One Child Policy of China and lessons for South Asian nations

[Fireaxe888]

The one-child policy is disgusting and tramples on one of our most fundamental freedoms. The way to reduce population growth is family planning, education and economic growth, not forcing the state into the bedrooms of the nation.

It's only a small leap from banning second children to compulsory sterilizaiton of "undesirables".

 

[Hello_10]

The one-child policy is disgusting and tramples on one of our most fundamental freedoms. The way to reduce population growth is family planning, education and economic growth, not forcing the state into the bedrooms of the nation.

It's only a small leap from banning second children to compulsory sterilizaiton of "undesirables".

South Asia is struggling with high population and we can't put our burden on others, there must be little self respect in this regard, isn't it? we need to have as much self respect as to understand that we need only as much population which may be fed by the limited resources we have, with limited effect on the environment also. more the population, more energy/resource consumption and hence more you need to beg other countries to feed your people. for example, have a look on Bangladesh of South Asia, they can either go into the sea or to India, no one is excepting their people on the name of religion also? do you want your people to reach this state also?

 

[Fireaxe888]

South Asia is struggling with high population and we can't put our burden on others, there must be little self respect in this regard, isn't it? we need to have as much self respect as to understand that we need only as much population which may be fed by the limited resources we have, with limited effect on the environment also. more the population, more energy/resource consumption and hence more you need to beg other countries to feed your people. for example, have a look on Bangladesh of South Asia, they can either go into the sea or to India, no one is excepting their people on the name of religion also? do you want your people to reach this state also?

Bulgaria's problem is population shrinkage, not growth. Since the late '80s, our poplation has gone down from nearly 9 to 7.5 million due to low birth rates and mass emigration.

The global population explosion is a very serious problem, but it can be controlled without resorting to extreme and illiberal policies. The developed world has already gone through its demographic transition and is faced with an ageing population and stagnant population growth, which forces them to rely on immigration to fund their social programs. China's already
suffering from labor shortages due to its low birth rate.

The lowering of birth rates is a worldwide phenomonon driven by economic development, social changes and use of contraceptives. Many if India's states, for example, already have near-replacement fertility (i.e. c. 2 children per woman). Its current rapid growth is due to a veyr large proportion of its population being in child-bearing age or younger. In time, India will reach a European or European-like situation too, which to be honest is still a bad thing.

 

[Snomannen]

The one-child policy is disgusting and tramples on one of our most fundamental freedoms. The way to reduce population growth is family planning, education and economic growth, not forcing the state into the bedrooms of the nation.

It's only a small leap from banning second children to compulsory sterilizaiton of "undesirables".

The Policy is not for every Chinese in the PRC anyway, there are exceptions.
Besides, if the government never implement this disgusting policy, there will not be freedoms in the future since we are all dead from serious pollution either using up all the resources.

PS: All hail the New Republic!

 

[ephone]

Really??? In no time, you can be No. 1 in this category. You think India is big enough for 1.5 billion or even 2 billion indians???

Indian fertility rate as of 2010 is 2.7 by end of this decade it will come to 2.1. So not many worries about the population.

You must be either an idiot or too naive to believe that there are better ways than one-child policy then in the end of 1970s in China.

The one-child policy is disgusting and tramples on one of our most fundamental freedoms. The way to reduce population growth is family planning, education and economic growth, not forcing the state into the bedrooms of the nation.

It's only a small leap from banning second children to compulsory sterilizaiton of "undesirables".

 

[Hello_10]

Population growth biggest threat to India’s development

Rising population is the greatest threat to the sustainable development in India, a policy maker has told a recent summit.

Rural areas in particular must receive better formal education on environmental issues to improve the quality of stewardship.

SP Singh, a planning advisor to the state of Uttarakhand said that the failure to manage population in the Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand could lead to the disruption of natural resource management in Himalayan region.

Singh called for improvements in society’s understanding of the economic and environmental impact of ecosystem services.

He also said a system of accountability was required to prevent the indiscriminate use of natural resources.

