Extra Credit

Topic "Devise a way to explain the population situation (problem, crisis, or status) to your classmates (the ones in our class) in such a way that a) they can understand how many people we're talking about adding each year, decade, etc.) and then propose a course of action to address the problem that you could actually contribute to. (You don't have to be able to implement it by yourself, but you do have to be able to make some kind of positive change."

All estimates of the earth's carrying capacity and rate of growth for the population size are merely estimations. We do not know for certain what the population will be in the future or what the earth can and can't handle. It is a fact that the earth's human population has grown immensely over history because of better medical technologies, better nutrition, fertility clinics, and other factors. Some people even claim that human population growth is has been increasing exponentially. On the other hand, some nations like Japan and England are fretting about the rapid decline in their human birth rates. Women are relying more and more on effective birth control methods when they are young or using medical technologies to abort pregnancies that are not desired, delaying marriage and motherhood, or choosing to remain childless altogether. In other nations, war and disease is driving death rates higher than the birth rates. Leading to a declining population size in those regions. For example, in South Africa according the the CIA world fact book website the population size is in decline because of the high HIV rates of mortality according to 2007 estimates.

While sites like www.overpopulation.net warn us of doom and gloom (while also saying that the world population will have a net growth of zero at some point before by 2030) others like this one, calmly refute the panicked concerns with logic and realistic optimism.

Because of all of these factors, it is impossible to know what the future holds for earth and the human growth rate other than the fact that humans, regardless of the number of them, need to manage our natural resources with care.

In the meantime, I propose a few simple changes to make sure that things don't get out of hand. I do not support programs like the VHEMT because, to be honest, I rather like humanity and don't want it to die out and because I think that the least educated people on the planet would never go for it. While some anti-human intellectual-wanna-bes might make themselves voluntarily extinct, the planet (and the rest of us) would be left dealing with masses of idiots that don't seem understand the concept of birth control and not having more kids than you can afford to support.

What I propose is simply this. Educate the masses about birth control and provide effective, user friendly, methods of birth control to everyone. That way, we don't get as many stupid people reproducing and raising their kids up like idiots too. Meanwhile increase environmental awareness and conservation/preservation efforts.

I think that China's one child law is far too extreme and troublesome for world-wide implementation. However, I would ask for all the 35+ women out there just now deciding that they want kids to adopt them rather than going to a fertility clinic and ending up with 7 or more at a time and most of them having health problems because of people forcing a pregnancy after the biological clock has already started saying "no."

Actually, let's increase adoption rates while decreasing use of fertility clinics for all ages of women. There are plenty of adoptable children to go around if people would be more willing to adopt more than just newborns. I think that women who justify using medical technology to have children at ridiculous ages like 60+ and claim that they are just trying to enlighten middle aged women about their fertility options are being reckless and greedy. They're making children like candy or like something to be collected for entertainment. It isn't fair, in my opinion, to the kids who are going to have parents older than dirt and likely ailing, just as they are entering adulthood (in this case, when the children are 18, the mother will be nearly 80). Reducing some of the paper work and red tape surrounding many current adoption agencies might be beneficial to encourage adoptions. Meanwhile, I think that families like the Dugger family in Arkansas (the mother is now expecting her 17th child) are nuts and that they are probably hurting their children in the long run. (So what if she doesn't believe in the pill for religious reasons, she could stopping having sex or get her tubes tied or use condoms or get her husband "snipped"... ) Her kids have very little normal social contact with other people outside their family on a day to day basis when compared to your average family in part to their size, homeschooling, and the fact that they even have church at home. The older children end up acting like additional parents to their many siblings. Shouldn't kids have social contacts outside of the home and have the freedom to be children themselves without being a 24/7 babysitter?

While I don't think that limits should be placed on how many children a woman can legally have, (my parents came from large families that lived in the country, but that was also 50 years ago...) moderation should be encouraged.

Personally, I hope to have about 2. Why? Because I was an only child (which I enjoyed) but I think a sibling would have been good in the long run, whereas my boyfriend is the oldest of 3 and swears that that was too many (the youngest was conceived when his mom was older and has health, emotional and mental disorders as a result). Logically, then, if 1 is too few and 3 is too many then 2 would be practically ideal. I'm not the only one with that logic. My mom is 3rd out of 6 kids, while my dad is 4th out of 5. They both come from loving families and, usually, everyone gets along. But none of my aunts and uncles have had more than 4 children. Most of them only have 1-3. Clearly, they thought that downsizing would be best for their own families.

In review:

Take better care of the planet.
Stop forcing births beyond what is natural.
Promote adoption and birth control.
Encourage moderation.