Population growth as a social and environmental issue

The population growth has become an important concern for the academic and scientific field during the last years. Currently, we are more than 7.4 billion in the world and according to forecasters, the world will reach 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100. This seems to be an unstoppable number, but there are several aspects that have to be considered to understand the tendencies that are now days happening regards of this matter.

In the documentary “How many people can live on earth”, the naturalist Sir David Attenborough investigates whether the world is heading for a population crisis and how we, as human beings, are the cause, but at the same time the solution to this tendency. It is important to highlight that water, food and energy will not be renewable resources, if they are not able to restore at a rate exceeding the consumption by humans. So either we slow down the speed of reproduction, or we change the feasting habit to make possible the supplying of the people living in all the world.  

In the last years, the rate of consumption per person has become more inequitable and at the same time the nature is not able to satisfy and cover those high levels. One argument that supports this statement is the fact that right now there is more than one billion people who don’t have access to water, thus, it’s not alarmist to claim that “in the future, water will be the reason for wars”, as Sir David Attenborough states.

But before this collision happens, still several issues can trigger, such as high rates of mortality, especially in children. If people is not able to access to a proper health system and the State can’t hold a politic in which every citizen can receive a proper service, the demand will be higher than the offer, making impossible the chance to ensure in a 100% the quality of a fair system.  This can also lead to a higher feasibility of spreading diseases along communities, becoming a public health problem.

So the issue is not having enough food, water or resources such as energy, but the way we are consuming, making them inequitable and disproportionate in the different countries, according to their condition of being industrialized or producers of raw materials. Taking this into account, there are three possible solutions to mitigate the impact: first, change the consumption habits, second, change the current technology, and third, reduce the high rates of human reproduction.

This last point leads to a key fact in demographic growth which is related to women and their condition of beings who give birth to life. The journalist Robert Engelman, Senior Fellow at the Worldwatch Institute, delves into this topic in his article The world at 7 billion: can we stop growing now? Empowering women is to me, one of the most important challenges for the XXI century, and relationships, sex, birth, education and capacity of taking decisions are some of the most important aspects that must be considered. Throughout history women have been relegated from politics, social scenarios, job and education opportunities. Now days this tendency continues, regardless the evolution and development on so many others conditions. Sexual reproduction is an example of the lack of empowerment: more than two in every five pregnancies are unwanted.

It has been studied that the if women have more chances to get educated, not only as a basic or elementary aspect, but in a professional level, the birthrates fall. This appreciation has two important facts: one is mitigating the population growth and the other one refers to having more people supporting the labor force, the economy within a family, a community, a country and worldwide.

All though culture and religion doesn’t enable women of many countries choose their sexual behavior and care, this battle should continue in order to support their empowerment. The Indian philosopher, economist and Nobel prize Amartya Sen explains that elementary liberties show the real development of human beings and in this line the conception should be the most basic liberty any woman should have.