At an international level, Indian politicians are calling for the right to use their resources to pursue development, without externally imposed constraints from the UN.

The Environmental concerns and sustainable development conference, organised by the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development (IESD), Banaras Hindu University, also heard a plea for local knowledge to come to the fore.

“Wisdom emerging from the local community is a better method for sustainable development,” said Professor PS Ramakrishnan, Jawaharlal Nehru University, who pointed to political conflict as the main driver of environmental degradation.

India is currently facing the “perfect storm” scenario of escalating climate impacts, rapidly growing population and increasing development all putting pressure on food security and ecosystem health.

Instilling sustainability concepts for developing nations, such as efficient cook stoves and clean lighting can have benefits for human health and the environment.

The Sundarbans habitat, which spans Indian and Bangladeshi territory is currently under is facing immense environmental pressures and could soon be home to a new coal power station.

Population growth biggest threat to India's development | RTCC - Responding to Climate Change

 

[XTREME]

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That's my marriage & nothing could stop me

 

[Hello_10]

Real Threat to Environment is Increasing Population

Sunday, June 5, was World Environment Day. A day when polyester-fibre ribbons were cut and bulky books and reports using bleached fine stationery and funds from international agencies launched in CFC-using air conditioned wood-panelled halls. A day when the elites had the satisfaction of doing something for the environment and when schools encouraged children to use wax crayons and synthetic paints to paint trees and animals (which most of them have never seen except from the balcony of the resort-room in vacation or a fleeting glance of a black-buck when the family went on tiger-watching safari but failed to see one) on fine grade virgin-paper.

Some enthusiastic urban yuppies parked themselves for a few extra hours in front of the PC to shoot a thousand mails to countless like-minded about their wish to switch off power for an hour on a particular day to ‘Save Environment’. This will be followed by couple of parties and boozing sessions to finalise the plans, which are then communicated through more emails, phone calls, bike rallies, SMS and so on.

India’s problem with the environment is best illustrated and manifested at the safari parks. Moneyed and fat, gutkha-chewing and power-wielding urban families land in the finest forest resorts in subsidised diesel-burning expensive SUVs with the most expensive cameras and gadgetry to watch tigers and (lions if the place is Gir forest). Early in the morning, hundreds of them turn out, ready to shell out Rs3,000-Rs4,000 for an entry permit, entry ticket, guide charges, vehicle fees etc, outside the forest department offices.

A caravan of 50 SUVs, each loaded with about eight to 10 people, all searching for a tiger. Soon the guides create excitement over a wireless message about a tiger spotting some distance away.

They wear an earnest air to convince you. When you return frustrated, they congratulate every one. “Boss, do you see that? You are damn lucky! The tiger passed just 5-minutes back…. See that fresh tiger-potty…. It wasn’t there 15 minutes earlier. Its still watery….”. I will spare you the banal details of what all the guides hard sell.

The cubs, the children and adults then go back with souvenirs of Save the Tiger T-shirts and caps. Can any one in a sane state of mind actually believe that the tiger or even a wild sparrow wait at a corner under a thicket when a circus of a dozen diesel-guzzling and noise-belching vehicles pass by? Do 500 people who have spent about Rs10,000 per head for a jungle vacation really believe that a tiger will be waiting to give them a ‘darshan’ amid high-pitched-cacophony in all the spoken languages of India?

These people maybe silly, like most of us are, but they are not ill-meaning. They just don’t know what to do about the environment: so they decide to spend their hard-earned money to at least see it. Someone needs to tell them what they can do to not ruin it; there is no need to make a patronising statement to save it.

The whole circus of environment protection in India is heading towards becoming a farcical industry. They are far from talking about the real problem. Under the disguise of development and growth, the spineless politicians and money-multiplying industries will want to avoid talking about it. The economists have re-packaged the weakness as strength. The real problem lies in the ever-increasing population of India. With 1/5 of the world’s population, we have only 1/20 of the world’s land. We also have the world’s highest population growth rate on such a scale of population. For a simple comparison, we don’t even have one-third the land resources that China has.

