Debate on Population Control

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Debate on Population Control Our busy 21st century world contains a great many more people than it ever has in written history. With many recent advances in medicine and more food available to less wealthy countries, our numbers continue to increase dramatically. Some consider these facts solid ground on which to eventually start using a worldwide population control policy, others point out the obvious moral questions and human right issues raised with such a dramatic debate. I personally believe we should slowly implement some policy or suggestion to slow the constant, exponential increase of our numbers on Earth before future generations are forced to resort to more drastic measures. The time to act is now, and countries such as Africa and Asia are starting to feel the strain of our possibly eminent overpopulation. Some of the more obvious problems caused by overpopulation include food shortages, pollution, increased health problems, and overall decreased quality of life. Many of the food shortages in countries such as South Africa wouldn’t be such a problem if the population didn’t continue to increase at the rate it does currently. In fact, as mentioned in the Associated Press (AP) article “Population growth in wealthy countries stopped,” On a recent Question Time programme an audience member put a question about Jonathon Porritt's recommendation that parents have no more than two children in order to help limit world population. Pretty uniformly the panel members made fun of the idea, misconstruing Porrit's proposal as some kind of nightmarish state policing or euthanasia programme. Yet there are good reasons for arguing that a stabilisation or gradual reduction in population would be the best way to address the carbon emissions problem. Calculations have been made that any given land mass has a certain carrying capacity, based on its ability to support its
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