According to Ken Smail,in his writing titled, “Let’s Reduce Global Population!”, it is quite possible that the population growth on earth has already surpassed its limits. He also suggests that the planets “carrying capapacity” may only be half the number of people we already have and our time to reverse this is running out fast. Today, there are over 6 billion people on earth and this number is predicted to grow to 8-9 billion by the year 2050. The majority of this growth consisting of people living in conditions ranging from mild deprivation to severe deficiency. Currently, only 20% of the world population is living at an adaquate standard, while a extremely concerning 80% are living in poverty. I find all of this information to be very alarming. I often wonder how the earth can continue to accomodate a continually growing population. I feel that people need to start taking this issue much more seriously; there are only so many natural resources on this planet and the effects of excessive reproduction and overconsumption of resources is undoubtably going to catch up with us. Smail suggests, that to ensure the earths conservation and possibly reverse the damage already done, the population would need to dramatically decrease its population to 2-3 billion within the next two centuries. I believe most of us can agree that this seems almost impossible to achieve. So what does the future hold regarding this frightening issue? I am not sure but to begin to tackle it I agree with Smail who states that, “If we can collectively come to regard ourselves more as the Earth’s long-term stewards than its absolute masters,” maybe we can resolve this more effectively.

By: Melissa