Overpopulation poses great problems

There would be around 10 billion people on the planet by 2060. The overpopulation increases the risk of food and water shortage around the world.

Associate Professor Ian Dawson of the University of Southampton Business School, Centre for Risk Research, United Kingdom, who together with colleague Professor Johnnie Johnson conducted the new study.

In their study, “Does Size Matter? A Study of Risk Perceptions of Global Population Growth,” a key finding was that “the individuals who perceived greater levels of risk from population growth were generally those who indicated a greater willingness to embrace mitigation behaviors and support preventative actions,” says Dawson. The findings “are particularly important as they suggest that greater concern about the potential adverse effects of global population growth might act as an important catalyst for behavioral changes that could help humanity better manage some of the related challenges, such as conserving valuable resources and mitigating human-induced climate change.”

The foremost concerns of respondents who perceive medium-to-high risks were the greater likelihood of ecological damage, resource shortages, and violent conflict, the study found. In addition, the worst effects from a more crowded world are likely to occur in the mid-21st century, respondents felt, and most likely to be experienced by the world’s poorest people. Approximately half of respondents (50.3%) believed that governments rather than individuals or communities had the greatest ability to influence global population levels, and most agreed national governments were not doing enough to tackle GPG.

“Discussions about global population growth are often absent from modern political discourse,” perhaps because there are social taboos, scientific uncertainties, it is a polarizing topic, or other reasons, Dawson notes. “In democratically representative politics, this is at odds with the finding that public concern about global population growth is relatively high. Hence, it could be argued that there is a need for policymakers to take greater steps towards openly discussing global population growth and to make greater efforts to gauge and respond to the public’s related concerns,” he adds. In Dawson’s view, such open discussions could play an important part in helping people to develop a better understanding of GPG and its potential effects and, in response, “to work collectively towards proportionate responses that enable humanity to capitalize on any associated benefits while carefully managing any related risks.” The study found that individuals lacked a good understanding of GPG statistics, such as the projected size of the population across the 21st Century.

Among those surveyed, older respondents with relatively low risk perceptions were the least willing to change their behavior. “While the present study found that many younger people perceived the risk of global population growth as relatively high,” Dawson says, “it could be seen as reassuring that the study found that these younger people, who stand to inherit and occupy a more populated world, are those that tended to be most willing to adopt mitigation actions.”

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Category: Features, Health alert