Today’s 800 Crore Population May Not Be A Bane

As per the projection by the United Nations world’s population will cross the 800 crore mark on Tuesday. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has not termed it as bad news. According to him, this is an occasion to celebrate diversity and advancements while considering humanity’s shared responsibility for the planet.

The human population has increased fast during the past century because of higher fertility rates, particularly in the world’s poorest countries as well as declining death rate because of better medical facilities.

Problem or boon:

For several experts 800 crore human population is not a major problem for our mother earth. The real problem is the greedy overconsumption of resources by the wealthiest humans. It is a tussle between natural limits and human choices.

A group of humans is consuming far more biological resources like forests and land than the planet can regenerate each year. Over consumption of fossil fuels by developed nations is responsible for global warming.

Population growth is slowing:

In comparison to 1950, the human population now is more than three times. But the population growth rate which was at its peak of 2.1 percent between 1962 and 1965 has come down to below 1 percent in 2020. As per the projection of the UN, it may fall further to 0.5 percent by 2050.

The US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates that the global population will never reach 1000 crore. It will fall to 8.8 billion by 2100.

Conquering death:

World’s total human population was around 60 lakh in 10,000 BC. It became one crore in 2,000 BC. This is the opinion of the French Institute for Demographic Studies.

Diseases caused a drop in the human population between 1300 and 1400 AD. The population fell from 42.9 crore to 37.4 million. Plagues and wars of the early Middle Ages in Europe also led to temporary fall in the number of humans.

But with the development of the modern and better medical system, and better food availability because of agricultural development, population started to gallop from the 19th century.

The emergence of vaccines against uncurable was the key reason behind the further rise in population in the 20th century. Humans have always overcome all obstacles to live on this planet. We can hope 800 crore human population will surely prove to be a positive factor for human civilization on earth.