Best of Both Worlds?

            I’d like to have a family in the future.  I have dreams of a family life – a home, a husband, and America’s standard 1.8 kids.  I’d also like to have a stable and sustainable future.  I have dreams of a sustainable life – renewable energy, clean water, and America’s new standard of organic food.  Can I truly have both?  Can I have a family while the very fact that I’m “going forth and multiplying” jeopardizes my environmentally friendly future?  Are both possible?

            Many environmentalists struggle with this conundrum.  Exponential population growth has been proven to be detrimental to the environment.  Now, as an environmentalist, I ought to practice what I preach.  If I truly value the environment, then I should take active measures to not contribute the population problem.  I worry I may be a hypocrite.

            What then, can be done?  Should the United States enforce a one child policy similar to the one in China?  Personally, I do not think this is a viable option.  The reason this policy works so well in China is because it is a communist nation.  Since the United States is averted to any shade of red not paired with blue or white, there is simply no way this could succeed.  Societal change, via social pressure, may be the only feasible solution within the US.

            What about in regards to the rest of the world?  Often environmentalists, especially deep ecologists, are criticized for being too willing to “sacrifice” marginalized individuals from third world countries in particular.  Advocating for a devastating famine that exterminates millions of people hardly breeds public support. 

Birth control and the empowerment of women, in contrast, appear to be feasible solutions.  Many of the countries that struggle with overpopulation are, by in large, patriarchal societies.  Women are marginalized and subsequently do not have control over their own reproductive health.  If we, the developed world, were to somehow make birth control more available to women in developing nations, population could be managed significantly.  For instance, India, a patriarchal nation, has a pyramidal population distribution.  The young significantly outnumber the old.  It is not uncommon for women to have ten children.  If birth control were made available, a more sustainable rate of population growth could be achieved.

The challenges to this possible solution lie in how, exactly, to supply this birth control, how this service will be paid for, and how India will react to such actions.  It is certainly no easy task.