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How does the world population – 7 billion! – affect your world?

By John Vettese, Student Voices staff writer

This week, a new baby in the Philippines tipped the scale in terms of global population.

According to projections by the United Nations Population Fund, Danica May Camacho became the seven billionth person on Earth when she was born in the city of Manila early on Oct. 31.

This landmark level of inhabitants on the planet seems as though it arrived quickly – in the 1960s, the population was 3 billion, and experts estimate it will hit 9 billion by 2050. In reality, the rate of growth has dropped since the ’60s, when it peaked at 2 percent. And really, this is just one more person – don’t expect a drastic change overnight. But even if its growth rate is slowing, the population is poised to make an impact, especially considering that 43 percent of the population is under the age of 24, and just starting to make its journey through the world.

Economy

Times of economic tension highlight just how big the population is. Think about the Occupy movement, which argues that the richest 1 percent control the majority of the world’s wealth, while the other 99 percent struggle with unemployment, underemployment and weak economic prospects. Think also about the number of your classmates whose parents are out of a job, or struggling to find a job that will better provide for their family. It would be oversimplifying to say that the declined state of the world economy is a direct result of the increasing world population – it is a much more complex situation than that – but when so many people are competing for economic resources, from jobs to aid, it makes it tougher for the world’s economy to rebound.

Environment

We aren’t just competing for economic resources with our neighbors around the world – we’re competing for natural resources as well, from energy resources to fuel our cars and heat our houses, to land to build our homes and roads and healthy environments in which to live. Those needs aren’t always in balance – maybe, to build a housing development in your community or a highway through your county, a park had to be bulldozed. To make the situation more complex, people aren’t even the majority species on Earth. A report on Wired.com pointed out that humans only make up only 0.00018 percent of non-aquatic life on the planet, but harvest 20 percent of life on the planet – from animals for food to trees for timber and fuel. Putting a spin on the Occupy rally cry, Wired author Brandon Keim wrote, “We are the .00018 percent, and we use 20 percent.”

Education

Empowering women could be a key to making this population growth manageable, argues an op-ed in The Christian Science Monitor – and this begins with education. If women around the world are given better opportunities for education, they might not get married until they are older, “which leads to fewer children and more investment in the children that are born,” Judith Bruce of the New York-based research group the Population Council said in an interview with the Monitor. "When girls and young women have a say, they tend to have fewer children, and those children stay in school longer," Bruce told the Monitor.

What do you think?

How does the world population affect your world? Do you notice it in the economy in your town? How about environmental concerns? Do you think education could be a solution for managing population growth? How else could you see the growth of people on the planet impacting your world?

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Comments

5/11/2012
Porterville, CA

Andres
Mr.Smith/Monache
- Its is scary to think that we our population is increasing yet the planet and its resources aren’t. Jobs will be getting harder to find and resources will be rising since there will be fewer and fewer supplies that the price is going to double.

4/27/2012
Porterville/CA

Mario
Smith/Monache
I am growing a bit concerned for my future due to our overpopulation. Due to more people, there will be a lower supply of resources, land, and jobs. The unemployment rate across the world will soon rise due to the fact that there isn't a need for so many people and there will be less food to give due to crowding. Now I'm not concerned regarding the next few years, but I am concerned for my later years (50+) when our population is predicted to rise.

2/1/2012
San Angelo, TX

Selina Parsons
Mrs. Lara
I dont like it that the economy wants to destroy the homes of the animals they should find a planet with oxygen and move people there and save the anlmals and planet. It seems like no one cares about the anamials on this planet.

12/14/2011
Dallas/Texas

Lauren
Bradley/ nimitz
The population has grown a lot over time, but weather its big or small it will effect my everyday life. First, it effects the economy. It is very hard to get a job now and days. Second, it effects my education, because classes are a lot bigger and it is harder to get into the college you want to attend.

11/15/2011
Irving, Tx

Karla V.
Bradley/Nimitz
Back in 5th grade we had read a book called “Among The Hidden” that kind of dealt with this same type of situation. It took place in the future where the government controlled everything. They controlled how many children a woman could have. In this time period each woman could only have two and if she passed that limit then she had to put the third child up for adoption. There was this woman that had to hide her third child in her home so that they government wouldn't take him away. This could end up happening to us if our population gets out of control. We don't have an unlimited amount of food in this world nor do we all have enough money to provide everyone with the necessary things to survive.

