Dear Foxy,

You asked how do we turn population growth around. There is an answer but I doubt if humankind has enough time left on this planet to put the solution into effect. World population is just under 8 billion and will reach 11 billion within the next 30 years.

An interesting question is how did we get into this runaway population growth? In 1900 the world population was 1.6 billion; in 1985 it had reached 5 billion, being the world's sustainable population limit; and now 7.8 billion. 10,000 years ago it was about 8 million. So it increased by 1.6 billion in 10,000 tears then by another 6 billion in 120 years. What happened? Why all of a sudden did it just jump by 6 billion in only 120 years?

Dear Mr Opinion,

The causes of rapid population growth?

You ask why is population increasing at such a speed
in the less developed nations? The main reason is a change
and resulting imbalance in the ratio of births to deaths.

The death rate in these societies has been sharply reduced by
the introduction, however haphazard, of modern standards of
sanitation, nutrition, and medicine - but the birth
rate has remained extremely high.

In the industrialised societies, similar innovations in
public health occurred over many decades, and there
was time for cultural values about family size to adjust in
the changed material conditions.

In the newly developing nations, however, vaccinations,
sewage systems, pesticides, and new dietary practices have
been introduced with dramatic suddenness, causing a sharp
drop in death rates while the birth rates remain at or
near their previous levels.

A complicating factor is that the less developed countries
are facing rapid population growth at a time when they
already have very large populations - so even a small
annual growth rate produces huge numbers of babies.

Given this sharp decline in death rates and an already
existing population strain why have birth rates remained
high in the less developed nations?

The reason is that people everywhere are reluctant to accept
changes in cultural values, particularly those related to
family. In many traditional societies a man's virility
is gauged by the number of children he fathers, and most
traditional societies emphasize the domestic role of
the wife as mother and child rearer.

Poorly educated people in a tradition-bound society may have
difficulty appreciating that the value of a large family
has changed within the course of a generation or so.

Even today, in fact, a large family may serve important
functions for parents in developing countries. In countries
that lack a system of social security, children provide the
only guarantee that one will be looked after in old age.

Foxy is only partly right.
One of the main keys to growth is energy.
Energy from coal & steam power on farms and the industrial revolution.
It all enabled the progress Foxy mentioned and the areas with the
largest growth had their living standards & medicine improved enormously by colonialism.

Overpopulation will not be contained to the developing world. For instance, Africa's skyrocketing population is already spilling into Europe and it's only going to accelerate.

In his book 'The Scramble for Europe: Young Africa on its way to the Old Continent', African Studies professor Stephen Smith estimates that at least 100 million Africans will try to make their way to Europe by the middle decades of this century.

From the book's summary:

"Today, 510 million people live inside EU borders, and 1.25 billion people in Africa. In 2050, 450 million Europeans will face 2.5 billion Africans – five times their number. The demographics are implacable. The scramble for Europe will become as inexorable as the ‘scramble for Africa’ was at the end of the nineteenth century, when 275 million people lived north and only 100 million lived south of the Mediterranean. Then it was all about raw materials and national pride, now it is about young Africans seeking a better life on the Old Continent, the island of prosperity within their reach. If Africa’s migratory patterns follow the historic precedents set by other less developed parts of the world, in thirty years a quarter of Europe’s population will be Afro-Europeans."

http://www.amazon.com/Scramble-Europe-Young-Africa-Continent/dp/1509534563

Africa's problems will become Europe's problems too.

Dear Bazz and Foxy,

What you describe is a small part of the answer and fails to explain the reason as to why all of a sudden world population skyrocketed from 1900 rising by 6 billion in only 120 years whereas it took 10,000 years to get to 1.6 billion. Something else had happened. What was it? The answer is a lot simpler than what you might think.

FrankU well said and confirms my words refugee flows are a product of over population
Too did we see those teenagers in chains this morning? in was it Nigeria?
Held hostage by a middle ages type Islamic School they enforce the view that part of that faith is still in the dark ages
And too is uninterested in living standards of Africans
In time humanity will understand constant growth is wrong, and leads to over population
We here see our city's strangled by over population and see calls for more growth because more consumers brings more houses and food sale more of every thing but common sense