Here again: World overpopulation still an issue

In revisiting my blog from 2008, and breathing life back into this discussion on current issues related to the study of anthropology, I noticed my last post was on overpopulation. In a recent article from The Associated Press, the United Nations is contemplating a free condom and family planning global campaign. Their supposed goals, however, aren't for the sake of humans, but for the Earth.

Critics are arguing that global warming and overpopulation aren't connected, but industrialization is the real culprit. Critics have a good point. While the report states that "The linkages between population and climate change are in most cases complex and indirect," it doesn't make clear that some of the most highly populated areas make the least amount of pollution. It's also important to remember how much child bearing and rearing of large families, is pertinent to many cultures, where "overpopulation" exists. Some are even saying that the U.N. Population Fund, which released the report in an attempt to get policies made within global warming strategies in a couple of weeks at the Kyoto Protocol conference, may have ulterior motives -- white, elitist motives, in fact.

However, UNFPA's mission: "is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect."

It's good to note that if these policies were to be implemented, it would be like Planned Parenthood here in the U.S. -- up to the user's discretion. You don't have to walk into Planned Parenthood to get a free condom if you don't want to; you don't have to get an abortion, pap smear, std testing, etc. It all comes down to the power of choice. But, maybe the UNFPA should stick to their mission statement and maybe shouldn't have used the warming climate as a ploy for family planning awareness ... though it was a good try.

Here's the dissuasive video. Notice there are no pictures of Hummer-driving Americans.

Stop procreating, please, for the sake of the human species

The Earth is 29.2 percent land at a surface area of is 148,940,000 km2. Not all of this, keep in mind, is inhabitable by humans (i.e. rocky landscapes, deserts, etc.) Yet, the human population keeps growing in a time when the Earth and its resources cannot necessarily support the human population and the rest of the animal kingdom.

According to the CIA World Factbook, as of July 2008 the world population was estimated at about 6.7 billion people. The echo effect, however, will be taking a toll on the world’s population here soon. The echo effect will be seen in the reproductive rates of the soon-to be-reproducing Generation Y, which roughly consists of those from their mid-20s down to young teenagers, though this can vary by source. The echo effect simply means that though there was a decline in birth rates after that of the Baby Boomer generation, all of the children had by the Baby Boomers will be reproducing soon, and some have already started. This means that a large influx of people will start having consuming children of their own all at once, causing for a large increase in birth rates beyond the average steady increase.

One major factor in the world’s population is that rural populations exceeded those of urban communities. According to the 2007 revision of the World Urbanization Prospects of the United Nations, 2008 marked the first year the urban population rivals that of the rural population. From this point on, the urban population is only expected to increase at a faster rate. This does not suggest, however, that rural and urban populations are evenly distributed throughout different continents. In Asia and Africa, for example, six out of 10 people live in a rural community, and approximately 75- to 78- percent of the world’s population live in a developing or less developed country.

The revised report also says the world’s population will increase by 2.5 billion people by 2050, which some argue is an extremely underestimated figure. Other sources, such as the World Population Awareness non-profit organization (WPA), say the population will double by 2035. Regardless of which estimate most accurately predicts the future of the world’s population, overpopulation hangs over the head of every individual.

What resources are we going to exacerbate with such a large increase? Where are these people going to live and work? While I do not condone or agree with genocide and other non-humanitarian forms of “controlling” the population, the effects of overpopulation on the Earth’s resources, the amount of disease, available food surpluses and poverty all must be examined and evaluated for tactful ways to deter the population growth.
WPA suggests some of the following for every individual/nation:
• Have less children
• Decrease the consumption of all resources
• Recycle more, have better production/disposal of toxic and human waste
• Less urbanization of farmland and depletion of soil
• Less urbanization where water is scarce

If only we were all made up of balanced polymorphisms

© 2007 Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
Charles E. Hess, M.D. and Lindsey Krstic, B.A.

Sickle cell disease is present in about 80,000 Americans. It is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, though many are only carriers. Being a carrier, however, doesn’t mean there will be the presence of the sickle cell trait.

The sickle cell trait means, in simple terms, the production of abnormal hemoglobin on red blood cells. Hemoglobin distributes oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body; a means of existence. The red blood cells, if affected by the sickle cell disease become constricted and sickle-like, making it difficult to travel through blood vessels, especially because many can clump together forming clots.

The physical expression of the disease only happens when a person is homozygous for the trait, meaning they have the same two alleles present for the trait. Those who are carriers, are heterozygous for the trait, meaning they only have one allele for the disease that is paired with a normal allele.

In malaria conceiving parts of the world, however, the presence of a sickle cell allele can mean saving their life if they contract malaria.

Malaria lives off of the hemoglobin on red blood cells. A person that has the sickle cell trait (that is, the homozygous form of the trait) will most definitely not be able to get malaria because of the abnormal hemoglobin. However, their chances of survival decreases anyway because the outcomes of expressing the sickle cell trait are lung tissue damage causing acute chest syndrome, stroke, damages to the spleen, kidney and liver, all of which can lower immune system health making the person vulnerable to bacterial infections. A person with the expressed sickle cell trait is therefore selected against in natural selection because of the detrimental affects of the disease.

Because a person is born with it, if homozygous for the disease, many die during childhood. Due to technology, research and preventative drug treatments, some sickle patients have been known to live past the age of 50.

In malarial areas, if a person does not have any alleles for sickle cell disease, then they have no natural way to fight it off, and are therefore selected against via malaria.

In the best of both worlds, however, there is the balanced polymorphism of the trait. A balanced polymorphism is the maintenance of a trait due to the selective advantage of a heterozygote.

The heterozygote for sickle cell disease (again a person who is a carrier) displays a balanced polymorphism. This is because the person does express the trait for sickle cell disease, and are therefore not affected by the trait.

The coolest part of this balanced polymorphism, though, is its ability to still protect people from malaria. If malaria is found in the body, the one allele present for sickle cell disease switches producing the abnormal hemoglobin. Well, if the hemoglobin on red blood cells isn’t available for malaria to support itself and spread throughout the body, then it will die out and rid itself of the body. As soon as it is gone, the allele for the sickle cell trait turns off, and the production of hemoglobin returns to normal.

The carrier is therefore well protected if living in a malarial environment. However, they can pass it on to their offspring, and if two people carrying an allele for sickle cell disease mate, there is a 25 percent chance they will have a child born expressing the sickle cell trait.

African Americans and Hispanic Americans are the most frequent carriers in the United States at one and 12 and one in 100, respectively.

The heterozygous form of sickle cell disease is just one example of a balanced polymorphism displaying the many marvels of human evolution.