• Question: How do we solve the population problem?

    Asked by Aria to Paul, MarthaNari, Jonny, Hannah, Alison on 18 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Paul Brack

      Paul Brack answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      This is a difficult one. After all, we can’t really stop people having children, and we can’t really stop making ill people better! Interestingly the population in Europe is actually projected to fall slightly, so the population problem is not evenly distributed. The major growth is predicted to come in China and India, so these countries will probably be worse affected. It will be very interesting to see what they choose to do about it.

    • Photo: Jonny Brooks-Bartlett

      Jonny Brooks-Bartlett answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      Some people say that the Earth can only hold a certain amount of people and that naturally us humans wont be able to keep increasing in population. Once we reach the maximum number of humans (they call the maximum number of humans the “Carrying Capacity”) we will either stay at that number or we will compete for resources like food and then the population will start to get smaller. So they say that we don’t have to do anything.

      I have to say that I’m not a fan of this argument but I admit that I don’t really have many ideas about solving the population problem.

    • Photo: Martha Havenith

      Martha Havenith answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      Hi Aria, this is indeed a difficult one. Funny enough, one of the best answers I’ve come across is this: Give people better hospitals, general health care and decent pensions! It seems that when people can be sure that their children will most likely not die of disease or hunger, and that they themselves will be secure in their old age, they decide to have fewer children. So the more people in a country can lead a good, secure life, the less crazy the growth of the population. Not sure if that’s enough but it would be a start – and people would be better off to boot.

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