Cramped

On October 31st last year, we hit 7 billion. Sounds like we hit some cosmic jackpot but it’s something serious, and definitely a whole lot bigger.

The United Nations declared in a report that on that last day of October, the world’s population has been projected to have reached 7,000,000,000 people, just 13 years after it reached 6 billion. In 1927, there were only 2 billion people. That’s a lot of zeroes gained in 84 years.

The UN says the world is going to be okay, though. “With planning and the right investments in people now ... our world of 7 billion can have thriving, sustainable cities, productive labor forces that can fuel economic growth, youth populations that contribute to the well-being of economies and societies, and a generation of older people who are healthy and actively engaged in the social and economic affairs of their communities,” according to a report by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

But I don’t buy it.

The UNFPA launched a movement called 7 Billion Actions, which aims to “inspire change that will make a difference by highlighting positive action by individuals and organizations around the world.” They even have this song that they recorded, with lyrics in the chorus that go “We have to bring the world together/ We have to live as one/ We have to bring the world together/ We shall overcome” Bring the world together, really? Overcome?

Tell that to the millions of unemployed people around the world who can’t find decent jobs. To the uneducated parents who keep making babies. To the children who know no other life than one on the streets. To the old people who were abandoned by their own children. To the youth that don’t know where their lives are headed. To the rich people who aren’t doing anything with their money except making themselves even richer.

I do believe in change, and I do believe in action that creates it, but the site and its statement, and the song, definitely, are all too blindly optimistic for reality. In the words of Aristotle, virtue itself is not enough; there must also be the power to translate it into action. The UN does serve as a uniting body for the world, but it can only do so much, really. Of course every government in the world will have to think of something, and the attitudes of every person with the resources to help out will have to change as well, for them to realize that their money would be very well spent on helping people in need, instead of spending millions of dollars on marriages that don’t last.

Although the UN and its other agencies are putting a positive spin to all of these, there’s no denying that the rise is indeed very alarming. It’s not a cause for celebration; it’s a sign of caution.

Right now all the countries in the world are classified into two categories: developed and developing. Developed countries are mostly ones in the First and Second World like The United States, France, Japan, England and Belgium, and developing countries are mostly in the Third World, like countries in Africa, India and our very own South-East Asia. The people live the thickest in developing countries, where there are more people, more babies, less work, less resources and more problems.

It has been predicted that “over the next forty years, nearly all of the 2.3 billion projected increase will be in the less developed regions, with nearly half in Africa. By contrast, the populations of more developed countries will remain flat, but will age, with fewer working-age adults to support retirees living on social pensions,” according to the same report by the UN. Simply put, while developing countries will keep growing, old people will soon outnumber the working aged ones in developed countries, while babies will only be a rarity. Although mothers are bearing less children on average in these times, there are actually more women in the world, and therefore more babies everywhere. And it will keep happening, if not in the rich countries, then in the ones that need more attention from their more developed counterparts. What does our government plan to do?

The UN report also wants to focus on empowering young people with economic opportunities, planning for the growth of cities, developing programs to share and sustain the Earth’s resources, and improving education–including sexual education.

Now we’re talking. Of course it boils down to that! It shouldn’t be a secret why the world is getting bigger. An average of three babies get born every second. Now, blink once. Boom. Three babies. Again. Six. Again. Nine. Babies will keep getting born, and there’s no stopping that. Whether all those babies will be loved, cared for and will grow up to be good citizens in the future however, is the biggest doubt of all. It all boils down to responsibility.

There is no shame in supporting the RH Bill. There is so much to it than contraceptives and birth control, and definitely more benefits for women to have healthy and wanted babies than what everyone seems to say is a whirlwind of immorality and damnation. The bill gives everyone a choice, and everyone has the right to make one. And no, it does not make abortion legal. Everyone should read the full text of the bill, really. Everyone. Seriously.

One day, we just might find ourselves without food, water or space. The UN has estimated a population of 9.3 billion by 2050, and there is expected to be more than 15 billion people on Earth by 2100. We’ll just keep getting bigger and bigger until the Earth can’t hold us anymore, and though I hear they’re looking for signs of life in Mars again, until then, all we can do is conserve what we can and share what we have, and stay cramped in the only world that we know.