Population

Population growth drives or multiplies many of the critical problems we face today.

In fact, without the multiplier of population, it could be argued that many of the problems we face would not qualify as "global."

Between 1900 and 1999, world population quadrupled. Just between 1960 and 1999 it more than doubled, from three billion to over six billion.

We are currently growing by more than 80 million people every year

Larger populations use more energy and resources, occupy more land, and create more pollution. If per person consumption grows along with population, all those impacts are multiplied.

As population and consumption increase, there are fewer resources available per person.

At some point, there are not enough resources to go around, and scarcity occurs.

Resource scarcity is the root of many serious problems.

If there are not enough resources to adequately support the population, poverty may result.

Greater environmental degradation can also occur, as people are forced to over-exploit the resource base in order to meet their basic survival needs.

Scarcity may lead to discrimination, because when resources are scarce, someone gets less. Girls, women, ethnic or religious minorities, the poor and the elderly are most often victims of this.

Scarcity may lead to migration as people move around in search of more resources.

And scarcity may lead to conflict as people (or nations) fight to obtain resources

There are just, humane ways to stabilize population, and those same solutions can improve quality of life, help protect the environment, and enhance global security.

One is universal access to reproductive and community health services to enable people choose safely the number and spacing of their children, and reasonably expect them to live healthy lives.

Another is universal access to education, with a special emphasis on educating girls.

Alleviating poverty through sustainable development is essential, so people do not “need” numerous children for support.

Stabilizing population growth can be solved with our current level of knowledge and technology.

The solutions are interconnected, so working on environmental, social, economic, and security issues will also help stabilize population.

And stabilizing population can help solve those environmental, social, economic, and security issues

Health

Health is absolutely essential for social and economic development.

Despite decades of progress, however, population growth, globalization, and inappropriate development have made health more tenuous than ever for many of the Earth’s people.

Inadequate development has resulted in poverty and insufficient health services in much of the world, while over-consumption by industrialized nations has created severe environmental health impacts.

And, while much of the developing world lacks adequate health care, the spiraling costs of health care technologies in industrialized nations may force the “rationing” of health services in those countries

Health is closely linked to every other global issue. For example –

Population growth drives people into previously uninhabited areas where they encounter new pathogens, while greater numbers of people living and moving in the world rapidly transmit disease.

Poverty is a major contributor to ill health. Poor people – especially women and children – often cannot afford adequate nutrition, clean water, or access to medical attention. Ill health, in turn, traps people in or condemns them to poverty.

Ill health is a security threat. Health problems hold the potential to reduce economic output to the point that entire regions may be destabilized, as is the case of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Significant health threats include the emergence of new diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and Hepatitis C, and the reemergence of familiar diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis in more virulent forms.

Expanding multi-drug resistance in viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi now threaten to reverse many of the advances of the past 50 years.

Food-borne diseases are spreading as globalization patterns change food processing and distribution, while water-borne diseases kills millions and new strains are resistant to routine disinfectant methods.

Perhaps most frightening is the fact that many pathogens can be “weaponized” and used for military or terrorist operations.

Reversing these trends begins with development and expansion of community-based primary health care, especially child and maternal care, vaccinations, and early diagnosis and containment of communicable diseases.

Poverty alleviation is a high leverage intervention, so people are not made more vulnerable to illness by lack of nutrition, clean water, sanitation, or affordable treatment.

Education – both to help alleviate poverty and to expand literacy so that people can learn about and understand risks and benefits of health-related behavior – is another powerful intervention.

And mitigation of environmental and social conditions – whether through organic agriculture, safer workplaces, clean energy sources for cooking and heating, or diet and exercise – could save millions of lives annually