Contraceptives and the Population Problem

Contraceptives and the Population Problem

The question of overpopulation's impact on the environment is multi-dimensional and far beyond the scope of a single essay. The issue has to do with considering the environment a normal good while at the same time understanding the impact of industrialization on increased pollution levels. Relationships between industrialization, overpopulation, global pollution, regional pollution, resource depletion, and numerous other environmental and social concerns form a multi-dimensional series of feedback loops, all of which feed back on the original system. Computer models developed by economic research institutions to predict environmental and developmental impacts of population growth (ex. The World Bank, The Economic Research Service) are n-dimensional, only to be accurately evaluated using advanced statistical regressions and matrix analysis. As such, this paper will assume that there is a direct correlation between population and natural resource depletion (environmental degradation by way of pollutants is an entirely different, and more complicated issue), and the most cost-effective way of amelioration would be to restrain population growth. Given that, what is the correct means for policy to approach the population problem? The options include contraceptive distribution, family planning, general economic development, and gender equality among others. Essentially, policy has to address whether population can be restrained with a "tech fix" such as contraceptives or only after a broad socioeconomic shift.

In 1992, Professor Jay Forrester and his team at MIT developed a computer model designed to simulate likely future patterns of the global economy based on a technique known as system dynamics. The system dynamic technique relies on feedback loops to explain human behavior, and this particular model predicted an overshoot and collapse of the natural resource economic base. This Malthusian prediction reinforced Paul Ehrlich's contention articulated in The Population Bomb (1968) that unbridled population growth is the foremost factor in environmental degradation and natural resource depletion. However, these pessimistic models failed to take account of the substitutive and absorptive capacities of humanity and the environment. In fact, these key economic principals temper the adverse effects of overpopulation and may increase general human welfare as a result. But the fact (or widely acknowledged as such) still remains that population growth, particularly in undeveloped nations puts an increased strain on the environment and the population supported by the local ecosystem. The 2003 World Development Report which is published by The World Bank Group indicates that farmers in third world countries are being forced to farm on marginal lands due to the growing scarcity of arable lands.