How is a fragile eco-system of a river or even a sea, if some 5 billion people use a flush daily? How can rain forests exist if the country consumes several lakh tons of tea every morning? Like the disappearing Aravalli Hills, most of the hills near urban sprawls will soon be history as they will be consumed for mammoth construction projects as raw material. This nation needs an immediate re-look at the population policy and consumption of resources for industries if we don’t want to end up killing each other for a glass of fresh water or for a breath of fresh air. Will any economist, environmentalist please stand up on this occasion to tell the truth — where will we head with the exponential multiplication of our population?

Real threat to environment is increasing population - India - DNA

 

[Hello_10]

The Effects of Population Growth on Economic Development
By Ploni Almoni, eHow Contributor

Population growth is closely tied to economic development. On the one hand, labor shortages will slow the rate of economic growth in industrialized countries, but on the other hand, a high birthrate in a developing country may stress limited renewable resources. Governments in western and other industrialized countries like Japan are challenged to create effective immigration policies and programs to increase the birthrate, while countries with weaker economies pursue public health policies to reduce population growth. Globally, a smaller population presents multiple benefits from an ecological perspective, but some economies are challenged by low birthrates and are redirecting their need for unskilled labor to countries with higher populations and lower wage demands.

Read more: The Effects of Population Growth on Economic Development | eHow.com

 

[Hello_10]

Why Population Matters

With the world confronting a host of major crises relating to climate, energy, severe poverty, food, the global economy and political instability, why should anyone be concerned about population? The simple answer is that virtually all of the major problems that confront the world today relate in some critical way to population growth.

While public concern about rapid population growth has subsided in recent decades, world population is still growing at about 80 million people a year. If current trends persist, there will 2.5 billion more people on the planet by mid-century, bringing the total to about 9.2 billion. That projected population growth raises a host of questions about the future of humanity and the planet we inhabit.

Most importantly, will we be able to feed 9.2 billion people? This year, for the first time in history, over 1 billion people go to bed hungry every day. High food prices and the global economic recession have pushed 100 million more people than last year into chronic hunger and poverty. And, looking ahead, we know that climate change, rising energy prices, and growing water scarcity will make it harder, not easier, to grow the crops necessary to feed an expanding population. Mounting soil erosion and the loss of farm land will also add to the challenge of boosting food production.

And it's not just food that's potentially in short supply. Water scarcity is a growing concern. In many parts of the world today, major rivers at various times of the year no longer reach the ocean. In some areas, lakes are going dry and underground water aquifers are being rapidly depleted. And climate change, of course, will make the water situation even more critical. Drier areas will be more prone to drought, wetter areas more prone to flooding, and the summer runoff from snowpack and glaciers will diminish

As food, water, and other resources are strained by the escalating demands of a growing world population, the number of environmental refugees in the world will rise…and so will the potential for conflict and civil war.

Fortunately, for all of us, there is one simple strategy that will help to address all these problems: provide universal access to voluntary family planning and reproductive health services. There are over 100 million women in the world today who want to space or limit their pregnancies, but who lack knowledge of, or access to, modern methods of contraception. By educating and empowering women, and giving them access to family planning services, we can save lives, strengthen families, fight poverty, preserve the environment, and help achieve a world population that can live in harmony with the planet.

The Population Institute

 

[Hello_10]

Why “Resource Sufficiency Evaluation” is Crucial: Sustainable World Initiatives

> Sustainable Development is Not the Same as Sustainability:

Sustainability, from a natural resource perspective, means that we don’t take things from
nature faster than nature can replace them. For an ecosystem like a forest, it means that
we don’t harvest trees faster than the forest can regrow them. Otherwise we will eventually
destroy the forest. For an underground aquifer system, it means that we don’t pump water
out faster than it is naturally replenished. Making development more efficient, and thus more
sustainable, is important, but merely making economic activity more sustainable does not
guarantee that we are living within nature’s means.

