Today's Rate Of Increase Of The Population example essay topic

The moment I am typing this post, the population of our planet has exceeded the number "6 billions". This number itself should not give birth to worries and uneasiness as there are still endless unpopulated landscapes and satisfying supplies of food and water. What is worrying is the ever-increasing speed of the increase of the world-wide population. Despite the optimistic doubts of some scientists, surveys have been carried out again and again... and unfortunately for us, they all seem to verify the statement above, for the statistics present us a bitter 2% per year. Surveys report the death of 150,000 of people per day and the unfair countermanding of 400,000 humans being born every day. In plain words, approximately 250,000 human lives "land in planet Life" every day.

250,000 human lives open their eyes to the mysteries of the world every day and as a result our planet is assaulted by the responsibility of sustaining approximately 91,250,000 more humans per year. Annually our population, ALWAYS with the current speed of increasing, increases by 91,250,000. And as if this was not enough, 75% of the population - mainly located in the so-called "unimproved countries"- is already suffering from terrible lack of food and medical care and tens of thousands of people, children included, annually become victims of those conditions. Things however are even worse, because the speed the population increases, is not steady. If every year the same number of humans was added, in a few words if we ONLY had 91,250,000 more people every year, in five hundred years ahead of today the population of our planet would be around 52 billion humans. With some optimism, which would have to thrive on a system of justice with fair sharing of material wealth (logical belongings for everyone, not extreme riches), Earth would still be capable of sustaining mankind.

Nevertheless, given the fact today's rate of increasing is 2%, just like the compound interest of a bank capital, the rate of population increase will be far higher in the future. Our rate of population increase is equal to the well-known through maths "exhibitor form", which means a relatively low rate of population increase in the beginning, which will become higher and higher until it reaches threatening levels. So, today's 91,250,000 more people per year will be 98,000,000 more people per year in 2 years, 120,000,000 more people per year in 3 years and so on. In a few words, the rate will keep increasing. This mere exhibitor form means that in 500 years from now, instead of the normally estimated 52 billion people, the population of our planet will have reached the terrifying number of 100 trillion people! Under such conditions, there will be enough space for one person per square meter of land!

In 100 trillion square meters of the surface of our planet, there will be 1 person per square meter and of course the waters are included in that number, which in fact constitute a part of the surface larger than the land does! However, the conclusion we draw from our reporters' clues - even though there are some good possibilities of mistakes having been done - is a terrible tragedy. It appears that the actual increase of the population is even greater than the one the exhibitor form causes! And that's because today's 2% I previously mentioned, is not steady either. Even that keeps increasing. Thus, the time that was needed for the population of the planet to be doubled (from 3 billions to 6 billions), is reduced drastically with the passing of the centuries.

Indeed, in the early 20th century, the time required for the population to be doubled was approximately 100 years, today it is just a few decades and in association with the scale of the history of humanity, soon... soon the number of years will consist of a one single digit... Yes my fellow humans, soon our number will be doubled every year and it will keep increasing even compared to that. Like that, our world will have 15 billion people in some year in the future, 30 billion people exactly a year later, 60 billion people in two years, 120 billion people in 3 years... reaching the terrible number of 1,000,000,000,000,000 in less than a century. An uncontrollable explosion of human population looms over the planet. I do believe that there is no need for an analysis of a specialist for you to understand what the consequences of over-population are. I will just inform you that nowadays, given today's conditions of production, the maximum number of people that are allowed to have the standard of living of the western countries (America-Europe) is only a billion.

And since, neither can the industrial production and agricultural production increase at will, nor is the inexpensive energy production an easy case, the situation seems hopeless. Even if we assume that the basic feeding of the population - and until when? - is ensured, there are still the indirect strikes that have to be taken into account. The reference is to the following facts: 1) The increase of population gives birth to tension that is not easily controlled and holds strong possibilities of war between - or even worse - among countries. 2) The standard of living is getting seriously unequal in several places of the planet.

3) Progress, under the pressure of the circumstances, is made without rules and thus it has destructive consequences. It is really sad but it would appear that the Biblical phrase "Increase and become more and conquer the earth" did not really have a lot of divine wisdom, with absolutely no intention to offend Christians. I am also a Christian. Certainly, among the specialists there are those who are somewhat more optimistic. And since the doubting of the clues or the predictions is difficult, that optimism is unleashed at other directions.

