advancement has lessened the amount of children a family should have to survive. Hence, more technology means less “employees” a family must need. This decrease in family members has made more room for jobs. Today there are more jobs than there are people to fulfill them. This proves that there are jobs available if people need them but some people are not willing to find or take these jobs.
Therefore there is plenty of room for the world’s populations to not only survive but also to prosper. There has also been another concern for the world, the depletion of natural resources. But, because there are not too many people in the world the supply of natural resources, which are used by every person all over the world every single day, the depletion of natural resources has not been completely used. Here again locally in the United States most of the living conditions are not bad.
Many people in the United States have a stable home. The percentage of homeless people is a mere . 2% in the United States (Enth and National Alliance to End Homelessness). Not all of the homes are extravagant, but all the homes provide shelter.
The land that these homes and industries are built on is abundant. Even though some of the land now is not able to inhabit living creatures or people, if the crisis came up of a shortage of land there could be useable land available. Point being, that yes, some of the inhibited land is not capable of living things no one has had to even begun trying to inhabit the jungles or sometimes frozen land. So to answer the question with no is just as legit to answer the question with yes.
On account of the question, “Are there too many people in the world”, the answers yes and no are apparent. There are many reasons that side towards yes. But, there are just as many reasons why no could be the answer to the question. In conclusion the answer to the question all depends on how one looks at it.Social Issues
