Götmark, F., Crop, H., Kotak, P., Hettlingen, j. von, Lynge, M., & Kamath, P. (2019, September 10). The World and the UN Must Reduce Population Growth by Frank Götmark & Robin Maynard. Retrieved from https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/new-sdg-dampen-population-growth-by-frank-gotmark-and-robin-maynard-2019-09.

 

On September 24-25, world leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York to review progress toward the UN’s 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs, which aim “to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all,”. However, these goals fail to mention anything on overpopulation. Most of their goals would be undermined by the growing population, even though population growth is slowing it’s predicted to reach 11 billion by the turn of the century. When governments adopted the SDGs in 2015, many experts were surprised by the lack of attention to population growth. Countless scientists and citizens see overpopulation is a future problem, but the SDG’s fail to address it.

 

I think that the SDG’s are great and a step in the right direction, and they plan to meet environmental issues head on. I’m disappointed that they didn’t mention anything on population growth, as overpopulation would limit the goal or actually prevent it. I can see talking about overpopulation can be as sensitive topic as it touches on human rights and sometimes overexertion of power. Even with that in mind, the issue still should have been mentioned, as a solution could be increased family planning. I think it’s even more detrimental by not mentioning it as it creates the idea of it not being a problem, as it is. If there is no effort to reduce aggressive population growth many of the issues targeted during the summit will get worse and lead to more problems.