About in the late 1980s I was listening to a science program on the radio, and one of the men speaking was talking about population. He was concerned because according to him, the number of people on this planet was high, and taking into consideration the number of children being born each year, the population of the earth would be too large within 20 years. This gentleman’s reasoning was quite sound, and I accepted his view.
It is now 40 years later, and people from poorer countries are now flocking in large numbers to western style countries to find work. These people hope to be able to earn enough money to support their families back in their home country, as well as look after themselves in their new surroundings.
Between the first and second world wars, there was a mass migration to the United States of America. In those days the people were leaving European countries. After the second world war, there was large migrant movement to Canada and Australia. Once again from the European Countries. My family was one of those migrants. We chose Australia and settled down in Sydney. In those days, the Australian government covered the cost of travel for people wishing to move to Australia. That benefit wasn’t extended to my family. My dad was over 50. Australia wanted younger people. But we were allowed to migrate and settle here. And changed our lives/
In the late 1940s, the United Kingdom encouraged many of the inhabitants of the Caribbean Commonwealth countries to migrate to England. It was done to fill the jobs left vacant by the shortages of young men killed during the war. Being part of the British Empire meant these Caribbeans had British passports and could travel under that nationality.
Up until the 1960s/70s due to the shortage of men, movement around the planet was accepted and welcome. By the 1970s the baby boomers were coming of age. Those born in the late 40s were now married, having children and there were enough people to fill most of the jobs where employees had been scarce 20 to 30 years earlier. There were enough people in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and Portugal to sustain the countries. The boom in babies during the 40s had replaced the scarcity of the population. But that didn’t stop the Commonwealth inhabitants migrating to the United Kingdom. And the Latin American, and African countries, where the Spanish, Portuguese and French had taken over in the 1800s were now looking at their mother countries as a source of income.
The other countries around the world had also increased its population. But most of those other countries lacked the jobs for the number of people that lived there. Oh dear!!
And this brings us back to what the scientist was saying in the late 1980s. There are more than enough people on the planet.
Now I bet you think I am going to say it is the overpopulation that is causing the crowds of people to try and reach Europe and America. Even Australia and Canada can be brought into the picture. But I am not. Strange as it may seem, very few people want to leave there home. But the world is changing.
The increase in population has caused mankind to take over arable land for housing, thereby reducing the amount of land for growing food. Cattle have been encouraged to take over swathes of pastures, so mankind can have meat with each meal. Manual labour has been taken over by machines, and the computer is now the only way to run a business.
Jobs are decreasing, although we are being told there will be all sorts of different jobs available soon. Food is being grown and ripened in such a way that the nutrition seems to be decreased. And with all that there has been a slowing down in the number of births, but it hasn’t stopped the number of people outstripping what people calculated would happen.
At the other end, with the help of medicine more people are living longer. Not only that, in many countries people are healthier. All this is increasing the population.
China did realise it was a problem and set a policy for every family to only have one child. That didn’t turn out as well as the Chinese expected, especially as due to customs, boys were the child of choice. Boys were growing up with fewer girls to marry. In some countries, the education of women was helping to slow down the birth rate, but in countries where religions were against birth control, people still had more than two. And the poorer countries, where years ago many children died at an early age, the same number of children were being born, but the improved medicine helped to keep most of them alive.
So, the population increase has been steadily rising, and no one is really interested in doing anything about it. No politician would be game: for one reason; to go against a religious movement, and for two, tell anyone how many children they should have. And if there is no means of birth control, accidents still happen. Couples fall pregnant even when they really don’t want to.
Where do we go with this one? Many people believe if the population keeps growing as it has for the past couple of decades; we will run out of food. Housing is going up and taking over more land, and women a putting off having children to work and provide money needed before considering to start a family. But will that solve the problem?
Like most people, I have no answer for this. I do think governments around the world have to take this problem into consideration and have a discussion. We cannot keep sweeping it under the carpet and hoping it will go away. Maybe if we have another pandemic, worse than COVID we could lose a large percentage of the population, but at least two thirds would have to go to allow those left to turn the situation around. Many people thought COVID would be that saviour, but it wasn’t. Our medical gurus quickly found a vaccine. It wouldn’t surprise me if the same thing happened if a new pandemic took place.
Currently there doesn’t seem to be an answer. Everyone knows it exists, but everyone would prefer not to think about it.
All very well hoping it will go away, but we know it won’t. Time to start thinking about how we can overcome this population problem. Have you any ideas?
Julie Finch-Scally ©
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