Population, Conservation, Natural Resources, and Sustainability

I don't see things getting better if population continues to increase generation after generation. With those increases, development to support population also increases. Nature gets destroyed to make room for homes, businesses, and industries. Natural resources get consumed to support the population at an increased rate over the previous generation. Without conservation efforts, this population increase leads to a risk of hitting environmental resistance limitations. The issue with hitting those limits in resources is that members of the population will begin to compete for ever-increasing resources for survival. Consider the famine in East Africa.

One good way to address these issues is by working toward goals similar to those of the Permaculture movement. Permaculture is an effort to create a sustainable culture through ecological programs. These efforts include living in harmony with the environment, using only the resources necessary for survival, minimizing waste, to create sustainable communities reliant on themselves, rather than larger networks that require massive amounts of energy and resources to provide us with our needs. By conserving our resources and using only what we need to survive, we can reduce the impact our lives collectively have on the environment, thereby reducing the negative impact we create, and preserving a healthy and sustainable world for subsequent generations. Unless we work toward those type of sustainable goals, subsequent generations will have a lower quality of life.

It was not long ago that Americans also tried to have large families for the same reason. Survival chances for children in this country were much lower a century or more ago. With a large number of children, parents could ensure that their family would continue to grow larger with each passing generation, resulting in higher birth rates. They hoped for a large number of children, but were not concerned with hitting the limits of the resources that could sustain that growth. It was not an issue when the population was a small fraction of what it is today. This country was a developing nation in those times, just as we observe about other countries today. As countries around the world develop, education regarding sustainability needs must be included so that those countries can manage their use of resources and avoid hitting environmental resistance limits. Once those limits are reached, life becomes difficult and competition over resources creates a culture working merely toward survival rather than conservation. By education the population on these issues, we can avoid issues like famine, overpopulation, resource depletion, and excessive pollution.