Population
Growth: Does It Even Exist?
Introduction
Population growth is not a new phenomenon. Since the day
humans walked the earth, the human population has increased every year. Some
areas of the world have seen a decreasing population, but that is not true of
the world as a hole. Especially since the baby boomer era, which occurred just
after World War II ended, even the rate at which the population is growing has
grown. Our planet earth can only hold so many people sustainably, and it is blatantly
obvious that we have reached that limit, otherwise known as carrying capacity.
Environmentalists all over the world have contributed their two cents on the
matter. One whose opinion particularly stands out is that of Derrick Jensen who
described carrying capacity as the number of any given species who could live
in a particular place forever without harming it.” With all of the
non-renewable sources, and even the renewable sources, being depleted, it has
become painfully clear that we are no longer living sustainably on this planet.
This issue has been happening for years now and it is clear that there is no
clear-cut way to counter this, or we would have done something about it by now.
It is especially hard to find a way to counter the growth when a portion of the
population doesn’t believe it is even an issue. However, the majority of the
population does recognize that population growth is, in face, a real problems.
Some people have even started coming up with potential solutions including
educating the public and raising awareness about the matter, providing more
birth control services to women, and improved family planning services across
the board.
Theoretical
Frame
This essay is centered on whether or not people believe
population growth is actually real or not. My theory is that most people who
believe it is real are (1) more educated than those who don’t, and (2) they are
taking steps (be it directly or indirectly) to at the very least retarded the
rate at which the population is growing. My theory also takes into account the
people who believe population growth is a myth. The people who don’t believe
population growth is happening are mostly uneducated people who don’t take any
steps to try to slow down population growth and, by default, contribute to the
growing population. Delaying population growth would require people to go out
of their way to do an extra little something or other on a regular basis, be it
go out and get a prescription for birth control, or go out to buy a pack of
condoms, or go out and get educated on population growth itself. Whatever it
is, it requires an extra effort on a person’s part to contribute to the slowing
down of population growth. The fact of the matter is that usually, people aren’t
inclined to solving problems that aren’t “in your face” problems. While
population isn’t an in your face problem right now, it will be one day, and
that day is getting closer and closer. Population growth isn’t a concern that
you can’t necessarily point a finger at, but that doesn’t mean the generations
of today should leave a downward-spiraling problem for the generations of
tomorrow.
Data
Collection/Analysis
In order to validate the claim I made earlier in this
essay, I created an administered a survey open to people (that I know) of all
ages. Some of the results help to give me insight on this topic to help me
formulate a better theory in the future. The survey consisted of ten questions,
some of which were yes or no questions, and some of which were open-ended. The
survey required survey-takers to (more or less) identify themselves in order
for me to get a better feel of who was taking the survey.
The first few questions were general questions such as
are you male or female, what age range are you in, what your ethnicity is, and
what level of education have you achieved. So far, about 80% of the survey
takers were female and 80% of the survey takers were in the 18-20 years old age
range. That is not to say that all the females who took part in this survey are
18-20 years old; it simply indicates that 80% of all survey takers were in that
age range. About 63% of the people taking the survey were currently enrolled in
college, and 26% were high school degree or below. About 9% of survey takers
had degrees. Approximately 85% of the people who partook in the survey were
white and only about 4% were black and another 4% Asian.
The next several questions were more personal, with a
couple of them geared specifically towards women. One of the survey questions
that was geared towards the female population asked whether or not they were on
birth control. Of the 38 women who took the survey, 26 of them were on birth
control. Of the 26 women who were on birth control, 16 of them believed that
two people should be married before having kids. My theoretical claim was that
people who are aware of population growth are directly or indirectly doing
something to slow it down. Getting married before having kids requires a level
of family planning, which is indirectly going to slow down the rate of
population growth, thereby supporting my theoretical claim. Of the 26 women who
were on birth control, 7 of them answered “other” to the question inquiring
about whether or not people should be married before having kids. Some of the
women who answered other elaborated on their response, most of them adding that
it was “preferable, but not necessary.” Some women added that as long as they
were aware of the responsibilities that come with having a child or were in a
stable relationship, marriage was not necessary.
Notably,
of the 38 women who took the survey, 12 were not currently on any birth control
medication. Of the dozen, half believed that people should be married before
having kids. At first, this was surprising because it seems the norm that if a woman
is waiting to be married to have kids, she would be taking contraceptives. What
my survey did not inquire about that could have potentially made this statistic
more clear was whether or not the 12 women who were on birth control were
sexually active. If they aren’t, then it seems obvious that there would be no
need for them to be on birth control (unless it was for other reasons such as
cramps or regulating her period).
Another
one of the questions in the survey asked survey takers to answer the question
of whether or not population growth was real. Of the 44 people who partook in
the survey, 36 of them believed that population growth was real. The subsequent
question then asked for a potential solution to population growth. The majority
of the people who responded “yes” believed that education was a potential
solution. Overall, this supports my theoretical claim that education does play
a fairly large role in population growth. Other answers to the ‘potential
solutions’ question include having children at an older age which would require
family planning (family planning does not necessarily mean two parents, a family
can be a single parent and a kid), required birth control for teenagers,
cheaper and better access to birth control, incentives for less births, or
limiting births outright. Two of the survey takers believed there was no
concrete solution to the matter.
