Anti-natal Policies...China's One Child Policy

In the 1950's, the people of China were encouraged to have large families so the country could industrialise.

In the 1960's, it became apparent that there had been large increase in population and this was getting out of control.

In the 1970's, family planning programmes had been introduced promoting later marriages, fewer children and having a wider gap between births. The average family now had 3 children.

In 1979, the One Child Policy was brought into action. The aim was to reduce the large growth rate and each family was allowed to have just one child.

Incentives to have one child included:
- a free education for the child
- a priority over choosing a house
- pensions
- other family benefits

If a second child was born, all the benefits would be taken away and in some cases the family was fined.
The minimum age for marriage became 22 for men and 20 for women.
Permission was needed to marry and have a child.

Problems with the One Child Policy occurred, these included:
- more than one child was needed to help on farms in rural areas
- a generation of 'Little Emperors' emerged, meaning there were many spoilt only children
- there were little young people to look after the elderly
- the was a gender imbalance because there was a large amount of female infanticides
- there was also a large amount of abortions if a second child had been conceived

In the 1990's, the policies became more relaxed for some people. Rural areas could now have 2 children if they were spread over a 3 year period. This would help out farmers as they will have more helping hands.

The One Child Policy still continues to this day. It has had a great effect on the fertility rate and the population growth of the country. In 1979 the fertility rate was 2.74 and has now reduced to 1.77, concluding that the population policy has helped.

I think that the One Child Policy is a very forceful way of reducing the fertility rate and is unfair on families that would want more children. However, it has evidently been a success and is better that is has become less strict on some of the rules.

人口

中国洪水地震地理奶酪权谋人口计算机眼镜

An Ageing Population

The amount of elderly people in the UK is increasing at alarming rates. In 1995 there were above 9 million elderly people aged 65 and by 2030 this is expected to increase to 13 million.
Furthermore, the fertility rate is decreasing due to women having children later because of their busy working lives.
There are fewer younger people to support the increasing elderly population.

In East Devon almost 50% of the population is over 50 years of age. This is 15% more the national average and is expected to rise to a 17% difference by 2029.
Communities are in need for more elderly facilities as their population increases. The Abundant Life Project in Dartington is taking on the ageing population by setting up a community for over 55's.

Child deaths and vaccinations

Millions of children are dying every year from diseases. Rotavirus is a disease that causes diarrhoea, diarrheal and the death of over 500,000 children under the age of 5 every year.

Logically, the more people there are in a country, the harder it is to provide resources for people and to educate people. It is also difficult to sustain the environment. Many countries have a continuous growth in population. Families often have many children to ensure they have at least one surviving child. This means families have more people to provide for and causes resources to become scarce.

If the number of deaths of children were to decrease, it would be thought that the population would increase even more. However if there is a greater amount of children surviving their parents would need less children to ensure they have a surviving child. Therefore reducing the amount of children dying will cause the country's population growth to decrease. Consequently, this will mean there is a greater amount of resources to be shared within the population. Decreasing the amount of deaths of children in a country can be done by providing vaccinations for the worst off areas. With little costs for vaccines this can be easily done.

FLOODS...2007

In the summer of 2007 a large area of england was flooded.

In the months of June and July there were periods of heavy rainful. This leading to devastating floods in the central-eastern areas of England, including Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.

Reports state that approximately 47,000 homes were flooded. Also many roads and railways were flooded causing even more people and multiple businesses to be affected.

The main cause of the floods was because of the heavy rainful on land that was saturated from earlier rain. Therefore, the water could only go to the rivers in the basin, consequently causing the rivers to flood.

Some people blame the destruction on the poor quality of the flood defences or the lack of defences. Or the government allowing development to take place on floodplains.

All together, the floodings of 2007 destroyed many people's lives because of deaths, loss of possessions and disturbance of everyday life.