In 1935 Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, admonished Australians to “populate or perish”. Seventy-five years later our population has risen to 22 million and is predicted to reach 35 million by 2050. Meanwhile, global population is set to hit 7 billion early in 2012 and 9.1 billion in 2050.
Every year mother earth welcomes over 80 million more babies and there is fierce debate about the pros and cons of this level of growth. As a general rule, environmental groups want little growth while economists argue for rapid growth. The population debate intersects with many others and is not a simple, one-dimensional issue.
In Australia, the former coalition government introduced a baby bonus to encourage parents to have THREE kids. As Peter Costello put it: “one for mum, one for dad and one for the country”. Australia is currently in the midst of a mini-baby boom. The ABS estimates Australia's population is bolstered by one birth every one minute and 44 seconds.
In contrast, the British based think-tank, Optimum Population Trust (OPT), is encouraging Britains to stop at TWO children. The OPT has warned of the dire consequences of human proliferation. On his appointment as a patron of the OPT, Sir David Attenborough said the growth in global population was “frightening”.
Meanwhile in China, the government introduced its ONE child policy in 1979. It is estimated that had China not introduced her policy limiting couples to one child, there would be 400 million more Chinese than there are today. The unintended consequence of this policy, however, is that China’s population is getting too old, too fast.
The real population explosion is occurring in third world countries. Population grows fastest in poorest countries as high fertility rates are strongly correlated with poverty. However, according to a recent report third world population growth does not contribute significantly to rising greenhouse gas emissions as poor countries have low emissions.
Paul Ehrlich’s predictions of mass starvation did not come true in his 1968 book, The Population Bomb. Nonetheless, modern day doomsayers are warning it’s a case of populate and perish. Overpopulation is cited as the root cause of climate change and is said to be testing the limits of social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Clearly, population growth is a big topic and I can only provide a brief treatment of it here. The issues are complex and have multiple variables. For those readers interested in learning more, you might find this article of benefit.
Regards
Paul J. Thomas
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