In the article Overpopulation Is Still the Problem, Alon Tal (2013) claims that overpopulation remains the number one problem facing the world today and discusses various problems and possible solutions. Tal unveils the falsely assuring news stories refuting overpopulation as a problem. He particularly dissects Ellis Erle’s assertions, in the New York Times, concerning China’s seemingly magical works of technology. Erle comes to the conclusion that China’s amazing technology has and will always be able to keep them out of any problems regarding overpopulation. Of course Tal is able to rhythmically rebut Erle’s claims by explaining that, “Anyone with a teaspoon of historic sensibilities about the country 's environmental history might want to mention its long litany of famines which occurred precisely because carrying capacities were consistently outstripped by a growing population”. Tal then goes on to explain other problems linked directly to overpopulation in China like the food crisis from 1958-1961 which led to the starvation of over 20 million people. He also discusses the Chinese one-child policy describing it as “tough medicine” although the application of the policy was flawed he depicts how it has prevented the next round of famines. Tal ties the China population problems into the rest of the article which is mainly about how quickly the world is growing and what we need to do about it. He presents distressing facts like 1 in 8 people in the world suffer from
Over population is an extremely serious problem facing the world today. According to an article from Newsweek in Oct. 2009 called “Where do babies come from?”, today’s world population has reached over 6.6 billion people. Also the article mentioned that in 2009 57.4% of all new born babies who were born this year came from Asia alone. This is an issue because over population can lead to hasty consumption of resources. China who has one of the largest population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, has taken a stance against over population.
China is the world's most populous nation and its population has, on average, increased by over 25 people every minute, every day for the past 40 years. (Richards 5) For a developing country such as China, with 22 percent of the world's population and only 7 percent of the world's arable land, rapid and persistent population growth can contribute significantly to the nation's poverty levels and restrain its potential for economic growth. (Gu 42) China's one-child family policy was first announced in 1979. In a 1979 speech, Deng Xiaoping drew the first outlines of a policy to limit population growth, "Use whatever means you must to control China's population. Just do it." (Mosher 50)
The one-child policy was implemented in 1979 by the Chinese government (The Economist 3). Its original goal was to restrain the population growth from its expected goal of 1.4 billion to a maximum of 1.2 billion by the end of the century (Kane and Choi 992). The policy was created with little regard to the potential demographic or societal changes, but rather was a political and economic measure to control the abnormally high population growth (Feng et al. 84). China’s population was rapidly growing, but there was a severe shortage of natural
The Chinese government’s long struggle to control the growth China’s large population began in the 1950s. The 1953 census showed that the population was growing extremely rapidly, and researchers estimated that the population would reach 1.4 billion by the year 2000 (Roberts, 1999). With food shortages already becoming a concern, the government was afraid that the cost of feeding, housing, and providing for such enormous population would harm the economy (Roberts, 1998). As a result, a propaganda campaign encouraging the use of birth control was introduced as an effort to slow growth (Roberts, 1999). However, in 1958 the Great Leap Forward, Mao
1a. China and Japan are both industrialized countries where population is decreasing; however, they are both decreasing due to different social, economic, or political factors. With 1.33 billion people, China has been one of the world’s most populous countries, however due to the overpopulation crisis; it caused implications and strain upon the country’s energy and resources. This called for the government attention to fix the issue of overpopulation by developing the “one-child policy” which limits couples to having only one child each. The overall outcome of the policy was to reduce population growth, increase economic growth, limit poverty, and to create better health for the citizens of China. Governments
He believed that there would eventually be more people on this Earth than it would be physically possible to feed. Eventually, food would run out and result in a catastrophic mass starvation of the worlds population. The idea makes sense. People seemed grow on an exponential scale, eventually there will be too many people if we continued at that rate. This idea has evolved over the years, but the general idea remains the same. There will eventually be too many people, or will there? Several estimations predict that the human population will eventually level out. This means overpopulation is not the real issue. A new perspective on this topic will allow for an accurate goal post shift away from common misconceptions. This goal post shift will offer a new win-lose relationship for overpopulation in terms of environmental ethics.
