International days are marked to educate the public, and organise political and corporate efforts & resources to addressglobal issues.
This year, the UN intends to bring attention to the “unfinished business of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development" and call for leaders, policy makers and grassroots organizations to take action on projects that address this issue.
Today, it is clear that the Earth’s carrying capacity is overwhelmed - our global footprint requires 1.5 Earths to sustain the world’s current population.
However, humans are complex, for better and for good.
Our lifestyle and the way we consume natural resources are not uniform. If our consumption and population growth trends remain the same we will reach the need for 3 Earths by the year of 2050.
Only if we change the way we live, we may be able to come to a point where we could sustain a larger number of people without jeopardising our planet.
The UN states that countries must implement actions to respect our Earth’s capacity. Here are one of the biggest ways of reducing the growth of our population:
- Improving gender equality
- Access to voluntary reproductive health care
- Access to education
Project Drawdown states that “the more education a woman attains, the fewer children she has.”
The UNPD has made clear that access to voluntary reproductive health care could result in 1 billion people less in the world by 2050 and this is pointed as the most manageable way of controlling population growth.
However, the subject of population growth and overpopulation is controversial.
Controlling our population is definitely important, however changing the way we consume Earths’s resources is also crucial to create a sustainable world for all.