11/15/2011
Irving/Texas

Aubrey McKinzie
Bradley/Nimitz
Population effects our world in a big way. When it comes down to it , this world isn't big enough for all of us. Meaning some people will be left out of jobs and opportunities. The economic situation is pretty bad already, and if we don't make efforts to fix it now, it might be too late in the future. Education and Environment have the same problem. There are too few spots in college for all applicants. There are too many non-renewable resources to have equal share among all nations.

11/12/2011
Irving/Tx

Vanessa B.
Bradley/Nimitz
The population affects us whether its big or small. The economy is already horrible and if we have more people then it just gets worse. When there is more people trying to get jobs, it becomes a difficult task to get a simple job. When the population is small it makes our taxes go up. If we do not have a lot of people paying, then who will pay?

11/11/2011
Irving/TX

Ashley Bo
Bradley/Nimitz
With the huge population it may cause difficulties in finding a job. With a huge population, the more jobs there has to be. It is very limited. Think about how the world is now. There are a lot of people who are finding it hard to find a job. My sister who lived in New York is now moving to Texas because she has not found a job in three years. I want to be able to find a job easily in the future. So the 7 billion population can affect my world.

11/7/2011
Irving/TX

Nam
Ms.Bradley/Nimitz
I believe that this issue has not effected the world in anyway. Economy is only affected in your region depending if your local government is on the right path or not. If businesses in your town is booming than, your local government would prosper. Also, I believe that if the world would become more educated then, people would be able to make better decision when it comes to having children. The only thing I can think of when talking about growth of people is that; the world will one day have to adopt to the population and build houses like city scrapers with smaller rooms that are barely enough to live in.

11/4/2011
AZ

Tori
Benson High Scool
The population affects our world by limiting needs such as water and food. We can only supply and support so many people.

11/4/2011
Rudyard/Montana

Taylor
Mrs. Campbell/North Star
When asked that question, a person could hint many point of views; however, that would be a very long answer. Instead, I’ll just cover one section. Today’s economy seems to be going downhill…drastically. Citizens in the United States today, have to worry about job employment, the overwhelming amount of taxes, and just surviving in general. Presidential candidates are tossing around ideas to help our economy left and right but how do we know that will benefit us? After hundreds and thousands of years, the world officially has a population of 7 billion. One word comes to mind….how can 7 billion of us survive? The more people that we have in our world, the more we have to produce. And when I say produce I am mainly referring to production of jobs. There is an overwhelming amount of people that are unemployed and are not able to work. When I think of this, I worry for my future. Am I going to be one of those people on the corner holding a sign saying, “I need 5 more cents to get a burger”? Or am I going to be one of those people driving the newest Camaro and rocking the Louis Vuitton glasses? As of now, the future of our world is unpredictable and changes must be made to the 7 billion people.

11/4/2011
Irving/Texas

Joan
Bradley/Nimitz
The world growing big in number have both positive and negative effect on us. The increase in population is making Earth big and beautiful. The door to making new families and friends is opened. More diverse cultures and religions are growing. People are learning new things from each other. Unfortunately, on the other side, it is making our planet crowded. People have no where to live. Food is running out. The availability of natural resources, resources that are often nonrenewable, are decreasing at a rapid rate. Pollution and diseases are everywhere. It is affecting our economy greatly. Jobs opportunities are getting lower everyday. The more people we have, the less jobs there are. Competitions for certain position are extremely high. Education or not, the world population is not going to stop growing. It is inevitable for it to continue growing. There are obviously more negative impacts on us with our current world population. It is only wise to do something more productive and approachable than education to decrease the size as soon as possible, before the size gets too big and overwhelming and the world has no choice but to collapse.

