(MintPress) – A new study released by the Pew Research Center revealed that the U.S. birthrate dipped last year to a record low, with the decline being led by immigrant women feeling the pressure of the recession.
Overall, the U.S. birth rate, or the the annual number of births per 1,000 women in the prime childbearing ages of 15-44, declined 8 percent from 2007 to 2010.
In 2011, the birth rate was 63.2 per 1,000 women of childbearing age. That rate is the lowest since at least 1920, the earliest year for which there are reliable numbers.
This new information has lead some to contend that this plunge in birth rates is a big problem — and the solution is for Americans to get busy (no pun intended) and start having more kids.
“The decline in birth rate has strongly negative implications for the economy and social policies in the country as the people born, aging to work age and paying taxes is declining rapidly. Baby power is needed to support the baby boomer generation which is retiring and expecting Social Security payments,” writes columnist Scott Paulson, national conservative political reporter for Examiner.
However, a rapidly increasing global population is resulting in human overpopulation, and the effects of this are multiple and ominous. There are currently about 6.8 billion people on Earth, and humans add nearly 1.5 million people to our world population every week.
The new record low in the U.S. has been attributed to a host of factors including fallout from the economic conditions in the U.S.; women becoming more educated and pursuing careers; postponing or foregoing having children; or having less children than previous generations. Lower birth rates may not be such a reason for concern, given the startling array of problems stemming from overpopulation on a global scale. In fact, lower birth rates may be seen in a positive light by those hoping to be responsible stewards of the planet.
Problems linked to overpopulation plague the planet
As birth rates climb, natural resources are being used at a faster rate than they can be replaced, creating enormous economic pressures in the U.S. while the standard of living declines for many countries throughout the rest of the world.
A variety of global environmental problems also stem from this dramatic increase in population, which is further impacted by advanced medical technologies and improved social conditions which have given people the power to defy mortality rates that plagued earlier eras in human history and extend life.
However, we are depleting our natural resources — including forests, fisheries, croplands and plant and animal species — and destroying the biological diversity on which evolution depends as the population rises globally.
“Scientific evidence shows overwhelmingly that human pressures on the planet have reached a point that poses major risks for future welfare and prosperity; this sustainability crisis is manifested through increasingly serious social, financial, economic and environmental problems worldwide,” write Anders Wijkman, co-president of the Club of Rome and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Johan Rockström, professor and director of the Stockholm Resilience Center, in the Guardian.
The evidence suggests a stark future if humans don’t start working to correct and curb some of the problems they are creating.
“The most recent scientific reports indicate that we are transgressing planetary boundaries that have kept civilisation safe for the past 10,000 years. Accelerating human activity is now the most significant driver of global change, propelling the planet into a new geological era, the Anthropocene, defined by our massive impact on the planet,” Wijkman and Rockström argue. The duo have just published a new book, “Bankrupting Nature,” which was released this month.
The current state that our planet is in and the problems that it presents for future generations is no surprise to most, however. “People are nearly everywhere becoming more aware of and better informed about climate, energy, and sustainability. This savvy is becoming baked into our educational systems, our laws, and our cultural institutions, and will only further deepen the understanding that people have of the issues and the many ways of dealing with the environmental crisis that confronts us,” William F. Hewitt writes in “A Newer World:Politics, Money, Technology, and What’s Really Being Done to Solve the Climate Crisis”.
Hewitt contends that awareness about degradation of the environment is reflected in many polls, stating, “Most populations in the major economies that account for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions have a high level of awareness. Gallup has surveyed people in 111 countries and found that 42 percent found global warming a serious threat. In another poll, a broad majority wanted action on climate change, with majorities in fourteen of fifteen countries, both developed and developing nations, willing to address the matter.”
Still, with all of the information available, some sit idly by, while others deny the reality of environmental hazards. For example, earlier this year, MintPress reported on conservative group the Heartland Institute which held its seventh annual climate change denial conference in Chicago, where the group compared scientists who believe in climate change to “The Unabomber,” Ted Kacynski. However, the good news is that with dwindling numbers of corporate sponsors, the once powerful conservative group looks to be in a state of irreversible decline.
The solution lies in education
While people seem to be waking up to the threats that human activity today place on future generations, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensuring future generations have a safe and prosperous future. “We desperately need strategies for planetary stewardship. Solutions and policies must pass through a ‘9 billion filter’ – that is, they should work for a future population of 9 billion people, which means delivering services that offer gains in resource efficiency by a factor of five or more, building a low-carbon and resource-efficient infrastructure, and seeking systems-based and transformative solutions,” Wijkman and Rockström relay.
While the picture of a future painted by ignoring these burgeoning problems is too frightful to imagine, it does not have to be that way. As natural resources rapidly diminish, these problems can no longer be ignored, and as a human family we have a role and a responsibility to play in setting a new course for humanity.
“What must we do to ensure that population growth is not out of control? The answer lies in education. We humans are a very young species. We have been here for only a short time. We are like a child just learning to walk. We face grave challenges that demand a rapid shift in our behavior. Our teacher is our parent. Our parent is the natural world from which we emerged. In every way, in every facet of our existence, we must learn to align ourselves with that which supports life. There is no alternative if we are going to avoid catastrophic consequences,” Joseph Simonetta, activist and author of “Seven Words That Can Change the World,” writes on his website.
Simonetta, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, believes that humankind can reverse its destructive and unsustainable momentum, end needless suffering, prosper together, find peace, sustain humanity and advance our civilization by working together.
“With so many of us on a very small planet, and with the addition of so many more every week, we can no longer continue to relate to each other, our environment, ecological systems and biosphere as we have or we will succumb to the effects of human overpopulation. Nature, which could not care less, will eliminate us. We humans must grow up and learn to walk … hand in hand with each other and with our natural world. There is no alternative if we wish to sustain humanity and advance our civilization.”