Throughout the last few hundred years, humans have built a foundation. Compared to all of the other animal species on Earth, humans are the most intelligent. We have built houses everywhere, developed a system to sustain ourselves, and now inhabit almost every piece of land on earth. Humans are smart, strong, and know how to fend for themselves. But, humans have a tendency to take it too far, and we have already done so. There have been numerous advancements over the past few hundred years which could ultimately lead to the downfall of the human race. The main issue is overpopulation due to the advancements in technology and general knowledge. The statistics from an article by Kenneth Smail show that “In the year 1900, there were almost 2 billion humans living on Earth. Throughout the 1960’s, the baby boom, there were 3 billion humans on Earth. Today in 2016, there are just over 7 billion humans living on Earth.” Currently, we have taken up just over half of all available land on this planet, and with increased amounts of people having kids, our population will only increase. Overpopulation is becoming a serious problem all around the world, especially in countries such as China and India. There are many global problems associated with overpopulation that are becoming more and more prevalent, which will all have dangerous effects on the foundation that humans have
The earth’s growing population is a global concern. Both developed and third-world countries, are experiencing shortages of food, water and access to adequate healthcare. Although the poorest are hardest hit, even powerful countries like the United States and Great Brittan have been affected. Recent shortages of medication and fuel are contributing to speculation and concern. Governments the world over are turning to alternative energy and sustainable living, as a means of supporting the increased populace. The People’s Republic of China, however, has taken a drastically different approach with the implementation and enforcement of the One-Child per family policy.
The world’s most populated country, occupying a population approaching one and a half billion and contributing to approximately twenty percent of the worldwide population. A country named the People's Republic of China. During the late 1970’s, the overgrowing population of China was reaching one billion, causing problems for the society and government. Chinese citizens were living in extreme poverty and starvation. As a means to rectify these issues, the Chinese government introduced the One Child Policy. This regulation permits couples to have one, and only one child in order to diminish the extremely populated country. The One Child Policy is incredibly controversial, in comparison to many government law and regulation affecting moral and
In conclusion, the standard of living and the economy of China before the one-child policy was not better off after the policy was enforced and to some extent, it can be said that the policy helped steer the economy of China in the desired direction, considering how far she has come within the world today. The disadvantages of overpopulation are numerous and some of it’s compound problems immeasurable. China before the one-child policy had just cause to view overpopulation as a serious threat. The one-child policy provided China with a way to prevent the impending population explosion. At the time, it was the only solution that had concrete evidence it would actually work at controlling the rate of population growth based on the limitations
China and India are the two countries that have the highest population in the world. Both countries have realised that family planning and population control had to happen around the 1950's for India and the 1970's for China. This essay will seek to compare and contrast China and India, focusing on what the major problems facing both are, why have they both had to implement policies regarding population control, and the long-term and short-term effects that these policies have on the two countries.
In the article “China Ends Its One-Child Policy”, it states how China was afraid of there being too many people. “At that time, when the population of China was around 970 million people, the Communist party was afraid that China’s growing population would stifle economic growth” (1). The population has statistically grown over the years, but surprisingly the one-child policy has not changed much at all. The policy has affected abortions, and more specifically sex-specific abortions. It has also greatly affected the gender ratio and the vast number of the aging population.
It is known that China is extremely overpopulated with its 1,354,040,000 citizens as of January 2013 and “ as of September 2013, that number had grown even further to 1,360,720,000”. There’s “363.3 people per square mile!” (WPR). I’ve been interested in the future of our world and what will happen as we continue to grow. Knowing that “China represents 19.48 percent of the world’s total population” (China Employed Persons) helped me decide on which country I wanted to focus my report on.
China’s population growth began to increase during the Ming Dynasty, and increased dramatically throughout Qing. The population grew around 65million in the late 14th century to more than 400 million in 1949 (Spengler 1962: 112). Since the People Republic of China was founded, Mao had seen the population growth as favorable to industrialization, and he believed that population growth empowered the country (Potts 2006). In the 1950s, the government began to realize that the food supply would soon become insufficient for the rapidly growing population, and stopped encouraging people to have more children through propaganda posters. In the beginning of the 1970s, the government launched the “Later, Longer, Fewer” campaign.
There are several contributing factors to the overpopulation crisis, however, with changes these factors could also be part of the solution. A few of these factors are discussed in an interview with Melanie Asriel, the Psychological Sciences Instructor at WKU of Glasgow, Kentucky. According to Melanie Asriel, “The lack of family planning and contraceptive use has contributed to this problem…contraception, education, and the including of available abortion…all kinds of education, such as, sex education, contraceptive education… would be my solution to an over-population problem” (M. Asriel, personal communication, 04 October 2017). Melanie Asriel views a overpopulation problem stems from a lack of education in family planning,