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                               The population explosion

   The problem of the population explosion has lost much of its urgency. Since it
   came to the fore in the 1960's, population growth on the world level has
   consistently decreased. In the developed countries, population growth is
   practically zero, in the developing countries it is rapidly decreasing. According
   to the most likely projections, world population is expected to stabilize at less
   than the double of the present level by the year 2100. The increase in population
   density only causes major problems in very poor, agricultural countries, such as
   Rwanda or Bangla Desh, where more land would be needed to feed the population. In
   Rwanda, for instance, contrary to elsewhere, the Malthusian apocalyptic
   predictions have been verified by the 1994 genocide, which literally decimated
   the population. The introduction of vaccines and antibiotics broke the balance
   between maximal fertility and high mortality, leading to extreme overpopulation.
   In these circumstances, political conflict degenerated into wholesale massacre.
   In Bangla Desh, on the other hand, the education of women and spread of
   anticonception methods has produced a spectacular drop in fertility, making the
   problem much more manageable.

   Countries such as the Netherlands, Singapore and Japan show how a high population
   density can very well go together with high economic and social development
   levels. Statistical studies of [2]happiness or life-satisfaction show that
   happiness= is independent of either population density or population growth.
   Since productivity increases in general more quickly than population, population
   growth at the world level should not lead to the exhaustion of resources or
   farmland. However, it is clear that for the densely populated agricultural
   countries mentioned before, population control remains a high priority.
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   [3]Copyright© 2000 Principia Cybernetica - [4]Referencing this page

   Author
   F. [5]Heylighen, & J. [6]Bernheim

   Date
   Sep 15, 2000

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                                    [13]Discussion
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     * [14]Socioeconomic Impact of 3rd World Population Growth on the Developed
       Nations, Comment by Nicholas Previsich

                                  [15]Add comment...

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References

   1. LYNXIMGMAP:http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/POPEXPL.html#PCP-header
   2. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HAPPINES.html
   3. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/COPYR.html
   4. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/REFERPCP.html
   5. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
   6. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/BERNHEIM.html
   7. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/DEFAULT.html
   8. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MSTT.html
   9. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/FUTEVOL.html
  10. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CONTPROB.html
  11. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/NEGSIDEF.html
  12. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/EXEC.html
  13. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MAKANNOT.html
  14. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Annotations/POPEXPL.0.html
  15. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/hypercard.acgi$annotform?

[USEMAP]
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/POPEXPL.html#PCP-header
   1. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/DEFAULT.html
   2. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HOWWEB.html
   3. http://pcp.lanl.gov/POPEXPL.html
   4. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/POPEXPL.html
   5. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SERVER.html
   6. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/hypercard.acgi$randomlink?searchstring=.html
   7. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/RECENT.html
   8. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/TOC.html#POPEXPL
   9. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SEARCH.html