Population Growth Data

Population growth is a major concern for environmental sustainability. As the number of persons who compete for the same scarce resources increases, the greater is its toll on the environment. As the HSZ book suggests, it is hard to determine when we would reach a tipping point for there are various and uncertain factors to take into consideration to be able to forecast that moment, event, or statistic which could be considered as “the end of the cliff.” However, it is my view that when it comes to the issue of population, we have long reached the tipping point, especially in the developing and undeveloped countries, where reproductive education is very behind or even nonexistent. This lack of education coupled with the religious stigma against population control lead to disastrous effects, as more and more people reproduce without thinking of the consequences it brings to the environment. In the Philippines for example, the Reproductive Health Bill, which is long needed by the country, is met with criticisms and outright rejection by the Catholic Church for being “immoral” and “anti-life.” The Philippines in 2008 reached the total population of 90.35 million, with the annual population growth rate of 1.82% (http://datafinder.worldbank.org/annual-population-growth-rate). The Philippine National Statistics Office estimated a growth of more that 1 million people in the past 7 years in Metro Manila alone (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/metro/view/20080107-110769/Metro_Manila_population). In Asia, the estimated population in mid-2009 was 4,117,435,000 (http://www.prb.org/Datafinder/Geography/MultiCompare.aspx?variables=109&regions=115), while the world population in 2008 was 6,692,030,277 with a growth rate of 1.17% (http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_pop_grow&tdim=true&q=world+population+growth+statistics). In addition, the United Nations estimated a growth of worldwide population to 9.1 billion by 2050, which would mostly take place in less developed regions (http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/pop918.doc.htm). These numbers are staggering, considering that the ecological footprint of one person alone already has an adverse and perhaps even permanent inerasable effect to the environment. We have already reached the tipping point considering the exponential growth of population and how the resources could no longer keep up with this growth. This is evidenced by the worldwide hunger and poverty and lack of the most basic needs of millions of people. Although the unequal and ineffective distribution of the world’s resources also contributes to these problems, it is undeniable that the uncontrolled growth in population is the main reason why there is simply not enough of such resources to satisfy each and every person. The issue of population should be addressed as one of the most important causes of environmental degradation.