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Opinion | Food and water supply will deteriorate as population rises

Ian Joyce, joyceih@muohio.edu

On Oct. 31, history was made in alarming numbers: the world's population passed seven billion people. The question remains: how can we face the problems presented by overpopulation?

In an article written on MSNBC.com, Paul Ehrlich, professor in population studies and biology at Stanford University, presented one major problem overpopulation is causing and will make worse: world hunger. Currently, one billion people are going hungry and that number will only increase.

Aklog Birara, former World Bank economist, listed another huge problem: water.

In Ethiopia alone, the population is projected to grow from 90 million today to 250 million by 2050, and Birara notes how regional war is already make some control water more than others; unfortunately, these wars will only increase as time goes on. And the wars do not stop in Ethiopia.

The World Water Council concludes that 1.1 billion people are without access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people worldwide live without access to sanitized and clean water. What will it cost to bring clean water to people worldwide?

In one presentation at CRU last Christmas, a video was presented citing that it would take over $10 billion to install clean water to people who lack access. It felt hopeless to my $20 bill in my pocket until they revealed that each Christmas, Americans spend $450 billion on gifts and presents.

Former Reverend Dick Farris told me that after he and his wife went to sub-Sahara Africa, the numbers became reality.

"Thirty years ago, when we saw the devastation of drought, we were crushed. And even today, we use buckets outside to catch rainwater and use it for flushing the toilet, and washing dishes," Farris said.

As extreme as it sounded, he is doing more than I am to tackle one of the problems caused by overpopulation.

"It is interesting because some of the problem of overpopulation seems to be linked to poverty. When impoverished people have their income substantially increased, the birth rate goes down," he said.

Rev. Farris does not have $10 billion in his back pocket, but he has a heart willing to change his blessed life for deprived lives that desperately need it.

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If I had more than 700 words, I could shell this article with more statistics on the gravity of the situation. It would be great to not think about the enormous problem it presents. Ignorance will not be bliss when we can no longer feed the very lives we are willingly bringing into existence. Ignorance is no longer bliss when billions of people cannot be fed or met with proper water sources. I do not merely write this as a guilt column (although I myself have been plagued with guilt just scratching the surface on researching it), and even though I do not intend to somehow solve these issues, it would be interesting if not compelling to see everyday people conversing about everyday possible solutions.

It is very easy for the numbers and statistics to seem cold, hard and distant. Billions in poverty and 26,000 children dying in the next 24 hours from starvation or preventable diseases is impossible to wrap our heads around.

Dr. David Platt wrote in his book Radical, "When we dodged piles of human feces that littered the ground as we walked on the outskirts of the Indian community… As I saw their faces, I realize that I have a choice. You and I both have a choice. We can stand with the starving or with the overfed."

My challenge is for us to go experience it like Rev. Farris and Dr. Platt did. That can be the only way it will impact and change the lives we live out. How will we come together as human beings to love and provide selflessly for other humans? I am convinced that the gravity of the problem overwhelms most of us so we ignore it because we think cannot do anything to change it. And granted if we thought about it all the time, we would drive ourselves insane. But if our attitude is thus, we have already lost the battle, and certainly lost the war.