Critical Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critical Response - Essay Example Population growth and reduction in resources has been a widely discussed dilemma since nineteenth century. However, initially the idea of lack of resources was put forward in 1789, by Reverend Thomas Malthus; his worst fear was global starvation. He pointed out, when growth of a population is not controlled with rapidly depleting non-renewable resources and degrading the capacity of the environment to support its inhabitants; such area is overpopulated and soon becomes the victim of famine, disease or war and requires reducing its human overload. Malthus advocated delay in the time of marriage to check overpopulation, which was purely hypothetical and its implementation was difficult. Malthus predicted overpopulation and tried to stabilize the long term economy of the state, but his theory of late marriages became rather controversial and was considered impractical (Overbeek, 1977, p 4). His theory was condemned by many critics, as it failed to identify the source of the problem and didn’t provide any potential solution, to increase food resources through science and technology. His theory put a stop on the enthusiasm of some of the scholars, who considered growth of population as a sign of development. None of the attention was shed on the subject as his theories were considered misanthropic in that time. Colin D. Butler further explains the scenario by giving examples from the start of 1934, when biotechnological research reached their pinnacle and increased life expectancy, thus decreasing global food supply to nourish the increasing human population. This situation also alerted politicians, demographers as well as the common public and US presidents of different time periods increased their support to different family planning campaigns in different zones of high population. Almost every Theorist and Scientist accept the kind of stress the world is facing and most of it is due to lack of resources. Arguments arise when reasons of these deficiencies a re being discussed. Anup Shah in Global Issues suggest that the reason to most of the problems might be related to the way we produce, consume and waste our resources, which also reflects our lifestyles and its related issues. (Shah, 1998, p 3) In 1970, new crop strains were introduced by â€Å"Green Revolution† which in the period which was predicted to be shadowed by famine, war or disease. Fortunately, this period turned out to be a period of optimism for health sector. The introduction of contraceptives reduced the fertility rate, but did little to control the annual global population growth which concerned many global demographers and scientists. Norman Borlaug, father of Green revolution warned that the organization can feed three decades, only with correct fertility control measures. After which, China announced its one-child policy in 1979. Infliction of forced abortions and restriction on birth caused more psychological problems than ever. This has imbalanced the nat ural process of reproduction and is an artificial method to control the population, which shows not an extensive change in economic condition. Thus, it has become a reason of reduced production in human capital. (Chow, 2007, p 203) Butler further described extensive revolutions that occurred in the economic environment of many countries during 1970s that led to the concern of overpopulation fade away. US decreased its foreign aid, but continued its policies such as Keynesianism, which