Over Population or Over Consumption?

Over population or over consumption? That is an extremely good question. It points out that generally even though  3^rd world countries that are incapable of over consumption, they still highly contribute to the explosion of world population. And although rich nations are not contributing to world population growth they are still guilty of depleting Earth’s resources through massive over consumption. Many people fear that our ecological footprint will expand beyond the capacity of Earth, while others believe that technology will compensate and provide. The problem with that mind-set is the loss of natural ecosystems and landscapes and the immense value they hold is undermined.

Even though poorer nations are often the countries who most lack resources to sustain their population, they are often the leaders in population growth. Families often have many children to increase chances of beating child mortality rates, and help to take care of their families. Unfortunately this only increases the problems associated with poverty as there are more mouths to feed, heads to shelter and minds to educate. Often this leads to unsustainable practices as citizens are often more worried about short term survival than long term practices that can ensure food and resource security. Population is estimated to increase at approximately 78 million people per year which is mostly concentrated within the sub-Saharan Africa, and South Western portions of Asia. Coincidently these areas are the least capable of supporting massive population growth. (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/overpopulation/effect.html)

Although these countries are undergoing mass population growth, European and more Westernized nations are undergoing decreasing population. As women become more educated and there are more lifestyle choices such as having children at more mature ages, in fewer numbers, or not at all, growth rate has actually become negative in some areas. It is not certain why this happens but it is known to increase social awareness and equality in these societies. Also as education in women is increased, national productivity also increases due to the large increase of qualified labourers available.

 (http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/modules/social/pgr/map1.html) 

(http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_pop_gro_rat-people-population-growth-rate) for 2008 growth rates.

According to National Geographic there will be 7 billion people living on Earth. There should be no issue with us “fitting” because 7 billion people standing shoulder to shoulder can fit within the borders of Los Angeles city. ***But it’s not space we should be concerned about it should be balance of resources. When only 5% of the world’s population consumes 23% of the power produced there is not an even distribution. This has become a major problem in modern times because although richer countries are not contributing to the increase in population they are contributing to the mass consumption of Earth’s resources.  This means that fewer people are consuming more resources therefore expanding their ecological footprint well beyond what Earth is capable to provide and leaving less for the expanding population of poorer nations.