11/3/2011
Irving/TX

Jacob H.
Bradley/Nimitz
Such extreme growth in our world's population is a great treasure as well as a great burden. In a way, having many people on our planet is a good thing; we have big families, many friends, and our social aspect thrives. On the other hand, having such a vast amount of humans in one place is a frightening prospect; just imagining the things that could happen such as a loss of food supply, running out of land, and a lack of breathable air. It would be completely inhumane to deprive someone of life, but a better birth control, perhaps intelligence, would be wise to invest in. If more women were given a chance to have an education, we would have more minds working on a cure for problems such as world hunger, incurable diseases, and the ability to resolve disputes between nations. I live in an apartment complex and I find it very hard. People were not meant to live so close to each other. If there were no apartment complexes and just houses-requiring a much smaller amount of people on Earth-we would be much more comfortable.

11/2/2011
Irving/TX

Angelica R
Bradley/ Nimitz
The world population affects my world by not allowing me and my family to have things that we need. It makes me work harder for what I want. When I attend city council meetings and I hear how everyone is being brought down by higher taxes in my town I notice that that all people are hurting and it could very much be from over population. I think that all our resources are getting used up faster then what they should be. Education could probably help, but I don't see it making a huge difference. I think that the growth of people can hurt my family financially because there are so many people with only a few jobs to go to.

11/2/2011
Irving/Nimitz

Jesse G.
Bradley/Nimitz
Population growth has a huge effect on on everything that goes on in our world. The biggest thing that it does is raises the the value of everything such as natural resources, land, and healthcare. We all need water, food, and basic necessities and now the cost of the basic ingredients that we use to make it with the will go up then causing the price at the stores where the product is sold to go up as well. Everything period will be more expensive causing poverty to rise as well. Not to mention that there will be a bigger need of healthcare because there will be more people getting sick. And for our country this means that there will be greater competition in all phases of economy wise.

11/1/2011
Irving,TX

Sara
Bradley/Nimitz
It affects my world by making it harder to get some opportunities. Having to compete more for what I want in my life. This competition is only going to get stiffer as my life goes on. Making it harder not only on me, but my peers around me. I do notice it in my town now-a-days. Jobs are getting cut, but the prices are being raised. The scarcity of money in homes are increasing by the days, and the environment is also suffering. Land is being demolished to make highways that aren't exactly needed at the time, and all that is doing is spending tax payers money. Education could play a big role in the citizens of today. A lot of people that are uneducated don't receive good paying jobs, some girls get pregnant, not able to provide, and ultimately aren't the first people to be looked at when there are other people that are more educated.

11/1/2011
Irving/TX

Sherin
Bradley/Nimitz
With the population of the world reaching 7 billion, there are more resources being used up. The more the number of people, lesser is the resources for everyone. As the population increases, there are less job opportunities for all. When the economy fails, many people lose their jobs, and unemployment is on the rise. If there are less number of people, there would be more job opportunities and more educational aids for the students who want to go to college. Now that the world has reached the “7 billion” mark, the government has to find more ways of creating new jobs, so that people can earn a living.

11/1/2011
Springfield/PA

Nikki
McRae/Springfield High School
More people and an increase in population can only seem like it would have negative results. A greater population means more people using up resources, causing there to be less for the future and less for our present time, as well. Less resources and less room for people to live can mean more people are in poverty and just adds to the poverty level. With a bigger population, this only means more people are left to live in poverty since more people will be left without a job. With more left unemployed, some kind of solution is needed to increase jobs and new jobs need to be created. For me, the competition for a job will only be increased and it will be increasingly difficult to get a job with an increase in population.

11/1/2011
Mass. Watertown

Stepan
Mr. Rimas Watertown high school
I believe the more people we have in this then we wpould be using a lot of resources and that 43 percent of the population is under 24 and thats a problem beacause they have just started making their lives most of them still dont know the meaning of life.

10/31/2011
Irving/TX

Jerin
Bradley/Nimitz
The world population of 7 billion certainly does affect everyone's world. More people means more students to study and more candidates that are available for jobs. As a result, when the economy fails, thousands are left without jobs. Growing population increases the concern of education, jobs, housing etc. Then again, growing population does not affect the lives of the people because if you look at the number of people born everyday versus the number of people dying everyday, the stats come pretty close and one might think that increasing population is not at all a concern in vast modern world.