What is Being Done by the Global Community?
The population issue has been becoming very dominant in the worlds politics and demographics discussion. Realizations, predictions, and solutions are being planned and made due to the drastic change regarding increase in world population. Statistics show that if the trend continues at this rate, the world's resources will not be able to accommodate this many people unless changes are made to the general global food and agriculture system. Agreed upon by many, the world is beginning to bear a load that will be extremely hard to handle. Panic has not yet arisen, however plans of elucidation are being established. Also agreed upon by many, the first step to solving this international issue is raising awareness. Awareness and consciousness are essential to the recovery of the overpopulated world because without this background, most people would not even be educated about the topic. Simple awareness can include running prints or images in commonly read newspapers or magazines. Some announcements are humorous, others are serious and emotional, while others are straightforward and informative.
An awareness factor primarily meant present the topic through entertainment.
An awareness factor primarily meant to present the topic through entertainment.
An awareness factor primarily meant to present the topic though straightforward and informative statistics.
Nearing 6.7 billion souls on this earth, many concerns have been initiated. As a global community, one of those concerns have been having enough resources on this earth to provide for the entire and complete population. In addition to resource concerns, additional concerns have been mentioned regarding child birth and morality rates. Organizations have worked together to tackle these problems as quickly as they come about.
Global Institutions Working Together
Recently, Global Institutions have been working together to address the global population issue. First of all, the global problems at hand are very serious and severe and have been taken in a non-light manner, but rather very professionally.
World Population Day Logo.
July 11, annually.
Raising World Awareness
World Population Day is an annual event that is observed on July 11. This day seeks to raise world awareness of the unambiguous global population issues. This event was inspired by the public interest many years ago in 1987 and has since been an ongoing tradition. The event was proudly established by the Governing Council of the UN Development Program (UNDP).
Additionally, many organizations are beginning their own Overpopulation Awareness movements. Websites are being created to inform the general public of these issues and also strive to get more people involved. An example of a proactive site is the following. Click the web link for more information:
Additionally, many organizations are beginning their own Overpopulation Awareness movements. Websites are being created to inform the general public of these issues and also strive to get more people involved. An example of a proactive site is the following. Click the web link for more information:
The United Nations logo.
A Detrimental Effect of Overpopulation
An overpopulated world definitely effects many aspects of a society. Food resources are limited which directly relates to an increase in poverty rates. So simply put, the increase in global population has a direct variation to the increase in poverty. This occurs most abundantly in the countries of lower developed governments and economies. Due to the increase in poverty, the United Nations (UN) has worked together to facilitate the enhancement of those countries in a state of poverty. The United Nations, an organization whose acknowledged endeavors are facilitating cooperation in law,security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace, has been crucial to this development. The UN has implemented the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) which are a set of eight anti-poverty targets that world leaders have agreed to achieve by 2015, including child mortality and improving maternal health. The MDG's offer a basic structure for the whole global community to work together striving for better human development. If these set of eight goals are achieved, world poverty would decrease significantly, therefore relating back to a better grasp on overpopulation.
How Big is 7 Billion?
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/player#/?titleID=how-big-is-7billion&catID=1
(National Geographic's explanation of how big a population of 7 billion is)
The eight MDG's condensed into an easy accessible logo.
Visits with International Embassies
During our visit to Washington D.C. our group was fortunate to meet with a few International Embassies. The Japanese and Indonesian embassy's both provided excellent information for our project and had a lot to say regarding the topic of global population.
Japan
The
First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan Tadayuki (Tady) Mizutani believes that
population is not a major problem; it’s the sustainability of the population.
In 2004 Japans population was 127.79 million people and since then the
population has continued to decrease to 100 million people, the current
population. If this trend continues it is predicted by the National Census
Bureau that Japan’s population will drop below 90 million by the year of 2055.
The baby boomers of the late 1940’s and of the 1970’s have caused Japan to have
a huge elderly population due to declining birth rates. Birth rates are
declining because modern day Japanese families are waiting longer to have
children particularly because women are becoming more dominant in the work force.
This leads to social security problems and a small younger work force.
Japan’s current focus is trying to keep their country’s population stable
and sustaining their current population.
The Japanese government is trying to set up a social security benefit system somewhat similar to the system we use in the United States to help the elderly population stay out of poverty. In an effort to keep their population consistent, the government is currently providing very generous incentives for families that have children along with the social security benefit system. The Japanese government wanted a higher population of their citizens in cities like Tokyo to increase the economy through the “new town” work force. Unfortunately, this high population density in Tokyo has caused high pollution, traffic congestion, and has created concern about how many people can live in one area. Many other cities around the world face this problem too, such as Beijing, Mumbai, and New York City.
The Japanese government is trying to set up a social security benefit system somewhat similar to the system we use in the United States to help the elderly population stay out of poverty. In an effort to keep their population consistent, the government is currently providing very generous incentives for families that have children along with the social security benefit system. The Japanese government wanted a higher population of their citizens in cities like Tokyo to increase the economy through the “new town” work force. Unfortunately, this high population density in Tokyo has caused high pollution, traffic congestion, and has created concern about how many people can live in one area. Many other cities around the world face this problem too, such as Beijing, Mumbai, and New York City.
Indonesia
When we spoke with the representative of Indonesia, she spoke with us about the main issues her country faces with population. Unlike the population of Japan, Indonesia deals with a rapidly increasing population. Some of the main issues she told us about were the population’s access to transportation, sanitation, urban housing, jobs, and water. 60% of Indonesia’s population lives in the urban city of Jaba. With population density problems, not all citizens have access to health and education. Thankfully, the government covers half of all the medical bills for the poor; it’s the Indonesian government’s form of welfare for their citizens.
The government of Indonesia is doing multiple things to help sustain the population. They’re building infrastructure in less developed cities of their country to spread out the population, so that cities like Jaba aren’t as heavily populated. They are also discussing the idea of building bridges between the islands, so that their country can be more unified. Many new foreign markets are starting in their country, causing there to be more labor opportunities for the people. Family planning has also become a growing movement in Indonesia; the government is telling their people that they are not allowed to have more than 2 children.
Due to the large population, there are many environmental problems. The country suffers from many forest fires which has contributed to a large increase of carbon in our atmosphere. Because of this, Indonesia isn’t able to repay their debts, but instead have to spend their money restoring their forests. On top of this, the country lacks a nationwide recycling system. Recently, the government and small organizations have been trying to educate the public about the importance of protecting the environment. By using Facebook and Twitter, these organizations have tried to spread the word about the environmental movement; this movement has proved ineffective though, seeing as not all of population has access to these sites.
The government of Indonesia is doing multiple things to help sustain the population. They’re building infrastructure in less developed cities of their country to spread out the population, so that cities like Jaba aren’t as heavily populated. They are also discussing the idea of building bridges between the islands, so that their country can be more unified. Many new foreign markets are starting in their country, causing there to be more labor opportunities for the people. Family planning has also become a growing movement in Indonesia; the government is telling their people that they are not allowed to have more than 2 children.
Due to the large population, there are many environmental problems. The country suffers from many forest fires which has contributed to a large increase of carbon in our atmosphere. Because of this, Indonesia isn’t able to repay their debts, but instead have to spend their money restoring their forests. On top of this, the country lacks a nationwide recycling system. Recently, the government and small organizations have been trying to educate the public about the importance of protecting the environment. By using Facebook and Twitter, these organizations have tried to spread the word about the environmental movement; this movement has proved ineffective though, seeing as not all of population has access to these sites.
