Introduction
‘The population bomb’ is the book published in 1968 by Paul and Anne Ehrlich. It has made the difference in minds of a vast number of people regarding the supply production issues, the overpopulation, ecological threats, and ability of the Earth to supply billions of people with food and water, etcetera. (Ehrlich) In fifty years the revisited version has been issued, which compiled the significance of the previous study, its strengths and weaknesses, results and future prospects. According to the revisited version, the ‘Population Bomb’ has shown its prospects and remains the vivid sample of the global threats the mankind might face in the nearest future. Nonetheless, there are plenty of counter arguments regarding the discussed problems. In this regard, it is vital to mention that ‘Population bomb’ is not only the collection of future threats and warnings for the mankind, but also the main force of technological, agricultural and ecological development. Consequently, the main argument of the essay is that the fastened development of technology, provision, occurrence of the green revolution as the solution for the predicted food crisis, creation of new eco-friendly systems that are still being developed force overcoming the issues with overpopulation.
The main threat that has been raised in the book is that Earth cannot supply all the living people with the needed provision and as the population grows from year to year, the amount of food would be shortened equally. Nonetheless, with the development of the green revolution, that allows people to harvest food with help of specially selected pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, involvement of new technologies, the amount of harvested food increased three times in 2009 compared with its level in 1961, while the population increased in two times only. (Lam) According to these results it is easy to conclude that involvement of new technologies and science allows to produce and harvest different sorts of food and supply vast amounts of people with the provision throughout the world. The green revolution has established new approaches and solutions for famine. Surely, people use Earth resources to harvest food and with increase of the population, the amount of territories for farming will decrease, however, new findings and technological solutions would help in order to overcome these obstacles. The ‘Population bomb’ also mentions the consumption issue that exists all over the world and particularly in the United States. Truly, with the population of 5% of the world, citizens of the United States consume the quarter of the Earth resources, which means that the amount of used resources by a person in the United States equals to the amount of 13 Chinese or 31 Indians, for example. (“Consumption by the United States”) In this regard, there is a serious issue of over wasting products and inability to spread them efficiently among people throughout the world. Talking about the food crisis, it is vital to mention that some of the countries still face starvation and lack of the supply of the clean water, however, with the help of technology, community, aid from the side of global politicians, this issue can be resolved.
Another interesting argument that authors have mentioned is that people should reduce birthrates, in this regard, provide more educational programs and opportunities for girls, information regarding contraception and spread the data about abortion as one of the solutions for the unwanted pregnancy. Come to think of it, such approaches have its ground basis and would be valuable for the mankind in the future as the Earth populations grow from day to day. Nevertheless, having a closer look into the issue helps to reveal other facts that should be taken into account while reducing the birthrates: according to Zong and Batalova (2016) in 1970 the population of immigrants in the United States was 5 percent – 9.6 million people, while in 2014 there were 42.4 million, or 13.3 percent. It means that the population of the immigrants in the United States increased 4 times comparing with the year 1970. The overall population was 205.05 in 1970 compared with 317.68 in 2014. (“US Population by Year”) It means that the overall population did not multiply even 2 times compared with the immigrant population. In this regard, it is rather important not to slow down the birth rates of the American population as it also might have a long lasting threat to the demographic issues and issues with emigrants. On the contrary, programs regarding the newborns should be supported at the governmental level. In addition to this, it is vital to mention that, in the United States the birthrates are not oversized, according to the statistics, the average birthrate per woman in America is 1.9 children, while the number is over 4 children in such countries as Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, Tanzania, Somalia, Senegal, Liberia, Iraq, Guinea, Afghanistan etcetera in the period on 2011 – 2015. ("Fertility Rate, Total (births per Woman)"). In this regard it is necessary to find the solution for the issue of overpopulation globally, not focusing on one country. In case the United States lower the birthrates, it does not mean that the issue of the overpopulation will be solved as in plenty of other countries the birthrates are twice higher and does not seem to reduce with time. In such case, it is vivid that more educational opportunities and spread of the contraceptives can be implemented in the countries with high birthrates as well.
Another aspect that has been addressed by the authors was the environmental issues. Global warming is a worldwide threat that has been studied and a lot of catastrophes and disasters were predicted according to its findings. Nonetheless, the author’s prediction regarding the overpopulation and lack of food has vanished with the appearance of the green revolution, which basically means that with the help of science and new technologies the mankind can find the solution to the existing problem of the global warming too. As an example, there are many programs launched throughout the world in order to reduce the use of atomic energy, thus to prevent environmental crisis. Throughout the last few decades, the sulfure dioxide emissions (cause of acid rains) decreased by half compared with 1970 with help of lover sulfure coal and new technologies. (Lam) Moreover, there has been a sharp reduction of chlorofluorocarbons, which caused holes in the ozone layer. (Lam) New technologies have been presented to the public, moreover, people are encouraged to use them because of the economy and convenience: electro mobiles, production of energy using wind and solar power, recycling programs, etcetera. Such implementations would make it easier to deal with the future climate change and threads that people encounter every day. In addition, one can help with reusing thing, planting trees, riding bike instead of a car with a petrol, saving lights and clean water, etcetera.
Issues mentioned in the ‘Population bomb’ remain actual till now. There are many debates regarding the predictions of the revisited version and the original one, however, it is vivid that mankind can overcome the future obstacles that are met on the way for the human life and development. Particularly, it has been shown in the recent decades by such factors: economic (marketing responses (farmers harvest more food if its price is high), globalization, and innovation). (Lam) Such economic changes have led to the simplified and more convenient model of business and provision supplies that have contributed to the survival of multiplied population, compared with previous fifty years. Another key component of successful survival on the planet was the demographic factor: urbanization which helped people to consolidate actions and efforts directed at the safety of the planet and the mankind, decline of fertility in many countries by the investment in children, new educational programs and opportunities. (Lam)
Conclusion
Works Cited
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Zong, Jie, and Jeanne Batalova. "Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States." Migrationpolicy.org. 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2016. <http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states/>.
