Today, there are about 6 billion people in the world. Population is becoming an important problem in most countries, especially in developing countries; sometimes, even wealth countries have population problems such as suburbanization. Why do we need to worry about population problems? Because it speeds up the usage of non-renewable resources. Non-renewable resource is a natural resource that is present in limited supplies and depleted by use. It's basically a limited resource where we are extracting it from the ground faster than it can replenish itself (8). Also, population produces pollution and faces risk of disasters. For a better living standard in the future, we should learn more about population from my webpage.

Infant mortality is the most important factor determining life expectancy. What is life expectancy? It is the average number of years that a newborn baby can be expected to survive. In 1900, life expectancy in the developed world was 46 years, largely because the infant mortality rate was about 40 per 1,000. The world’s highest life expectancies are those of Japan and Iceland, where people can expect to live to age 77. As shocking as we may think the United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world (4). What may be the reason? The reason is quite simple, the quality of American health education and medical care, particularly for the poor, that’s including young unmarried mothers is worse than in most other developed countries, where national health services are the basic rule. In other developed countries, most deaths are due to respiratory and digestive tract infections. Such infections could be easily reduced without expensive medical care but because lack of clean water, nutritious food it makes impossible. The lack of these goods, as sad as it sounds only gives a life expectancy less than 45 years, especially in countries such as Africa (4).

What is a fertility rate? The general fertility rate of a population is the number of babies born to 1,000 women of reproductive age. As we may all know that high fertility rates are traditional in many cultures. Many women are motivated to have more than one baby. The reason that some women are more motivated than others to have babies depends on their culture. For example: Children in Japan are expected to take on the responsibility when they get older. The responsibilities include taking care of the household and their parents, especially the son's. So, as we could see, some women have children for various reasons that I have mentioned above. The main reason for high fertility rates is that infant and child mortality rates are high. See, in order for the society to endure it must continue to produce children who survive to reproductive age. If infant mortality rates are high than the fertility rates most be also to compensate. The reason it takes longer for the fertility rates to decrease is culture, usually changing tradition is hard. United States as a society is used to having more than one child. So, getting used to only having fewer children it will take a long time. Another reason for high fertility rates is the importance of economics and societal roles of children. In some societies children contribute toward the family by working. The work performed by these children is usually farming (8). The Highest total fertility rate for working class people is among agricultural groups in North America who have up to twelve children per women (8).

Listed below are some issues that could effect fertility rates as well as reduce them:

Education increases the probability that women will know how to control their fertility, and it provides them with knowledge to improve the health of their families, which results in a decrease in infant and child mortality. Education also increases women’s options, opening doors to other careers and ways of achieving status besides having babies. Education may have indirect effects on fertility rate, as well. Children who are educated have a greater chance of improving their living standards, partly because they have more employment opportunities. Parents who recognize this may be more willing to invest in the education of a few children than in the birth of many children whom they cannot afford to educate. The ability of better educated people to earn more money may be one of the reasons why smaller family size is associated with increased family income, although another obvious reason is that fewer children are fewer mouths to feed and, thus, are less of a drain on the family income.

Above I mentioned some methods that could control fertility, such as family planning and education. Now I would like to focus on other possible ways to control population. One of the most effective ways to control birth, thanks to technology is the use of contraceptives. Contraceptive methods are available to help people regulate their fertility. The most common methods of contraception are oral contraceptives pills.

Listed below are some forms of contraceptive methods that are 100% effective:

In addition to various methods of conception control, abortion can terminate unwanted conceptions early in pregnancy. Most countries with low birthrates, such as the United States, Japan, and many European countries, allow abortions.

Lets focus on how Emigration and Immigration, they play a big part in human population dynamics. Immigration is a controversial issue in most wealthy countries. Usually Immigrants are paid low wages and given substandard housing, poor working conditions, and few rights. Local residents often complain that immigrants take away jobs, overload social services, and ignore established rules of behavior or social values.

Some countries encourage, or even force, internal mass migrations as part of geopolitical demographic policy.

In the 1970’s, Indonesia embarked on an ambitious "transmigration" plan to move 65 million people from the overcrowded islands of Java and Bali to relatively unpopulated regions of Sumatra, Borneo, and New Guinea. Attempts to turn rainforest into farmland had disastrous environmental and social effects, however, and this plan was greatly scaled back.

In 1991, China announced intentions to move 100 million people into a pristine region along the Amur River adjoining Siberia. This is a region of great biodiversity, home to endangered Siberian tigers, cranes, and other rare species. An influx of millions of people would be a major biological catastrophe.

