Hi and welcome to the model on overpopulation. In it you will learn about a problem that everyone on Earth is contributing to and everyone on Earth can help solve!

This unit is designed to expose you to the challenge of POPULATION AND RESOURCES. First you will learn what is meant by the term overpopulation. You will then learn what the solutions to overpopulation are on a global level and be able to explain them. Finally, you will learn how to apply what you learn in everyday life and specifically in the important decisions of your life.

Consider this scenario: Lana and Lucia are having an argument over whether or not Lana should have kids. Who is right?

The population of the world is increasing faster than ever before. Overpopulation is a problem ofthe ratio of population growthto the earth’s resources. For the earth to be sustainable: The population needs togrow slower relative to resources. Resources need to grow relativeto population. The rate of population growth on earth is currently unsustainable.

Over 200 years ago,the population on earth was 1 Billon. Now it is 7 Billion andit could be as highas 11 Billion by 2050. Some countries aregrowing much fasterthan others. India, Pakistan, Uganda,Ethiopia,and the United States among others. Just some of the problems caused by this are lack of resources both renewable and non-renewable, diminishing food and water, growing disease and epidemics, overcrowding of cities and towns, and environmental pollution.

Much of this is caused by: Lack of birth control. Manypregnancies in the world areunplanned. Lack of education or ability tochoose to have children. Overpopulation isn’t just a problem of total resources,it’s also a problem of the distribution of resources throughout society. It’s likely that if it continuesunchecked, the majority of the population will be in developing countries with less and less access to resources to live or mitigate this problem. Some proposed solutions to overpopulation are: Increased education and empowerment of women in places with a high birthrate. Stricter regulations on birthrate by governments. What do you think?

Back to the scenario. Overpopulation is a complex problem with no clear right answer. Lana and Lucija both have valid points and the most important thing they can do is make educated decisions.

Here are more examples.

MP 1.3 Population and Resources This Learning Unit will take 10 minutes to complete Date: Version: Population and Resources Millennium Project All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Table of contents Learning Outcomes Setting the scene Step-by-step concept Revisiting the scenario More examples Applying this concept in the classroom: Competent and Advanced levels Expert level: Thought experiments Reflections Confidence testing References & Media credits All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Learning Outcomes This unit is designed to expose you to the challenge of POPULATION AND RESOURCES. The term overpopulation is well defined, and international organisations starting with the United Nations are focused on developing solutions to overpopulation, are a global level. Data, knowledge and solutions from the research done here have to be innovatively and ethically implemented in order to overcome this very real threat to living sustainably. By the end of this unit, you would have learnt how to: All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Setting the scene What is Lucija’s argument? Is Lana being irresponsible? Lana: One day I’m going to have 10 kids. Lucija: No way, that’s being irresponsible. Lana: Why? Lucija: There will be too many people in the world. Lana: How is 10 more people going to make a difference? All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Step-by-step concept The population of the world is increasing faster than ever before. Overpopulation is a problem of the ratio of population growth to the earth’s resources. For the earth to be sustainable: The population needs to grow slower relative to resources. Resources need to grow relative to population. The rate of population growth on earth is currently unsustainable. All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Step-by-step concept Over 200 years ago, the population on earth was 1 Billon. Now it is 7 Billion and it could be as high as 11 Billion by 2050. Some countries are growing much faster than others. India, Pakistan, Uganda, Ethiopia and the United States among others. Just some of the problems caused by this are lack of resources both renewable and non-renewable, diminishing food and water, growing disease and epidemics, overcrowding of cities and towns, and environmental pollution. All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Step-by-step concept Much of this is caused by: Lack of birth control. Many pregnancies in the world are unplanned. Lack of education or ability to choose to have children. Overpopulation isn’t just a problem of total resources, it’s also a problem of the distribution of resources throughout society. It’s likely that if it continues unchecked, the majority of the population will be in developing countries with less and less access to resources to live or mitigate this problem. Some proposed solutions to overpopulation are: Increased education and empowerment of women in places with a high birthrate. Stricter regulations on birthrate by governments. What do you think? Note: The world population has since increased to 7 Billion. All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Revisiting the scenario Lucija’s argument is that Lana would be contributing to overpopulation. This is not necessarily true, since much of the increase in birthrate results from unplanned pregnancies from causes such as lack of birth control or proper education. Overpopulation is a more complex problem than either of their viewpoints. The most important thing is their awareness of the challenge the world faces when they make their decisions. Lana: One day I’m going to have 10 kids. Lucija: No way, that’s being irresponsible. Lana: Why? Lucija: There will be too many people in the world. Lana: How is 10 more people going to make a difference? All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

