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> Is It a Good Idea to Control Population？
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Is It a Good Idea to Control Population？ |
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| www.iselong.com 日期：2006-03-06 10:38
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"Whatever people say, I believe that to have a child means a lot of sacrifice. We're just not ready for that, fun or misery," Ma's wife said. Hou Mingkun and his wife Luo Qian said theyi weren't against having a child, boy or girl, if only the baby was physically well developed. "One takes a risk when having a baby. I've heard too many stories about children born with physical defects. Since-t-here's no guarantee that the same won't happen to my baby, I think I'd better not get myself
involved. People say `no pain, no gain,' but for me it's no gain, no pain," Luo said.
The couple were classmates in high school and went to the same university in Shanghai. Now, they are working for a computer company in Beijing.
Those who choose not to have children have to overcome some unexpected difficulties in defending their stance.
Influenced by the traditional view that one's worst sin is having no descendants, most people still accept that a wife is not a good wife if she doesn't have a child.
Though few Chinese believe in an after-life, they do care a lot about growing old. For centuries, one of the purposes of having children, sons especially, was to have someone take care of the parents when they were old.
"Now, since both husband and wife are working, they will have a pension when they retire. What happens now is that the retired parents are supporting their adult children," Wang said.
"We're normal people, just like everyone else, We,ve just chosen to live our own way which harms no one. I hope people understand us," Wang said.
2. Three Babies Are Born Every Second
There are over 3, 800 million people in the world today, and the total is increasing at the rate of .more than 76 million a year. United Nations experts have calculated that it could be more than 7, 000 million by thc end of this century.
The population is growing more quickly in some parts of the world than others. The continents with the fastest growth rates are Latin America (2.9 per cent) and Africa (2.6 per cent). Asia comes third (2.1 per cent) but because its present population is so large it is there that by far the greatest number of people will be added before the end of the century.
3. Population Increase Has Wiped out the Material
Benefits People Have Achieved
Matthew: Sarah, is there a need to control population only in countries
like India, Africa, Brazil. . . those countries that we.call the
underdeveloped countries, or is there a case for limiting population
in Europe, for instance?
Sarah: The reason one would have to limit population is because
you're running out of food and you're running out of
resources. The people in Europe and America consume a far
greater proportion of the world's resources and the world's food than
they do in India. So... um... population is directly related to...
um... consumption and your general impact on the environment.
If as an individual your impact is far greater than anybody
else's, um... then that is the factor that's important, rather
than how many people there are, or how many people can the
world support. Now it's...obviously in that sense, it's possible
to increase population if everybody's willing to um...use less
material or eat less food, but it isn't if everybody's continually
wanting more and more and more, and this is... seems to he the
trend at the moment. . . higher and higher consumption. . . with
at the same time a greatly expanding population.And the problem
in ... um... areas which are poor and which have expanding
populations is that they try and develop and try and...er...
get...er...more material
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