With the current population reaching past the six billion mark, food supplies dwindle, health care becomes scarce, disease flourishes, and fresh water which has become a luxury. Can you imagine a world without modern day technology such as phones or just the essentials that the average person does not stop to pause and take a second to think about, such as running water? The world population is expected to reach 7 billion in 2012 and expected to still grow at an exponential rate, pushing past 9 billion people by the year 2050. Did you know that the carrying capacity for the earth is one billion humans meaning that the population would have to drop to a sixth of its size for everyone to be fed, have clean water, sufficient farmland, space to live on, and people to have the perfect life free of modern worry? This is possible.

Population has environmental problems too. Everyone knows that burning fossil fuels are not good for anyone but yet we use them anyway and have grown up in a society based on the consumption of petroleum products. Think about how different it would be if we grew up in a world where fossil fuel didn’t exist and it was a solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric world. Think about the clean air and clear water. Think about being able to wake up to the chirping songs of birds instead of the honking horns of traffic or the blaring of sirens.

Take a trip back to the Middle Ages when the black plague broke out and was spread by the massive trading routes. People thought it was the end of the world. One-third of the world’s population was decimated. What would happen if today’s population suddenly dropped to a third of what it was? Piles of rotting corpses and people mourning over deceased loved ones do not make a pretty picture.

There is a group called Voluntary Human Extinction Movement that informs people to what extent the human society harms the planet and how you can help by not having any children or possibly just adopting the babies that are in need of a home. They believe that it is in our best interest to reduce our population numbers and make it so we can make the Earth live in harmony with all parts of life and not just humanize the planet. They are not for China’s one child policy though because they feel that it forces people to make a choice rather than letting them just decide themselves. This law has in fact helped prevent 400 million children from being born so it has in fact helped considerably since 1979 when the law was made.

A great person once said, “It is only a problem if you have a solution.” The solution to overpopulation is not one that only a single person can solve; it requires the dedication of the entire population.