June 2, 2011

Overpopulation: Yes, it's a myth

As I was going through my daily newsletters this morning, I came across an article about world overpopulation.  I'm kind of tired of the topic myself.  I'm doing Geography for an elective this year and they won't stop talking about it.  According to them, there is way too many people.  Another thing that really get's me is the phrase, "Save the Earth, abort a child."  But this article that I read completely did away with all that.  Overpopulation is a myth.  Here's the beginning of the post: 

Proclamations of overpopulation have circulated for decades. Are they true? First off, what is meant by the word “overpopulation”? It has nothing to do with the amount of people but rather to the resources and the capacity of the environment to sustain human activities.
To be overpopulated, a nation must have insufficient food, resources and living space.
With the world population  at around 6.8 billion last year, food and living space are hardly a concern. In 1990, it was estimated that the world could feed up to 35 billion people. Most sources estimate that the global population will level out at around 9.2 billion in 2050, and then start to decline....(to read the rest of the post, click here)
In our culture, it has become the fad for women to either have less children or have no children at all.  They can get married and enjoy a married life, but with medical help have no children (she might abort her child if she becomes pregnant, or get sterilized before).  And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that a woman's purpose in life should be only to have kids and keep the house clean.  My plan in life doesn't involve kids right away (but you never know what God will bring you, so I'll trust Him with whatever comes to me).  I plan on going to college, pursuing music and possibly politics, starting a career, and if Mr. Right comes along, getting married.  But I am saying that if God does decide to bless a woman with pregnancy, that woman should not abort her child, even if her child is an "accident".  I was an "accident".  I wasn't "planned".  But I was planned by God, and that's pretty much all that matters.  Up to 12 million girls were aborted in the last 30 years in India by parents rich enough to get an abortion.  They just didn't want a girl, mostly because they might have already had one, they only wanted two kids, and they wanted a boy.  To read an article about this, click here

Anyways, all that to say, I just thought that it was interesting that pro-choicers, who use overpopulation as an excuse for abortion, now can use this excuse no more.  Thanks for reading my thoughts.

In Christ,

Aubry

6 comments:

  1. This is so true, Aubry. A couple semesters ago I took a class on Cultural Geography, and the professor had us read an article from World Magazine (Feb 2003) titled "Population Implosion." Have you read it? Here is the link: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/6875. Keeping posting! :)

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  2. Josiah (from Latin class)June 2, 2011 at 3:55 PM

    Good post! Another thing I have heard about overpopulation is that, back in the 1990s, every person could live in the state of Texas: 1/3 of the land could be used for housing, 1/3 of the land could be used for businesses, and there would still be an extra 1/3 of the land for other purposes. I agree. Overpopulating the earth is a myth that needs to be taken down.

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  3. Allison, it wouldn't let me read the whole article for some reason, but what I saw of it looked good! And Josiah, another thing that the article I mentioned said was that in 2003, the population of the whole world could fit in Arkansas! Thanks for commenting!

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  4. Hmm...That's strange. It let me read the whole article. Maybe you could try this link. I don't know much about the site, but it has the full article: http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/population.html

    I think that sometimes the people who predict overpopulation use the same reasoning that global warming advocates do. They assume that because the earth's population is growing, it always will grow, just like people believe the earth's temperature is rising and always will rise. But times change, and no one can be sure of their doomsday predictions. After all, before the invention of the horseless carriage, people predicted that London streets would eventually be buried under nine feet of horse manure!

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  5. Yes! Good point! What we're seeing right now is countries are trying to control their population (i.e. China) and so people are having abortions or letting their unwanted children die. So the younger generation is much smaller than generations before it. Also, what I said about people not wanting to have too many kids (I guess our parents aren't one of the statistics, huh Allison???:P) applies because abortion is legal and "easy" and will "fix all your problems." And people aren't getting married as much anymore, also. So the population is, in many aspects, going down! Like the article said, though, the problems we're seeing with their not being enough food are just because the food is not being distributed evenly (but I'm not suggesting communism!!!). Americans (especially Christian Americans) should help those in need more often, though. Whether that means adoption, short term missions, or just giving money to a missions cause. And now we're totally off the topic of abortion. But we're having a good discussion, so I don't care, I guess:).

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  6. It worked! Wow, that was really good! I'm going to give an example using the idea of divorce: One hundred years ago, divorce was legal. But most everyone stayed married. So it's not the legality of divorce that has changed things, but the acceptance of it. The same thing has happened with abortion. Except I think it was more backwards. People wanted it and it became accepted and then it became legal. But it wasn't accepted, usually, for a married couple to abort their child just because they didn't want one. Now it's become accepted to abort a child anytime, in any situation! One thing that article you posted said was that Russia aborts 2/3 of their children! The majority of their children don't even get a CHANCE to live!!!! Thanks so much for sharing that article, Allison. I'll probaby be using it one of these days!!!

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