Since 1970, China has made impressive efforts to feed its people and bring its population growth under control. Between 1972 and 1993 China achieved a remarkable drop in its crude birth rate, from 32 to 18 per 1,000 people; and its total fertility rate dropped from 5.7 to 1.9 children per woman. Since 1985 China’s infant mortality rate has been almost one-half the rate in India. Life expectancy in China is 71 years- 12 years higher than in India. China average per capita income of $370 is similar to that in India. To achieve a sharp drop in fertility, China has established the most extensive, intrusive, and strict population control program in the world. Couples are strongly urged to postpone the age at which they marry and to have no more than one child. Married couples have ready access to free sterilization, contraceptives, and abortion. Paramedics and mobile units ensure access even in rural areas. Couples who pledge not to have more than one child are given extra food, large pensions, better housing, free medical care, and salary bonuses; their child still provides with free school tuition and with preferential treatment in employment when he or she enters the job market. Those who break the pledge lose all the benefits. All leaders are expected to set an example by limiting their own family size. The result is that 83% of married women in China are using contraception compared to only 42% in other LCD's.

These are drastic measures, but government officials realized in the 1960’s that the only alternative to strict population control was mass starvation. China is a dictatorship and thus, unlike India, has been able to impose a unified population policy from the top down. Moreover, Chinese society is fairly homogenous and has widespread common written language. India, by contrast, has over 1,600 languages and dialects and numerous religions, which makes it more difficult to educate people about family planning and to institute population regulation policies.

Most countries do want to use the coercive elements of China’s program. Coercion is not only incompatible with democratic values and notions of basic human rights but ineffective in the long run because sooner or later people resist being coerced. Other parts of this program, rather than asking the people to go to distant centers. Perhaps the best lesson that other countries can learn from China’s experiences is not to wait to curb population growth until the choice is between mass starvation and coercive measures that severely restrict human freedom.(5)

India started the world national family-planning program in 1952, population was nearly 400 million. In 1993, years of population control efforts, India world’s second most populous country, with population of 897 million. In 1952 India was adding 5 million people each year. In 1993 it added 18 numbers 49, 300 more mouths to feed each day. Future population growth is fueled by the 36% of India’s population under age 15. India’s population is projected 1.4 billion by 2025, and possibly 1.9 by the twenty-second century. India’s people are among the poorest, to add to the nearly half of India’s labor force is unemployed find only occasional work. Almost one-third present population goes hungry. Life expectancy is 59 years, and the infant morality rate is 91 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Some analysts fear that India’s already serious hunger and malnutrition problems will increase as its population continues to grow rapidly. About 40% of India’s cropland is degraded as a result of soil erosion, waterlogging, salinization, overgrazing and deforestation; and roughly 80% of the country’s land is subject to repeated droughts-often lasting two to five years.

Without its long-standing family-planning program, India’s numbers would be growing even faster. However, the results of the program have been disappointing. Factors contributing to this failure have been poor planning, bureaucratic inefficiency, the low status of women, extreme poverty, and a lack of a administrative and financial support.

For years the government has provided information about the advantages of small families; yet, Indian women still have an average of 3.9 children because most couples believe they need many children as a sources of cheap labor and old-age survival insurance. Almost one-third of Indian children die before age 5, reinforcing that belief. And although 90% of Indian couples 45% actually use one. Finally, many social and cultural norms favor large families as does the strong preferences for male children, which means that some couples will keep having children until they produce one or more boys.(6)

So what does the future hold

It is believed that world population will stabilize sometimes during the next century. The total number of humans, when we reach that equilibrium probably will be between 6 billion and 16 billion people. Although this may depend on factors such as the success of family planning program and the multitude of other factors effecting human population. To accomplish a stabilization or reduction of human populations will require substantial changes. One sign of hope is that in 1993 the Clinton administration announced that the United States would resume payments to the United Nations Family Planning Fund that had been withheld by the Regan administration. Another encouraging sign is that worldwide contraceptive has increased sharply in recent years.

Deep social changes are often require to make family planning programs successful. Among the most important of these are:

1. Improved social, educational, and economic status for women- birth control and women’s rights are often interdependent.

2. Improve status for children- fewer children are born as parents come to regard them as valued individuals rather than possessions.

3. Acceptance of calculated choice as a valid element in life in general and in fertility in particular- belief that we have no control over our lives discourages a sense of responsibility.

4. Social security and political stability that give people the means and the confidence to plan for the future.

5. Knowledge, availability, and use of effective and acceptable means of birth control.

Efforts to bring about these changes can be effective. As long as people are willing to open up to new ideas overpopulation will not occur. We have to understand that change does not happen over night, and that it takes patients and knowledge to get positive results. Just because the United States is not overpopulated it does not mean that we should not be worried, the overpopulation of other countries may as well affect problems in this country. I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to my seminar topic. Please think about these topics before Thursday's class for Discussion:

B. Why is population control important?

C. What are the roles of men and women in population control?

To get a better understanding of the discussion topics please read chapter 9 in your textbook and visit my links.

1. http://www.pop.org/
2. http://wwwformal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/notes.html - unimaginably
3. http://www.state.gov/www/global/prm/fs_population_980820.html
4. http://www.hhs.gov/progorg/opa/
5. http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/