More examples In the history of the world, epidemics have often controlled population growth. Diseases like small pox and the bubonic plague drastically decreased population size which in turn allowed the remaining survivors lots of resources. Now, however medical science has increased life expectancy. In this case, solving one problem created another. People living in the 1950s in America experienced what was called the postwar baby boom. For the first time in 20 years the economy was back on track and there wasn’t open warfare between the U.S. and another country. This and the migration of people to the suburbs caused society at large to produce far more children than the previous generation. In 2012 more and more people from the baby boom are growing older and the population of elder people is growing faster than the population of young people. All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Applying this concept in the classroom Competent Select two students. Give the pair two color coded stacks of 3 by 5 cards. One stack is food, the other is water. The rest of the class isn’t born yet, which means they aren’t part of the game. The rule of the game is that each student must hold some amount of each card, or even part of a card. As each student is born, they are to act in a certain way depending on how much of each card they get. If they have full cards, they can act like rich people. If they have half cards they can act they will act poor. If they have less than half a card, they will act like they are starving. Select two more students to be “born” or enter the game. The students must exchange cards so everyone has at least one of each. The first pair will decide how to distribute them. Only 1 of each card or part of each card can be exchanged from one student to another at one time. Then every round one student will join for every other student that is in play. If there are four students, then four will join. The play continues until one student doesn’t have access to either food or water. The class will have a discussion about what the students learned and they will decide what gets submitted to the millennium project. All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Applying this concept in the classroom Advanced This is more complicated version of the previous exercise. This time there is an educator role. They have the ability to either: 1. Make sure one person isn’t starving. 2. Stop one person from allowing another to join the group. They can only act once per turn. Their goal is keep anyone from starving. They lose if they can’t make this happen. They can only use their special ability if both they and the student they are helping talk about ways they could stop overpopulation. The class will then have a discussion about how they could educate people or otherwise curb the effects of overpopulation. The best ideas will be submitted to The Millennium Project. All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Expert level: Thought experiments Overpopulation is largely in countries where population’s don’t have access to education or ability to control whether they have children or not. Education and empowerment in these regions is harder than you think and requires sensitivity to existing cultural norms surrounding childbirth. With that in mind, do the following exercise. Students will break up into groups of 4. Each group will be tasked with giving a presentation who’s goal is to stop overpopulation. They can choose their particular topic and approach, including the use of visual aids or storytelling devices. Each group will be given a further challenge. Use these or create your own: Birth control is not something that is ok in their culture. The group of presenters do not speak their language very well. They cannot use technology to reach their audience. Women are not allowed to vote in the audience’s culture. Birth control is not something easily accessible to their audience. After each presentation, the class will discuss how each challenge changed their approach. The class will give an anonymous vote for the three best solutions that will then be submitted to the millennium project. All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Reflections Competent level What factors have effected overpopulation over the course of history? Advanced level If overpopulation is such a growing problem, is it ok for governments to take the control of having children away from parents? Why or why not? What are the ramifications of each decision? Expert level How could education for the more impacted countries be made more effective? How could it be more highly distributed? What other factors are intertwined with overpopulation that make it so difficult a problem to solve? All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Confidence testing What is overpopulation? The growing size and density of a population. [False. This is only part of the definition of overpopulation.] The size of a population relative to its resources. [True. The definition must consider both of these in relation to each other.]* The size of population relative to its renewable resources. [False. The definition includes both renewable and non-renewable resources.] The density of a population only. [False. There is more to consider in the definition of overpopulation.] By 2050 the world is expected to have a population of ______? 7 Billion. [False. This is the current population of the world.] 14 Billion. [False. This is too high of a number.] 11 Billion. [True. This is more than a 50% increase.]* None of the above. [False. One of the above answers is correct.] Which of these is a consequence of overpopulation? Decreasing resources. [True. As more people are born and live, they will consume more and more of the Earth’s resources.]* The dissemination of education. [False. It’s likely that education will be less widely disseminated.] Innovative technology. [False. One does not necessarily cause the other.] Tsunamis. [False. One does not cause the other.] All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

Confidence testing Which of these is a potential solution for overpopulation? Increased regulations on personal freedoms. [False. This won’t necessarily stop overpopulation.] Increased education about birth control. [True. This is likely to help stop unwanted pregnancies which account for a large part of overpopulation.]* Increased business in developing countries. [False. This won’t necessarily help overpopulation, since it doesn’t have to do with helping individuals.] Increased GDP in developed countries. [False. More income for the people who are already educated won’t necessarily help those in developing countries.] Should your friend be allowed to have children? No, because they are hurting the planet. [False. Having a child doesn’t mean someone is hurting the planet.] No, because their child shouldn’t grow up in the future where the world is overpopulated. [False. This isn’t necessarily what the future holds.] Yes, even it means hurting the planet. [False. This is irresponsible.] Yes, but only if they are properly educated and aware of the responsibility. [True. It’s important for everyone to know what It means for them and the world for them to have a child.]* What factors stopped overpopulation from becoming a problem until now? Epidemics and outbreaks of foreign disease. [False. This is true but there is a better answer.] Lack of adequate healthcare. [False. This is true but there is a better answer.] Lack of an industrialized society. [False. This is true but there is a better answer.] All of the above, [True. All of the above are true.]* All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.

References & Media credits All rights reserved. Confidential and Proprietary information. The information is only for the use of Millennium Project members, and not to be distributed to anyone outside the Millennium Project membership.