Gilbert C. Deniega

Republic of the Philippines SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE School of Graduate Studies Sorsogon City A.Y- GILBERT C. DENIEGA MAED-Science Education A REFLECTION ON POPULATION CONTROL World’s population has reached almost 7.8 billion in number this year according to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometer. This number is considerably huge for one to reflect on. On the average, the increase in world’s population is getting bigger with time. Alarming would be the point in which the number of consumers exceeds the number of available resources. When this happens, scarcity might be a major problem. Food and energy consumption would become a worldwide concern. Several undesirable consequences might come along our ways. Loss of biodiversity, land conversions, deforestations and ecosystem disequilibrium are just some few of the many that might happen each also leading to unwanted results. Several views about rapid population growth and its control and its correlation to poverty were held. According to Paul Ehrlich, Bing professor of population studies at Stanford University in California and author of the best-selling Population Bomb book in 1968, physical numbers were as important as the amount of natural resources consumed. Overpopulation has been blamed for a variety of issues, including increasing poverty, high unemployment rates, environmental degradation, famine and genocide. On the other hand, according to Thomas Sowell and Walter E. Williams, economists of their time, doubted that a correlation between population reduction/control and economic growth exists. They argued that poverty and famine are caused by bad government and bad economic policies, not by overpopulation. Likewise, in his book The Ultimate Resource, Julian Simon, another economist, argued that higher population density leads to more specialization and technological innovation, which in turn leads to a higher standard of living. He claimed that human beings are the ultimate resource since we possess "productive and inventive minds that help find creative solutions to man’s problems, thus leaving us better off over the long run". So which stand must stand out? To which should we go with? In response to this foreseen major problem, many countries have formulated regulations and campaigns against rapid population increase. Several population control-related laws and policies were passed and implemented. Several control methods and practices were introduced early in and through human history. Abstinence, emigration, decreasing immigration, abortion, starvation, famine, pestilence, contraceptives, plague and war, to name some if not all, were used. In the Philippine context, as a religious country, still discourage almost all of these practices. Acceptable practices are just abstinence, emigration and decreasing immigration. The rest seemed to be ungodly in the perspective of the many. My philosophy in this matter is that “Nothing is more important than life.” So it’s reasonable to control the population in godly ways. But to reduce it is not an acceptable one. So control and reduce mean different things. To control implies discipline while to reduce implies killing. War, plague, starvation, famine, pestilence and abortion are means to reduce the number but in a very unacceptable and unjust ways. And we don’t need such methods. I believe in the view of Julian Simon. The ultimate resource we need is still the human, our fellowmen. The best thing that we can do is to unite everyone’s acts and minds to achieve a sustainable life here on earth.