Around the world, diverse initiatives are being introduced to manage population changes. In early 2023, India surpassed China as the most populous country in the world with the latter having 850,000 fewer people by the end of 2022—marking the country’s first population decline since famine struck from 1959 to 1961. While this reduction may seem modest considering China’s 1.4 billion population[Read More…]
The Wall Street Journal called China’s slowdown “disappointing.” But for the environment, it is welcome news. On January 17, 2023, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that the country’s population fell in 2022 by 850,000 people from 2021, which was the first population decline witnessed by the country in six decades. This has mostly resulted from low birth rates stemming from the imposition[Read More…]
In all of the news surrounding Vladimir Putin, it might have been easy to overlook that he had recently revived a Soviet-era policy called the “Mother Heroine” award, which goes to women who bear 10 or more children, offering financial incentives and other benefits in a bid to spur population growth. He is not alone, with a host of men who[Read More…]
Tomorrow, November 15, 2022, is predicted to be the day that the global population reaches eight billion. The projection is revealed in the UN’s World Population Prospects 2022 report, which also shows that India is on course to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023. The latest UN projections suggest that the world’s population could grow to[Read More…]
It’s time to rethink our broken and unfair family planning systems. July 11 was World Population Day, an observance established by the United Nations aiming to highlight population issues, particularly how the human population relates to the environment. The UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) marked the occasion by releasing its World Population Prospects 2022 report, which announced that the global human[Read More…]
The current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, according to a new United Nations report released today. The global population is expected to reach 8 billion by November 15, the UN predicts With roughly 83 million people being added to the world’s population every[Read More…]
We will soon be 8 billion on Planet Earth. Is this good news or bad, happy or sad? Well, the answer is not such a simplistic one, it is more nuanced. We can examine more than one side of various arguments. Some well-intentioned persons concerned with the present-day inability of very significant numbers of people to even meet their most[Read More…]
The second phase of data collected by National Family Health Survey-5 (2019—21) was released on November 24, 2021. The survey was conducted in two phases due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Family Health Survey — 5 was being conducted in March 2020, but had to be abruptly stopped due to COVID -19 Lockdown. Therefore, in its first phase, the[Read More…]
With the proposal of population control measures by Uttar Pradesh government prior to just six months ahead of state assembly election of 2022, a huge controversy is being erupted. Population control in India has always remained a political issue rather than a social-economical issue of the nation. The Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) draft, 2021 seems to be[Read More…]
Homo sapiens is a creature of earth, not separate from the natural world. Just as it is for other species within the web of life of earth, food is a fundamental basis of life for the human species. There are other factors that help sustain life, but food is a root cause of the growth of all species (3,4,5). Population[Read More…]
ABSTRACT Today no one is talking of controlling population any more. Fertility rates are falling all over the world and many governments are encouraging births; giving monetary support and withdrawing free contraceptives and free vasectomy operations. The new problem is that of ageing. No one is prepared to talk of decreasing the longevity. Increasing longevity has long been a marker[Read More…]
This is a condensed and modified version of a paper of mine that appeared on “The Journal of Population and Sustainability” this year. The image above is the well known “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” by Albrecht Durer – 1498. Yes, I know it is catastrophistic, but it is not my fault if biological populations do tend to collapse![Read More…]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke6UoG8WKU0 I keep reading more and more comments about overpopulation on the social media. It is not just an impression: the trend of increasing interest in population matters is visible in Google Trends. Still weak, but it is there. It is puzzling how the question is returning. It had disappeared from the media after it had been popular in the 1970s, at[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sally Dugman and Steve Salmony Steve Salmony thinks: The number of human beings on Earth was 2+ billion in the year of my birth (1945). In all of recorded human history there is no evidence to indicate that the human population was ever larger than it was then. Hundreds of thousands of years passed by without an incredible[Read More…]
One voice from the wilderness is too weak to be listened to. My voice, for example, is not clear enough, strong enough, loud enough or adequately established so as to be heard. How can any person in a position of influence among our most wealthy and powerful leaders possibly be expected to receive a ‘best available science message’ until we[Read More…]
Introduction Recently, an international assembly of scientists from 184 countries endorsed an article published in the journal Bioscience entitled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice”. As the warning states, “We are jeopardizing our future by not reining in our intense but geographically and demographically uneven material consumption and by not perceiving continued rapid population growth as a primary driver behind many[Read More…]
I thank Fowler and Hobbs for their letter (2004) and their research (2003). The view that a complexity of factors impacts human population growth certainly makes sense, and they have correctly pointed out that scientifically organized efforts to deal with human problems must take account of manifold interconnected events. Although it is necessary to recognize and acknowledge the complexities inherent[Read More…]
I met a woman around ten years ago, who told me that she would continue to have children (concerning which she already had five) since she has no intention to ever get a job. She considered the household as her providence of concern and her husband responsible for finances. She proudly added that her husband had just received his CPA[Read More…]
Everywhere along the shores of Planet Earth, endless development and the pressures of over-population continue to escalate a pitched battle among the people: It’s the Nimby’s versus the Yimby’s. So much so that this tale about what is happening on the North Shore of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada could be called The Battle of North Shore, Planet Earth. “Here’s[Read More…]
For starters, I needed housing during my stay for a week to visit my daughter in PA from my home in MA, USA while she carried out her undergraduate education southward of me. So my daughter looked for a cheap motel for me. It turns out that it was a welfare motel, a place where low income people live, something[Read More…]
The Guardian,UK. had a suggestion for the battle against climate change“Want to fight climate change.Have fewer children .” This was known already & yet, since this has been extensively researched in a scientific fashion, this makes for a few headlines. And yet, will it make us, the humans ( ? ! ) any wiser ? Highly doubtful..Weare depleting natural resources[Read More…]
A debate between father and son T.R. Malthus’ “Essay on The Principle of Population”, the first edition of which was published in 1798, was one of the the first systematic studies of the problem of population in relation to resources. Earlier discussions of the problem had been published by Boterro in Italy, Robert Wallace in England, and Benjamin[Read More…]
Of the issues which are totally ignored, for all practical purposes, there’s one that we can spotlight here which — if not addressed post haste — stands to take us over the precipice. That is that if we want to protect our environment , we must talk about population size and growth and actually do something about it.
To survive and live well we must reduce our population back to 2 billion as it was 80 years ago. Why did we allow our world population to keep growing to an unsustainable 7.4 billion, and passing on to our children the task of feeding and managing 9 billion people on a planet of degrading soils, acidifying and rising oceans[Read More…]
At the time of Jesus’ birth, the earth’s entire population was just 300 million, smaller than the U.S. by itself today. About 45 million of those people, including Jesus himself, lived in the Roman Empire, whose borders stretched in Jesus’ time from modern-day Portugal in the west to Turkey in the east. It is estimated that the population of the world reached[Read More…]
There was a small news item in the Times of India dated 3rd July, 2016.It related to Bhopal .It read , ” 3 peons breach MPs-2 child norm ,sacked.” It stated that they were removed from service at Damoh District Court as the year long enquiry determined that they had more than two children.It went to to say that more peons would[Read More…]
We must assess the consequences of our lifestyle on the planet’s declining liveability, as we already have a rising chemical imbalance in the biosphere which impairs life’s ability to control its climate. Furthermore, we’re expecting 9 billion people within thirty odd years; this, in a world of depleting organic and inorganic resources, rising sea levels, and increasing temperatures, that will[Read More…]
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My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
