In this thread you can discuss issues pertaining to population that we are covering this week: Migration, Settlement Patterns, Urbanization, Refugees. As a starting point, what patterns are emerging here in North America? How do they pose issues on either the local or global level? What sort of issues does urbanization pose in the developed and the developing world? What issues do we see here locally, provincially, nationwide?
It's no myth that our world is becoming overpopulated, but the problem doesn't lie in North America. In Canada, we are decreasing in population due to our fertility rate being much lower than our replacement rate, 1.5:2.1. (1) Even America is just under their replacement rate with a fertility rate of 1.8 (2). From what I have gathered, most urbanized countries have no issues with overpopulation, it is the developing countries that pose the problem.
ReplyDeleteThe 5 countries with the highest fertility rates as of 2014 are Niger, Mali, Burundi, Somalia, and Uganda, all with a total fertility rate of about 6 (3), & all of which are located in Subsaharan Africa. These countries, unlike our own, are far less educated on birth control, and most women are unable to even attend school. I believe it's this difference in education that causes the higher fertility rates in these countries, combined with other factors such as difficultly accessing proper health care which leads to a higher possibility of infant mortality. Other countries that are becoming overpopulated include many other subsaharan countries, and eastern countries like India and Bangladesh. Not only is this overpopulation a problem for the future, but it is the root cause of many problems such as poverty in these areas.
This increase in population will cause a huge overpopulation problem, not only in the developing regions, but in places like North America and the rest of the world as well. Studies show that developing nations are rapidly urbanizing, with an estimated 5 billion people from developing nations living in urban settings by the year 2050 (4). This will subsequently cause a huge strain on the earth's natural resources, and probably ruin what little of this environment we have to spare.
Another problem, or possible benefit, that the rise in population could cause is the rise of migration from developing nations to North America. Since there won't be many opportunities in their own countries, many of these immigrants choose to come to Canada and America, where there are many more opportunities and freedoms for them, and since our birth rate is so low we are in greater need of young people to live here. Personally, I like the idea of more multiculturalism within our country, I think immigrants can greatly benefit our country. Though this migration could cause a problem of overpopulation within urban North American settings, which could be a major setback.
It's crucial that something be done in the case of overpopulation. We could be sending ourselves into our own destruction. I think what we should be doing is instead of educating the already largely educated public of North America, we should be spending more effort educating less developed nations, especially on the benefits of birth control. This way we can decrease the amount of children per woman in these countries, and allow them to thrive and develop as nations.
Works Cited
(1) http://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/Birth_Rates_e.htm
(2) http://www.overpopulation.org/USpopulation.html
(3) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html
(4) http://esa.un.org/unup/pdf/WUP2011_Highlights.pdf
thanks, Graham. I agree.
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