Super Eco

Photo credit: sarah gilbert

Population control is a general term that can refer to any method of limiting a region's population, but typically connotes government limits on birth rates due to concerns about the resulting poverty and environmental effects of overpopulation. In Western countries, population control has largely been effected by limiting immigration; in China, India and Iran, population control has been effected through mandatory birth control, inducements, and, in China, with a strict one-child policy.

Limits on birth rates are fraught with many social and political risks. The use of forced abortions or sterilizations, or, (in extreme cases) infanticide is widely decried, and yet these are the only ways to strictly enforce a birth rate limit. Punitive fines or other social justice mechanisms can lead to child abandonment and gender-selective abortions, as in India and China, where the birth rate of boys has risen as high as 118:100 (and 165:100 in some rural areas). In addition, severely limiting birth rates can lead to an aging population in which the older generation has little or no family to care for the elderly in their declining years.

Current predictions about the world's population growth indicate that the earth will be straining under a load of 9 to 10 billion people by 2050, and social scientists and environmentalists often cite analysis that indicates the environmental footprint of North Americans is too high; in order to support 6 billion individuals living like North Americans do, three or four planets would be required. Since ancient times, philosophers, especially Niccolo Macchiavelli, have warned that overpopulation will lead to plagues, famines and war. In early 2009, the "birth aversion" preached by the head of Great Britain's Sustainable Development Commission, Jonathon Porritt, brought the issue into international focus.