Growing Population of the World and the Responsibilities of Rich Countries

[Yasir Hayat Khan]

Some people say that the gap between the world’s rich and poor is growing as fast as its population. They converse consumption crisis and unequal distribution of the world’s finite resources and a growing threat to the well being of much of the planet’s population. Does the developing world with its stable population have a moral obligation to share its wealth with its poor neighbors? Moreover, what is the environmental impact of the current consumption levels?

The environmentalists have been warning about a threat of population growth for decades but whether or not you are experiencing the consequences depends largely on where you live. According to UN when a child is born, he/she has a 3 & 10 chance of being born into abject poverty and 4 & 10 chance of being only marginally better of. That body enters the world where the wealthiest countries are using far more than an equal share of resources. The richest 1/5th of humanity consumes 86% of the world’s goods and services, the poorest 5th consumes just over 1%, and current trends where the developing world absorbing almost all of the world’s population growth are likely to make the disparity worst.

The population growth rate is far at pace then our ability to ride people jobs and education, housing and health care, in addition to that we are causing tremendous environmental problems in the world. But necessity is sworn in innovation. Technology is seen as the best hope for solving other problems like the shortage of drinking water in India. But is technology the solution to correcting the world’s consumption in balance or should the world’s wealthiest countries learn to live with less, so that the seventh billionth baby enters the world where the resources are shared more equitably.

The principle population problems in the world today are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian sub-continent which includes Pakistan. In sub-Saharan Africa population are going still at close to 3% a year which is 20 folds increase in 100 years. Obviously no country can stay on that trajectory for very long, most of the services are lagging behind the growing population, whether its education or health care or even such basic things as food production. In the Indian sub-continent the big problem is going to be water. Water tables are falling almost every where in India, and at some point it is going to be likely to effect India’s capacity to feed itself. Water is probably the most underestimated resource issue that we would face this century.

When we look at the growing affluence of population that increase spending power and increase consumption that it starts to multiply up into something very serious. Developed countries are drawing in resources from all over the world and this has an enormous effect in the countries that these materials come from. We now live in an integrated global economy, rich countries should be concerned about the problems of developing countries. We have seen that the collapse of a currency in Indonesia can effect the entire global economy, we are now integrated economically and certainly we have always been integrated environmentally. But, if we are going to deal with the problems facing the world effectively, we are going to do it together, that means the developed countries, must help out the developing countries.

North America is making a great deal of its resources available to developing countries in the form of food exports. USA and Canada together export 120 million tons of grain per year, and a great part of that goes to developing countries that are no longer able to feed themselves. Countries that are facing water shortages are finding that the most efficient way to import water is to import it in the form of grain because 1 ton of grain equals 1000 tons of water. However, only grain export is not the solution, developed countries have to do more.

In the field of genetically modified food, the technology can be transferred to developing countries, which would help in tackling the food problem. Instead of using the world’s precious resources in oil and gas, hot tropical countries that have got large areas of desert, perfect places to invest in solar power, to generate lots of electricity from a highly renewable method. The problem of drinking water can be solved by establishing desalting plants, but most of the developing world can’t afford to do this. The developed world can help in by establishing such plants and making the technology cheaper.

We call this world a global village, for the sustenance of this global village for our future generations we need to work together. We are integrated environmentally as well as economically which means we live together and we die together.
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*Fact and Figures, UN Population Division