Technology Is the Solution to Overpopulation

applied science is the Solution to Over cosmos About ten years ago while in a science m delectationum, I saw a counter that estimated what the world commonwealth was at that given moment. Innocuous at rootage glance, since a go in excess of five billion is difficult to comprehend, what became alarming after ceremony the counter for a minute was the continual plus in the population. Thinking about the circumstances cogitate to the population rise logic every last(predicate)y made the problem seem apparent. The earth is finite both in terms of physical size and in resources nevertheless the population is growing towards an infinite value.At some layoer the steadily rising population pass on feign from being a problem that is geographically contrasted to one that is immediate and more salient than just an increasing value on a faceless counter. This problem of population harvest-tide leads to a number of solutions that could turn out significant implications on the note of life. winning no action and allowing population to grow unchecked could possibly risk the entire human species if solid food or clean water were to become unavailable worldwide.Aiming for zero population growth would in surmisal carry the existing quality of life since a stable population would not increase their use of resources. However not all resources are renewable, so scarcities could still occur with a fixed population size. In an extreme case permanent resource depletion under zero population growth could have the same extinction effect that unchecked growth can lead to. Despite the escalating risk of unchecked population growth, technological advances necessitated by the increase in population will at least maintain the quality of life and could possibly improve conditions.Southwick in Global Ecology in Human horizon says that human population has increased geometrically everyplace the past two millennia. With a high number of mint in their reproductive age the po tential for related growth is likely. Southwick says that scientists think the world population has increased far beyond an optimal size of one to two billion. The optimal population comes from a standard of middle class quality of life. A more critical analysis of population growth relates it to a cancer in an organism.Despite the level of pessimism on population growth, future research needs to be conducted with a more objective viewpoint to counteract cultural and emotional origins (Southwick, 1996). With the likelihood that population will continue to increase when considering Southwicks observation that many people able to reproduce, the population will continue to move further from its optimal size. This deviation implies that the quality of life must be decreasing for many. In reality this decline has not happened. As discussed in class, increased agricultural yields have allowed for a bigger population to be adequately supported.Even with the increased amount of food, South wick says that 20 percent of the world population is feed (1996). More food may be available but it still is not being distributed to all of those who need it. The lack of rapid worldwide transport of all goods including food may appear to be a hindrance to head-being but this disconnection between locations may provide an important well upness safeguard. Diseases are another negative factor to human population growth and some highly ancestral fatal diseases can risk human extinction.A virus can only spread if it can play someone else to contaminate before it kills the carrier. A fatal disease that leads to death after a grand period of time increases the chance that the carrier can infect other people, in turn carry population closer to extinction. In terms of transportation, if people and goods in the world are too well connected, then a fatal disease that has the potential to lead to extinction would be able to infect many people over large area since the disease can spre ad quickly over trade routes.The World Health judicature has found that the current spread of sober Acute respiratory Syndrome or SARS is facilitated by world-wide travel and can quickly infect many people around the world. Originating in Southeast Asia, speedy transportation has turned SARS from a regional problem into an international issue (World Health Organization, 2003). To avoid the risk of mass deaths due to rapidly spreading diseases, international policymakers need to avoid the creation of a level of world interconnectedness that is too quick. A passably disconnected world may mean oods may not reach all places where in demand, but the risk of fatal diseases affecting large regions of population would be less. The ideal model of resource dispersion is to have necessities be located near areas of population. Localized resources would reduce the need for goods to travel long distances over a lengthened period of time to avoid the spread of disease. Increased levels of p opulation could live well off of added amounts of food that are nearby. This best case of locating populations near resources would be difficult to achieve in practice as resources and populations are already in fixed locations.If people were unwilling to move near where food is available it would be difficult, except in times of war and famine, to force them to relocate. A compromise solution would accept the fact that not all people of the world will be able to have a high standard of living but the potential for improved quality exists. This potential cannot be reached immediately since resources and population remain geographically separate and faster transportation would increase the spread of fatal diseases.Improvements in resource production such as increased crop yields makes it doable to support higher populations and improve the quality of life at least at a topical anesthetic level. References Southwick, C. H. Global Ecology in Human Perspective, Chapter 15. Oxford Uni v. Press. (1996). World Health Organization Frequently Asked Questions on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Communicable Disease Surveillance & Response (CSR), March 24. (2003). World Health Organization . Retrieved March 29, 2004.