Impact of Population
The Impact of Earth's Growing Population on Us
The Earth's growing population is already straining and will continue to strain Earth's basic finite resources: fresh water to drink, land suitable for farming, even the air we breathe. Not only are the resources being used at faster rates, they are being damaged by pollution. These problems have a direct impact on human health, economic well-being, and political stability. Population growth is arguably the most important single factor creating problems for people around the world.
These assessments are the conclusions not of "environmental whakos" but of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The recent CIA publication, Global Trends 2015, puts population at the top of the list of forces driving global change and says that almost all of the growth will come in developing countries. In many developing countries there will be huge "youth bulges" and those countries will generally not be able to provide basic infrastructure, education, and jobs for their citizens. Poverty and unaddressed wants will lead to political instability and armed conflict. Generally speaking, it is the stressed, developing countries that have started recent wars, international or civil. Prosperous developed countries with sustainable growth generally try to avoid war. All these stresses, while not directly creating terrorism, nonetheless create the instability on which terrorism thrives.
The relationship between instability, terrorism, and high fertility rates is quite clear in the different regions of the world. In the Middle East, four of the five highest national/area rates are: the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. The first two are areas of almost continuous violence, the third was the home of most of the 9/11 hijackers, and the last is the bin Laden family homeland. In the rest of Asia, the country with the highest fertility rate is, guess what, Afghanistan. Not far behind is Pakistan, where the Taliban were born and al-Qaida now seeks refuge. The highest rate in sub-Saharan Africa is found in Somalia, a country that has not even had a functioning government for over ten years, and which has been a terrorist refuge since before then.
In 1994 at the Cairo Conference on Population and Development, 180 countries agreed on a 20 year blueprint that called for universal knowledge about and affordable access to voluntary family planning and natal care. For relatively little money, family planning centers can also provide safer births through the use of sterile practices. This means that babies are more likely to survive, which in turn means that there is less pressure to have as many as possible. There is a huge correlation between availability of family planning, stable population growth, sustainable development, viable economies, political stability, healthy mothers, and healthy babies.
Related sites:
CIA Report Global Trends 2015: http://www.cia.gov/nic/pubs/2015_files/2015.htm U. S. State Department Agency for International Development (USAID): http://www.usaid.gov/pop_health/pop/resources/ United Nations Population Fund: http://www.unfpa.org/ U. S. Committee for UNFPA http://www.uscommittee.org/main.htm. Population Action International: http://www.populationaction.org/ International Planned Parenthood Federation: http://www.ippf.org/ The Population Connection (formerly ZPG): http://www.populationconnection.org/ Population Coalition: http://www.popco.org/ The Population Institute: http://www.populationinstitute.org/ National Audubon Society Poulation and Habitat Campaign: http://www.audubonpopulation.org/ Sierra Club Population Committee: http://www.sierraclub.org/population/ National Wildlife Federation on population: http://www.nwf.org/internationalwildlife/1998/6billionso.html
Home What is Inland Planet? / What you can do / Why should we care? / Who to Contact 34 Million Friends / Partners and Allies Inland Planet Schedule of Events/ Previous Events Site Map /Contact Us / News Terms and Conditions © Copyright 2005 Inlandplanet.org, All Rights Reserved. All contents of this site covered by registered copyrights. COPYRIGHT by Inland Planet.org. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
