• Question: How do we solve the population problem?

    Asked by jodlington to Kate, Kieren, Nicola, Rowena, Roy on 14 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Kate Nicholson

      Kate Nicholson answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      Taking the chinese approach of one child per couple should get things under control a little bit, although you could argue that this is removing peoples freedom of choice, it would be a more responsible attitude to take.
      Sad as it may sound – it is our own success that is causing the problem, we are learning not to fight as many wars and work out problems peacefully (I know some places are still working at this one, but compared to the death toll at the height of WW1 then we are becoming less bloodthirsty) combined with our desire to cure diseases which in the past could have wiped out as much as 3/4 of your class before you got to this age!

    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      Hopefully we won’t have to as population is increasing at a decreasing rate and the theory is that it will plateau and maybe even decrease.

      The main driver for decreasing population increase is education and access to contraceptives which allow family planning. Healthier communities with lower death rates actually have fewer children so this definitely isn’tpart of what causes overpopulation- the opposite. There is, however, a lag effect between introducing modern medicine and birth rates dropping!

    • Photo: Nicola Rogers

      Nicola Rogers answered on 15 Mar 2014:

      With the advances in food science now, it is possible to increase the efficiency of our food output using genetic engineering. I think it is more a case of not wasting as much food as well, and getting better at preserving food – like people used to when everything was not available all the time

Comments