Namely at the possibilities of improving better methods of food production, such as agri-biology (the use of biological means for the insemination of the ground) or hydro-cultivation as well as the production of synthetic food. And of course these must be done (and are already being done) up to a point. If, however, under the pressure of over-population, the exploitation of the grounds and the improving of cultivation reach extreme levels, the dead end of the consequences of over-population is obvious. The use of fertilizers or parasite-killers, the conversion of forests into cultivatable lands and the exhaustion of the ground caused by intensive cultivation cause the disturbance of the ecosystem, which has other serious consequences. Another line of optimism, which has been supported by many well-known scientists and - why hide it?

- I've also been a fan of the idea, is not very far from science fiction. The reference is to the possibility of the migration of a part of the human population, this time not to countries or islands, but to other planets or to space stations especially designed for that purpose... at least in the beginning. Human imagination is definitely keen on such prospects, however they cause the people to become aware of the problem with greater difficulty. Because, even with some frivolous survey, such possibilities are proven to be more stupidities than they are solutions. Indeed, the prospects for the construction of interplanetary stations are discouraging. Even if we ignore - which seems impossible, even in the official plans - the problems of their construction, their maintenance or even of the problem of the adaptation of mankind in the artificial environment of a floating station, a sole fact underlines the impossibility of the idea.

Today's rate of increase of the population - which as I have already said, keeps getting higher - is approximately 250,000 people per day. This is the number of fortunate or unfortunate passengers that would have to evacuate the planet daily, and not to decrease its population but just to keep some basic balance. I believe that all of you can imagine how difficult this sounds: Immense in size space stations will have to be constructed and put in orbit all the time while spaceship launches will have to be done every day and they will have to transfer at least 250,000 people out of the planet. As for the possibility of populating other planets, things are slightly more fortunate but... way too slightly. Indeed, at the moment I am making this post, a planet that can sustain life within or out of our solar system has not been found yet, with the exception of Mars and, if we stretch it a bit too much, our Moon. For all I have studied and learned, Mars has a large amount of ice, which could be used in order to make that spanning red desert, a friendly planet like Earth.

The moon has far less ice on it than Mars does but it is nearer to Earth than Mars is. Apart from those two globes, there is no other known globe (either planet or satellite) that could sustain life, not today anyway. And of course pretty much everyone should realize that today, in the beginning of the 21th century, our STUPID race has left space technology behind and has rested assured in creating horrifying war technology. In a few words, even those glimmering hopes of immigrating, will remain dreams if we go on like that. We do not have the appropriate technology for something like that yet. And there is no more time to waste.

Our civilization has been blabbering about its achievements forever. Great achievements indeed but it turns you down, it even causes you to cry when you consider that we cannot send a single human to a secure environment outside the planet... yet we have enough military technology to wipe ourselves out. It is truly ironic that we can so easily overcome the problem of over-population by firing a good few thousand nuclear warheads to all the capitals of the world. The problem of over-population will then have been solved, at least for some decades. 2,500 years ago, Pericles, creator of democracy and a citizen of the very city I am residing at now, had said something wise and warning: "I do believe that one day, the children of mankind will grieve for being so many. They will grieve for their parents' inability of keeping their number low".

Ironically enough, 1500 years later, an emperor of the glorious medieval Byzantine Empire gave this phrase to history: "Humanity does not know its limits. Someday we will pray we hadn't given birth to more children than this world of ours could sustain". That about concludes my research on the matter, I hope, I really hope we awaken in time. Because we are sleeping assured and the danger isn't far away anymore. We have been saying " 'till then, we will have enough technology to do this and that".

Well, we are no longer in position of saying " 'till then". There is NO MORE " 'till then". We are almost out of time... and we still don't have the so-called "enough technology". We cannot just sit back and make movies like Star-Trek and Starship Troopers.

We must urgently start fighting to obtain the mechanics and the technology those movies present... or whatever is needed to make the dreams reality. Because we are no longer going to be doing that only in order to fulfill the dream of conquering the universe... but also to find us new bases. Universe exploration is reality and this tired planet is just too old and too small for us to use as our only base. To Mr Bush, Yel cin, Blair, and all leaders of the world... enough with the nuclear weapons and our stupid, meaningless wars!

Pay attention to the problem all around us!