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second billion people, yet it took just thirteen years, from as much as other problems which stem from overpopula-
1974 to 1987, to produce the fifth billion (UN Population tion such as the environment, AIDS, and lung cancer.
Division). There are three more people in the United States
every second with nine births and three deaths every two Children and adults are well informed on how to help the
seconds (Universal Almanac, 173). environment, how to avoid AIDS, and that smoking is bad
for their health. But they are not well informed about all
In 1960 Europe was the most densely populated continent. of the problems of overpopulation. Overpopulation informa-
By 1991 Asia surpassed Europe's denseness with 176 per- tion needs to be more widespread than it currently is. This
sons per square mile while Europe only had 168 persons per can be reasonably achieved with information in TV seg-
square mile. If the population continues to grow at current ments and in science and social studies classes for students.
rates with no further decline (a highly unlikely scenario),
there will be 694 billion people on the Earth by 2150 .Reli- Successful steps have been made in fighting the problem.
gious opposition to controlled population is also a crucial The first step, recognizing the problem, was reached by
factor. The official stand is against any birth control what- Thomas Malthus with An Essay on the Principle of Popula-
soever. They believe God should plan families. tion in 1798. Malthus pointed out that population tends to
grow at an exponential rate while the food production grows
The Chinese government has been able to control popula- at a geometric rate. Thus population growth must be
tion by creating economic incentives for families with one checked. He mentioned "positive checks" such as war, fam-
child. With 1/5 of the world's population and only 7% of the ine, and disease, and "preventative checks" such as celibacy
land, population checks were badly needed. Population and contraception ("Population," Encarta).
control was achieved using education, government propa-
ganda, and community pressures. For instance, a couple In 1968 Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich wrote 'The Popula-
promising to have only one child receives a one-time reward tion Bomb'. They were the first to popularize how serious
of money and rice. If that child does not live to maturity, the problem had become. While incorrectly predicting short
the couple is allowed another. The child will receive a pri- term large-scale famine and plague, the book awakened
vate plot of 70 square meters of land, compared to 50 for the world to the upcoming problems.
a child in a larger family .
With an impending crisis looming over the horizon, the afore
Similar techniques could be implemented like removing the outlined steps must be followed to ease the population
tax write-off for more than 2 children. Families will not ex- problem and the many other problems which are directly
perience extreme economic hardship if the declines are related to it. When people are educated about the ben-
gradual enough. Moreover, government revenue could be efits of limiting family size, they respond with lower birth
increased. rates. Education, coupled with economic pressure, will end
the overpopulation problem and ease many of the other
Population growth is slowing as women's rights are in- problems faced by today's society.
creased. This is evident in developed nations where fewer
births occur as the woman's role in society changes. Elevat- Conclusion
ing women out of their lower-class status in many nations
will greatly aid progress. As women gain economic, politi- Human population growth is perhaps the most significant
cal, and reproductive power in today's industrialized nations, cause of the complex problems the world faces; climate
birth rates will drop dramatically and now most of western change, poverty and resource scarcity complete the list .
Europe is at or below replacement level. By 2050, the world's population will have grown by 2.7 bil-
lion to 9 billion. Most of this increase will be in Asia and
Finally, all the people of the world must be made aware of Africa, which, along with the rest of the globe, will face
the situation. The problem is not popularized in the media increased strain on already insufficient resources.
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PR COMMUNICATION AGE February 2016 21
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