Go forth and multiply Thats what the human population has successfully been doing for thousands of years, expanding, exploring, migrating, conquering, utilising, evolving, civilising, industrialising and now destroying the very hand upon which we live.
Many of us have grown up learning and being told that six billion is too much and this over population is primarily impacting the planets ability to cope. But is that really the case?
Sure, the planet is facing incredible stress. But how much of that is due to large population, and how much is based on other factors, such as how we choose to live, how we produce, consume and waste our resources.
The food scarcity part of the argument in the population debate is an interesting one people are hungry not because the population is growing so fast that food is becoming scarce, but people cannot afford it.
Food may be scarce, but it is international trade, economic policies and the control of land that have led to immense poverty and hunger and therefore less access to food, not food scarcity due to over population.
World-Watch Institute suggests that the global economy could be seriously affected by environmental problems, such as the lack of access to enough resources to meet growing population demands. Environmental degradation can contribute to social and political instability, which can lead to security issues.
Handling this issue is a tough task but the one that we need to handle soon.
IQRA ZAHID DOGAR
Lahore