• Question: do you think if loads of cures were found for illnesses in the world, would this have more of a negitive effect by over populating the world?

    Asked by clairemcginn to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Oh, I’ve never thought of that. Great question. I’m not sure for certain.

      There are two factors for population growth, birth rates and death rates.

      The birth rate is currently 19.15 babies for every thousand people
      The death rate is approximately 8.37 deaths for every thousand people

      This means the population is increasing at 10.78 people (births minus deaths) for every thousand a year. So if in one year there are 1000 people, there will be 1010 the next year.

      The thing is that the birth rate is already so much higher that decreasing the death rate won’t make overpopulation a problem. The high birth rate will. So I think we should cure everyone we can, it’s all the new babies that will really contribute to overpopulation, and we can’t stop that!

      So I think what needs to be done is improve how we use our space and our resources, and cure as many people as we can.

      That was a fun question to try and work through! Thanks Claire!

    • Photo: Sinead Cullen

      Sinead Cullen answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Hi Claire,
      No, I do not think it would have a negative effect by over populating the world. Science and technology is evolving at a very fast pace so I think if there was ever a point where we found lots of cures we would be so good at managing our other resources that we would manage no problem!

    • Photo: Eleanor Holmes

      Eleanor Holmes answered on 20 Nov 2013:

      Adam is right. The birth rate is already so much higher than the death rate that overpopulation is not a problem of curing more people.

      So many developing countries’ life-expectancies are shooting up thanks to new medicine and technology. The older population is growing rapidly. I think that the birth/death rates will eventually level off. Education and access to contraception will lower the birth rates. And we still have a max life expectancy of under 100 so people will still die.

      What we really need to do is maximise the amount of time a person can be productive in a life. And for this, new medicine and therapies are the way to go. What if we could have every person in the world retire at 65 but still be healthy and hearty enough to teach youngsters everything they know for the next 15 years. We would solve our education and our ageing-population problems in one fell swoop.

      I say more cures! Let’s cure everything!

Comments