Energy Resources And Population Growth

The world has gone through an enormous change in the last one hundred years or so. The discovery of coal and then oil and the development of products based on them has changed life beyond recognition.

We have products, transportation and services that would have been unimaginable even a hundred years ago. The growth of business, industry and financial services has become normal and even routine but this is not sustainable and it will come crashing down maybe in ten years, maybe twenty but almost certainly within fifty years and the better we are prepared for those changes the better we will survive the enormous upheavel it will generate.

There are many arguments made for and against global warming. Many passionate environmentalists argue for reduction in consumption and greater use of renewable resources. Many people who claim global waming is a myth will claim it is all a plot to increase taxes on carbon and raise more money for various global businesses.

The truth is it doesn't matter whether you believe in global warming or not. It almost doesn't matter if it is happening or not. Whatever the results, or not, of global warming, we are running out of the materials we use every day and the world we know is going to change enormously over the next 50 years regardless of what the climate is doing.

Our world and local populations are growing at unsustainable levels and whatever we do that will be a huge and unsatisfiable demand on the resources of the world. Whether you look at oil, gas and coal or you choose to look at food supplies or even drinking water supplies, the world population is growing faster than supply can grow and it is sure to lead to disaster for many people.

There are no easy choices or easy solutions to the problem of population growth. A few countries have made some attempt to halt the growth in population. China had a policy of only allowing one child per couple. A drastic step that left many couples unhappy either to only have just one child or that they wanted a son, or a daughter, and they only had a child of the other sex. Maybe we should just say they should be thankful to have any child at all as there are many people who are unable to have children who would love any child at all.

Perhaps the saddest example of problems with this approach is the single child families who have lost their one child to accident or illness and are left with no child at all and perhaps with no opportunity to have one. Such situations are tragic but this is a subject we all need to think about and this may be the only solution where there is a degree of fairness about restricting population growth.

Many people think of this problem of over population as a foreign problem. One that applies to the worlds poorest countries and not us. The truth of the matter is that one child in the western world consumes in it's lifetime around eight times the resources of a child in a poor nation.

If we look at this from the other direction, on the basis of fair use of resources around the world it would be fair for a couple in a poor nation to have eight children but restrict us in the West to just having one. That ignores local surpluses and shortages but it is a fact.

It is an uncomfortable fact to face but the Earth cannot support the growth in human population. It doesn't matter how many scientific discoveries are made or how much we can improve food growing techniques and water supply and collection. There is simply not enough room on the planet Earth if we continue to increase the number of people on the planet at the present rate.

If we do not take action then action will happen by itself. Wars will kill many millions, disease and famine will kill millions more. It is human nature to try to survive and when one group don't have enough to live on they will try to take it from others. When some are short of food and clean water they will succumb to disease and famine. The conclusion is inescapable.

If we continue to enjoy good health and lifestyles and if we continue to have more children than parents the world population will continue to grow. Good health care means we live longer and avoid plagues and dying through lack of medical care. All these things are good while the world population is small enough for the resources of the world to supply our needs but as the population continues to grow stress lines will occur and the world will be a much more difficult place to survive in.

Throughout human history as we expanded and grew our populations we moved elsewhere and found new areas of the globe to develop an explore for new resources and space to build farms, homes and businesses. There are very few unexplored regions of the world. If you want to find more space now you need to take over somebody else's country and wipe out their population. We do not consider that an acceptable choice and we certainly wouldn't want that to happen to us. This means we have to make better use of the space and resources we have but they are limited and they will run out sooner or later.

If things carry on as they are the population will double in around 70 years. Another 70 years and it will have doubled once again. That's four times the population we have now and that is the USA. Other countries may grow their populations even faster.

If we ignore the problem then our grandchildren will suffer terrible problems of crime, war, disease and starvation. We simply cannot continue as we are doing now because it leads to certain disaster within a couple of hundred years.

We have to start thinking about this problem and finding an acceptable solution before circumstances force a very unacceptable situation upon us.

Check the facts on:-

world population growth

US Population growth

Overpopulation

Oil Reserves

Oil Usage Rate

World Food Supply

World Water Supply