Population Studies

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PD101

Introduction to population Studies

3/25/2015

Beniamino Tawake

s11110865

Assignment 1

Short essay

The world population is ever increasing every single day, and as time goes on, the growth in population that has constantly been increasing, has become somewhat of a problem turning into a national crisis for countries, a problem where existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth. However, many doomsayers who have  studied the world current death and birth rates and have foreseen a catastrophic future ahead of humanity as resources are outstripped by the continues growth rates. To prove such view, one must closely examine the aspects of death and birth rates and how it has resulted to the population growth.

Many scholars have claimed that population growth is due to the reduction in death rates and an increase in birth rates. The differences in both are the core roots of population growth. If the numbers of deaths of people within each year are the same as the number of births of children, the population is stable. But if the number of births regrettably exceeds the number of deaths, this may lead to rapid increase in population growth. This situation has become a reality due to the improvement in medical advancement. Thanks to science, many scientific discoveries were made to cure diseases and technology that enables couples to undergo fertility treatment, causing an increase in the life expectance age. It can be clearly seen in the Least Developing countries; an example is the country of Solomon. According to its census, Solomon has an equivalent 553,000 population with a natural increase of 2.7 percent of current year and a Total fertility Rate (TFR) of 4.6 among the highest in the pacific. This is mainly due to improvements in medical system. Though an improvement in the medical sector is a mile stone for this least developed Countries (LDC) which resulted to population rise, not controlling its population will lead to the trouble of becoming over populated, putting pressure over their resources.

Resources are pressured as they cannot fully cater the unlimited needs and wants of people in terms of food consumption, living space and energy. For the LDCs, the ‘Geographical smallness’ of its countries is one of the factors why resources have been predicted by Doom Sayers to be stripped causing a disastrous future for humanity. In the context of regional countries within the pacific, Kiribati is a good example. According to Ridgell (Ridgell, 1995)Kiribati consists of 35 islands with only a total land area of about 280 square miles. Its population is incredibly estimated to be 104,488 with a population growth rate of 1.18%. With the threat posed by population growth on “limited land supply” stated in the Asian Development Bank(Bank, 2009),the colonial administrations in 1950s and 1960s had recognized  the problem of land hunger due to the rise in population growth outstripping land and resources.  This is one factor which clearly shows and supports prediction of Doom Sayers. The overexploitation of these limited resources may result to more problems that quicken resources lessening. One of these problems is Climate Change.