Our
changing world - for better or worse? - Part 1 - Population
Some
facts to consider:
-
It is estimated that in
1999 the population of the earth reached 6 billion people
-
Every second five
people are born and two die net gain of three people per second.
-
It took all of human
history estimated to go back to 10000 years to reach a population of 1
billion people in the year 1800. Then in the next 130 years reached 2
billion. Next 30 years reached 3 billion. Next 15 years reached 4
billion. Next 12 years reached 4 billion. Next 12 years reached 6
billion. We have now reached the point of exponential growth. At this
rate the population is doubling every 40 years.
- The increase in the
population is not related to more births but in an unprecedented
decrease in the death rate. In essence the lowering of the infant
mortality rate, famine related successes as well as significant
advancements in public health and medicine.
Population growth in the
world is an amazing thing. We as a race have made some amazing advancements
and developed some successful strategies, which result in the slow down of
the death rate. As the statistics show this is now causing the worlds
population to increase at a rate never seen before in our history. What does
all this mean for quality of life? This makes us consider what the term
quality of life is all about. Clearly someone in a developed country would
produce a definition of quol that would be very different to that of someone
in a country where the basics such as water, food and shelter are hard to
come by. But who really has a better quality of life?
It is clear that the
population growth is having an ever increasing impact on the globe the
place in which we live. For every person that will tell you an impending
disaster is approaching you will have one to provide a sound argument as to
why it is simply not a problem. I think intuitively we have a feeling that
it just does not make sense. We know in our simplistic view of it the
analogy of having the people living in your house increase from 4 to 20
would absolutely result in some major affects. This sounds very simplistic
but in essence it is what is happening to the earth.
However there is a fear of admitting to it, especially if this means
that we may need to go without or make significant changes in our life.
Change and man do not go hand in hand easily as history has shown. If we
produced a magic wand that dealt with the exponential growth of our
population tomorrow you can well imagine the impacts that it would have. The
environmentalists would see it as nothing short of a godsend, however
governments and the business community in general would possibly have a
different view of it all. Who would there be to BUY everything that is being
produced? Could everyone expect to have ever increasing levels of growth or
will this just grind to a halt? The result would not be clear but it certainly
will have a major impact.
Governments and businesses
alike place a great deal of importance and a preoccupation on the term
growth. By this how much more did we do this year compared to last year.
This seems to be one of the key measurements to determine health in an
economy be it a countries or a micro economy within the local corner shop.
This obsession with doing more and more for less in a shorter time has an
inevitable and I would suggest not such a desirable conclusion. Quol is has
very much been affected by this one concept as all attempt to get their
piece of the more.
By Robyn Antonelli,
quolkids.com
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