Population Preassure.

Essay by forgiveme88College, UndergraduateA-, February 2008

download word file, 7 pages 3.0

This 1700-word research paper deals with the politics of Global Welfare. How population growth affects politics. Population pressure is becoming an increasingly pressing challenge in the modern world. Demographic change all over the world has become a source of new political and global issues. In short, the focus of domestic and world politics has undergone a dramatic shift, increasingly focusing on demographic issues. There are currently 6.5 billion humans occupying the Earth. How will this crowd impact the planet's carrying capacity in the long run? How many people can Earth support? Evidence and common sense indicate that uncontrolled population explosion will result in further environmental degradation and domestic strife. These questions and challenges have been put at the top of the population and environmental agenda, resulting in serious political issues. If governments do not unite together and react to the implications of ever-growing populations, there will most probably be serious economic, environmental, social, and political consequences.

In exploring how population growth affects the prospects for preserving the environment for future generations as well as the balanced ecology on which life itself depends, it is important, first of all, to understand the concept of the tragedy of commons. This metaphor underlines the potential impact of human behavior and growth on Earth's resources and ecosystems. Basically, the metaphor discusses how a "green" piece of land in a village was overgrazed by too many unrestrained herders eventually resulting in destruction of the land. Likewise, humans are uncontrollably exploiting the limited resources of the earth, pushing international disputes onto the world stage. The articulator of this theory, Garrett Hardin is fully convinced that the expansion of humans on Earth will eventually result in depletion of resources and a doomed future for humankind. What is important to note here is that each nation is pursuing...