By Tolou Shams
It is known that population has increased in the past few centuries. Our Earth is now home to over 20 billion people, which means that the population has more than doubled in size since 2020. Because of our overpopulated environment, we are running out of natural resources and are aggravating forces behind global warming. As birth rates increase, the death rates have increasingly declined due to the advancements in medicine and technology. The average life span is now at 120 years.
A new law, known as the Limited Protection Act was passed in 2032, banning abortion or any sort of contraceptive. A study done by Stanford University shows that the population spiked by about 43% after the Limited Protection Act was passed. The law was passed because the government believed that more people meant more power. Though this statement is true to some extent, it is what caused the overpopulation crisis to skyrocket. Due to the sudden increase of the birth rate, the Limited Protection Act was lifted, though it was already too late. Since the Act was repealed, the birth rate has somewhat leveled out, but is still at a very critical high. The professor of human geography at Stanford warns that “Birth rates have never been higher and the government needs to find solutions to fix this. We will soon be completely out of all natural resources.”
Today in 2040, there is a widespread shortage of natural resources. The government is currently advertising a “Promise Land”, which is supposedly a utopia where food is not scarce and people can live happily. I advise that no one partake in this. Anyone who has volunteered to go has never been seen again, and it is most likely because they are no longer with us. There has been enough evidence shown for me to draw a conclusion on the government’s real intentions. The “Promised Land”, the food poisoning, and the ‘accidental’ bomb explosions can no longer be seen as a coincidence. The government is obviously taking extreme measures to kill off people, attempting to decrease the population, and blame it on natural causes.
There have been multiple incidents of mass deaths in the past few years, including instances where entire cities were targeted and killed. For example, there was a food contamination epidemic in Kansas City in July of 2033. Over 3,000 people were severely food poisoned after eating food provided from the local city council at their annual 4th of July festival. Many have been speculating weather or not these instances are coincidences or not, but I strongly believe that this is the government's intention. United States President Woodrow Bailey put out a statement saying, “We are very sorry for the loss of these beautiful lives. We are further investigating the reason behind the food poisoning.” In 6 years, the United States government has not once addressed the incident again.
Overpopulation is by far the biggest challenge our society faces today. But, the tactics the government has to try and overcome it is not ethically right. Killing off thousands of innocent people is not a situation we should be in. There are many other solutions that would not be morally wrong. Lifting the ban brought us one step closer to resolving the issue, but we need to take more action that doesn’t include mass murderings to be a part of it.
By raising awareness in public schools about proper sexual health and the importance of using contraceptives, the unplanned pregnancy rate will plummet. Currently, there have been over 40,000 unplanned pregnancies in the past 5 years, and 70% involve teenagers and adolescents. It is evident that there is not proper sex education in schools, and teaching our youth about pregnancy will help decrease the birth rate and prevent unplanned pregnancies.
Another large factor of overpopulation is the decrease in death rates. Since technology has advanced many people are living artificially and cannot survive without being attached to a machine. The lead researcher of human studies at Cornell University said that “There is no longer a point in living, if there is nothing to live for. Keeping people artificially alive doesn’t help our case or theirs.” I believe that it unethical to keep people alive after their bodies have already given out. It isn't fair to keep them in a state of suffering and resent the natural cycle of life.
The overpopulation crisis is not something that will go away overnight. It is something that we must work towards without ending the lives of citizens.