> We’re Already Consuming Resources at an Unsustainable Rate:

With 7 billion people on the planet and rising levels of affluence, we are already exceeding
nature’s limits. Every two years, the Global Footprint Network and the World Wildlife Fund
publish a “Living Planet” report that looks at humanity’s ecological footprint. The latest
report, issued in 2010, indicates that humankind is already overusing the renewable resource
capacity of Earth’s biosphere by 50%. Climate change, peak oil, water scarcity, biodiversity
loss, and recurring food crises are all signs that humanity is overusing global resources.
Leading scientists warn that we are in biological and general resource overshoot.

> We’re Already in Danger of Breaking Planetary Boundaries:

Thirty leading scientists assembled by the Stockholm Resilience Centre have identified nine
“planetary boundaries,” which, if crossed, could cause irreparable harm to the planet and
the prospects for future human well-being. According to these scientists, we have already
exceeded three of these important boundaries: climate change, nitrogen loadings, and the
rate of biodiversity loss. The other six boundaries—ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone,
aerosol loadings, freshwater use, land use changes, and chemical pollution—to varying
degrees are also approaching a scale “where abrupt global environmental change can no
longer be excluded.”

> The Challenge is Getting Larger, Not Smaller:

The demands that we are placing upon the planet are growing exponentially. According to
U.N. projections, world population—currently 7 billion—is likely to grow to 9 billion by 2042
and to over 10 billion by 2085. At the same time, the world’s economic output continues to
rise at 3-4 percent a year, putting enormous pressures on a fragile ecology and a dwindling
resource base.

> “Greening” the Economy is Necessary, but Not Sufficient:

With the world economy on track to quadruple in size over the next half century, any gains
we make in producing renewable energy or in conserving resources will not, in all likelihood,
be enough to achieve a sustainable world. Indeed, historical data show that technological
advances can accelerate the rate at which natural resources are consumed and the
environment is impacted. Green technologies may help to de-link resource extraction from
economic growth, but—by themselves—they will not ensure progress toward sustainability.

> Resource Exploitation has Propelled Human Progress:

In the past 100 years we have made major strides in improving the human condition. Average
life spans have more than doubled. Food production has more than quadrupled. Living
standards in many countries have increased by a factor of at least ten. Our progress has been
propelled by the extraction of fossil fuels and the exploitation of natural resources, but it has
taken a terrible toll on the environment, and our resource base is steadily shrinking.

> Our Very Future Depends on Resource Sufficiency:

We cannot maintain the progress we have made in eliminating poverty and eradicating
hunger, unless we maintain an adequate resource base. Continued advances in human
welfare will require sufficient land, water, minerals, and metals. We will also need healthy
ecosystems capable of sustaining a wide range of biological diversity, including human life.

> Sustainability Requires Resource Sufficiency Evaluation:

We will never know if we have enough resources to maintain human development unless
we actually evaluate our resource demands and compare them to what is available. No one
would think of driving a car or flying a plane without a fuel gauge. By the same token, we
cannot plan for our future without knowing whether we have enough resources to meet our
projected needs. Every nation, whether its economy is developed or developing, should
undertake a resource sufficiency evaluation, and the international community should provide
technical support. At the same time, world leaders must undertake an international resource
sufficiency evaluation to gauge global progress towards a sustainable world.

> Methodologies Already Exist for Doing Resource Sufficiency Evaluations:

Scientifically-based accounting methodologies, such as the ecological footprint, are already
available to conduct resource sufficiency evaluations. These methodologies, and the biophysical
‘balance sheets’ that are generated, will give policymakers and the public a clearer
understanding of sustainability and what is needed to achieve it. Our future depends on it.
Resource Sufficiency Evaluation is our Road Map to a Sustainable Future.

Resource Sufficiency Evaluation is our Road Map to a Sustainable Future.

http://www.populationinstitute.org/external/files/Fact_Sheets/SWI_2_Pager.pdf

Sustainable World Initiative