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Americans seem to have a fascination with parents of multiples these days.
We have TV shows about people with 18 kids going on 19 (or is it 20 now), parents with eight kids and those with 10 kids. We’re still seeing news coverage about the octomom.
It seems we can’t get enough.
All of these multiples, in large part, stem from the growing number of people using fertility drugs in order to conceive and have kids. These drugs can cause pregnancies of multiples.
Unfortunately, not many people think about how human population growth can have a disastrous impact on our planet.
The human population is multiplying at an alarming rate. Population Connection - an organization working to educate people to stabilize world human population growth - uses the United Nations projection that the global population could be as high as 11 billion in 2050.
This puts a substantial drain on Earth’s resources that include:
- animal species extinction
- lack of food and water resources
- shortage of living space
The earth’s resources will be in even more demand if global climate scientists are correct in the predictions that our ice sheets are melting at a far greater rate than first stated, and we could see major and catastrophic climate changes sooner than we thought.
In April of this year the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) released survey findings that found overpopulation to be the number one problem to our environment.
Charles Hall, a systems ecologist at ESF, stated “Overpopulation is the only problem.” Without the human population explosion, most of our current environmental distress would not be an issue.
Couple this with other studies that find our developed countries and communities across the world account for the majority of energy and environmental consumption. We are not headed in the right direction when we decide to have a large number of children.
Why do we worry about the overpopulation of deer, wolves and other animal species to the point of killing them to control their population growth, yet we don’t even think about the effects our explosive growth has on the planet?
Wanting a large family and having a lot of kids crosses party, race, religion, financial and social lines. There are many naturalist and environmentally conscious parents who want and do have a lot of kids.
It must be hard-wired in our DNA to propagate the species to the point of compulsion.
If this is the case, we really need to evolve past this. We are way too successful as a species and we are taking over every nook and cranny of the planet at an alarming rate. And despite what many people believe, this is not a good thing.
Instead of four, six or ten kids, consider having one or two. Or hey! Why not adopt instead?
Click here to learn more about your Carbon Footprint.
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Garrett Hardin wrote some controversial papers on population growth. One thing I remember reading of his, in which he was citing some points Charles Darwin had made, was about how the problem with regulating population growth was that all of the educated people would abide, having two or fewer children per couple, but the uneducated would continue having more and more children, thus the “smart” gene would eventually be weeded out and the uneducated, have-lots-of-children gene would be selected for. This is a pretty bold statement, but something to think about.
Allison, that is a very bold statement, indeed.
I think being uneducated is a social problem and not a genetic one.
I also think educating everyone on population growth is key - rich, poor, educated and uneducated. It really needs to be like a social norm.
Finally, having ready access to family planning resources is also key to help solve this problem.
Thanks for your comment!