Maropeng looks at the issues around World Population Day

July 6, 2011 – Stuart Dickinson

Inadequate fresh water, depleting natural resources, deforestation, loss of ecosystems, global warming and elevated crime – these are just some of the byproducts of worldwide overpopulation, a phenomenon which demands more and more attention each year.

Quoted on Wikipedia, head of the biology department at University College London, Steve Jones said, “Humans are 10 000 times more common than we should be, according to the rules of the animal kingdom, and we have agriculture to thank for that. Without farming, the world population would probably have reached half a million by now.”

On July 11 we join the rest of the globe in recognising World Population Day, an initiative first established in 1989 by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme, as a way of calling attention to these urgent population issues. According to the United Nations Population Fund, the event is observed in different ways around the world, and is also each year given a different theme by certain organisations.

Maropeng, too, is actively raising awareness about population issues in our educational resource packs, where we deal with a wide variety of problems and their resulting effect on the earth, while giving educators the tools necessary to explore this topic and engage in debate with learners.

One vital issue is the importance of saving water. As our national population grows, the availability of fresh water is slowly decreasing, and the resultant need to use water sparingly has become a hot topic. According to media reports earlier this year, it was predicted that South Africa would hit a water crisis by 2020, where water demand would outstrip supply.

We face the same issue with food supply – an ironic sentiment considering that advances in farming have been blamed for overpopulation. In 2007 it was estimated that if everyone on Earth lived a European lifestyle, we would need more than two-and-a-half planets’ worth of resources just to support us.

Meanwhile, every year hundreds of millions of people suffer from hunger and malnutrition, with millions dying because of it. Of these deaths, more than 6-million are children under the age of five.

Maropeng’s resource packs show you how food and global sustainability relate to one another.

The packs also provides interesting statistics, showing how local demographics have changed over the years – some directly related to population issues, and others not. This will help learners deal with mathematical literacy, and show them what we can learn from data.

For instance, by tabulating global average temperatures each year, scientists have been able to record increases in worldwide temperatures over the last century. This particular chapter will also show how the South African population has grown over the years. 

Make sure you book your school tour to Maropeng and discover other fascinating facts about our planet Earth. Contact Dorcas on (0)14 577 9045 or . to book your school tour.

Did you know?

• Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices per second – National Association of Pizza Operators (USA), 2005.
• Over one third of world grain production is fed to livestock – United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 2005.
• In most of Africa, India and parts of Asia, more than 35% of the population is undernourished, compared to less than 5% of the population in areas like North America and the European Union –United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, 2005.

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