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Population Growth in Perspective Essays

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Population Growth in Perspective

Introduction

To anyone even remotely acquainted with the situation, the ever-expanding world population can easily be a cause of grave concern. Indeed, the simple realization that the total world population will most likely be doubling within the next century may seem to imply catastrophe. Considering the strain our current huge population puts on the world, is it not natural to presume that two times our number will spell disaster? While this is the view held by many prominent voices, there also is a less-noticed group of people who contend that the resiliency of the earth and the ingenuity of its people will keep the planet a decent place to live.

In this paper, I attempt to critically examine …show more content…

Generally, people have operated under the assumption that the world was (or was on its way to being) overpopulated.

I began my research in this topic with the same outlook. I initially wanted to research overpopulation because I was deeply concerned with its implications. I wanted to understand the causes of population growth and to learn what might be done to ameliorate the problem. Soon into the research, however, I happened upon pieces of literature opposing the idea of an overpopulation crisis and immediately respected certain aspects of their arguments. Quickly, I was forced to change the scope of my question from "what will be the consequences of overpopulation?" to "what exactly does overpopulation mean?" and "does an overpopulation problem even exist?".

History of Population Crises

The seed of my doubt that an overpopulation crisis was imminent was planted when I began to examine the historical record of population concerns. As a history major, I have at least some respect for patterns in history. While I recognize that new things can emerge, often a current event is a variant on an earlier expressed theme.

Regarding population, the first documented concerns over population size date from a Babylonian epic from 1600 BC (Cohen, 1995). More writings on the topic across the globe have continued since then, themselves probably increasing at a rate faster than the

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