Promoting Smaller Families as a Key to Economic Salvation

Effective Living | Environment

Summary. As world population grows at exponential rates, some are advocating that zero population growth or negative population growth are essential for survival.

Organizations like PopulationConnection.org (zpg.org) are hoping reduced population will improve social justice, women’s rights, and the environment.

The excerpts below are from the New York Times article, “Nigeria Tested by Rapid Rise in Population,” 14 April 2012.

In a quarter-century, at the rate Nigeria is growing, 300 million people — a population about as big as that of the present-day United States — will live in a country roughly the size of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Across sub-Saharan Africa, alarmed governments have begun to act, often reversing longstanding policies that encouraged or accepted large families. Nigeria made contraceptives free last year, and officials are promoting smaller families as a key to economic salvation… “If you don’t take care of population, schools can’t cope, hospitals can’t cope, there’s not enough housing — there’s nothing you can do to have economic development.” – Peter Ogunjuyigbe, a demographer at Obafemi Awolowo University The Nigerian government is rapidly building infrastructure but cannot keep up, and some experts worry that it, and other African nations, will not act forcefully enough to rein in population growth. For two decades, the Nigerian government has recommended that families limit themselves to four children, with little effect.