Our Choices: Population Control or Colonize the Moon

Something needs to be done. The population of our planet is growing out of control.

The human population, that is. Most experts agree the human saturation point of Earth somewhere around 10 billion people. We're currently at 6.5 billion. This is roughly 50% more than during the 1970's. If we continue down this path, we can expect to reach the projected saturation point in about 25 years.

This is why population control is so important. Without population control, mankind can expect to suffer the fate of other animals that have overpopulated their living spaces: starvation, disease, violence, and, in some cases, cannibalism.

The challenge, obviously, is how to get everybody - and I mean EVERYBODY - on board with the concept of population control.

Basic instinct. Population control, unfortunately, runs afoul with our basic instincts. All animals - humans included - are programmed to procreate. We're designed to make more humans. The urge to participate in sexual reproduction is so strong, in fact, that entire industries have been created to aid in the process. Even non-sexual products are marketed with sexual innuendos. It is very difficult to fight our need to breed individually - and almost impossible to mandate through governmental proclamation.

Governmental solutions. Some countries have attempted population control. Japan, for instance, has in the past implemented penalties on those couples who had more than one or two children. This worked well for law-abiding citizens, but many couples began hiding their additional children. Therein lies a basic problem: there will always be those who will ignore governmental population control mandates.