FREE ESSAY ON OVERPOPULATION

OVERPOPULATION

Overpopulation
October 12, 1999 marks the day when the world's population supposedly reached six
billion. Many humanitarians and ecologists worry that soon the planet's population will
become too big for our food production and resources to support. With the current
population growth rate, the total population in the year 2050 is estimated to be between
7.3 and 10.7 billion (Kluger, "The Big Crunch" 47). Soon the Congress of the United
States will vote on whether to restore $60 million of U.S. taxpayer funding over the next
two years for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The United Nations Population
Fund, for the past 30 years, has been involved with "brutal population control programs"
such as China's genocidal one-couple, one-child policy. However, using taxpayer money to
fund these programs is a total waste of time, money, and energy. The world is not
overpopulated; thus, population control is unnecessary, it is also unethical and
anti-religious beliefs.
Population control presents several problems for a country. The Philippines, for example,
has an "artificial" birth control program, instated by the government and funded by
UNFPA. The people of the Philippines, consisting mainly of Catholics and Muslims, are
taxed to pay for this program. Because of its nature, contraception must be paid for
every year, in increasing amounts. "Over 20 years from 1970 to 1990, it has cost our
people over three billion pesos (P3,000,000,000), but has not significantly achieved its
self-assigned goals of reducing poverty or improving quality of life." This is because
artificial contraception is incapable of accomplishing those goals. "It is powerless in
removing the yoke of poverty from our people. It is impotent in improving the lot of
victims of economic inequity, which is the real cause of poverty," says Antonio B. de los
Reyes (http://www.pop.org/students/cbreyes.html).
Contraception, a mild form of population control, goes against the grain of Filipinos,
who traditionally respect life, and see children not only as resources for production,
nor only as means of security for the future, but also as blessings from God and
expressions of gratitude to Him. American propaganda and aid policy have portrayed this
pro-life orientation as anti-development, and the contraceptive establishment has
gradually infiltrated into Filipino minds fewer children mean more happiness. Yet the
impotence of past national governments in mobilizing the people's labor resources, and
its squandering of the nation's capital assets, were the real problems. Why should we
change our positive values to make amends for incompetence and corruption? Children are
God's gifts to us. Should we sacrifice them to make up for the failures of our political
and economic leaders (http://www.pop.org/students/cbreyes.html)?
The contraceptive program's management machinery is a nightmare. It fields 2,500
full-time workers, supports 50,000 subsidized volunteers, and retains a coordinating
staff of over 300 with vague managerial responsibilities. These do not include the
numerous clinic personnel in the Department of Health's bureaucratic network, and
hundreds of private agencies, which opportunistically mushroomed from the outpouring of
foreign funds. While POPCOM's field force is among the best-trained and qualified
government workers, the disarray at central management level renders it impotent. If this
whole network were channeled instead into the government's livelihood program, these
well-trained government workers would most likely be more productive and more
professionally trained (http://www.pop.org/students/cbreyes.html).
Aside from the many problems population controls causes, it is unnecessary. The world can
feed its people. Despite the concerns expressed, the food situation has improved
dramatically for most of the world's consumers. World output of cereals, the main food
source for most consumers, has increased by 2.7 percent per annum since 1950 while
population has grown by about 1.9 percent per annum. Cereal yields alone have increased
more rapidly than world population since 1950—at 2.24 percent per annum. This has
allowed per capita calorie consumption in developing countries to increase by about 27
percent since the early 1960s (http://www.pop.org/students/feed.html).
The whole world's population could fit in the state of Texas and very comfortably indeed.
Everyone, including the poorest of the poor, would enjoy living conditions/housing
conditions that are now only available to the wealthiest of people. The land area of
Texas is some 262,000 square miles, and current UN estimates of the world's population
(for 12 October 1999) are about 6 billion. If the square miles are converted into square
feet (multiplying 5,280 feet per mile twice) and divided by the world's population, one
readily finds that there are more than 1,217 square feet per capita. A family of 5 could
occupy more than 6,085 square feet of living space, which, even in Texas, is considered a
mansion. These numbers apply to just one-story, ranch house-type dwellings, and if a
mixture of multi-story buildings, including town houses, apartment buildings and high
rises, appreciably greater living space could be provided, allowing for ample roads and
yards (http://www.pop.org/students/texas1.html).
If the birth rates continue at status quo, our population will reach almost 11 billion by
the year 2050. However, our earth can support those people, and population control then
is unnecessary. Trying to control the population takes away the basic human right to
life. 
Bibliography
Works Cited
des los Reyes, Antonio B. 23 Feb. 19998. Population 
Research Institute. 3 May 2000. 
"Did you know?" (1999). The World Almanac. 3 May 2000. 
Kluger, Jeffry. "The Big Crunch." Time. April-May 2000:
45+.
"World can feed its people." (1998). Population Research
Institute. 3 May 2000. .