Dscussion of World Population Control and Spread of Diseases

Population control is one of the oldest conspiracy theories in the social sciences, its roots can be traced far back as ancient Greece with Hippodamus defining the optimum population for a city as 10,000 people, and any number above this would lead chaos. Population control is defined as a mechanism used by the New World Order (NWO) to keep the human population at a specific size, therefore making them easier to control. According to these theories, the NWO is a totalitarian world government run by a secret group of powerful elites. Today, many conspiracy theorists continue to advocate and support the idea of population control for reasons such as politics, technology, and the environment, as well as, why these factors seem to directly affect the human population. Under these assumptions, it is theorized that the spread of disease is another tool used by the NWO to maintain population control. This comes at a time where many countries are suffering from food and water shortages, and scientists have stated that we are beyond the carrying capacity for the planet. To the point that we would need another planet the half the size of earth to be able to sustain our current growing population. The current world population sits at 7.6 billion people, this is expected to rise to 9.8 billion by 2050, and 11. 2 billion by the year 2100. Alongside this, there have been number disease outbreaks over the past 10 years, ranging from the flu to Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS), HIV, Ebola and recently Yellow fever in the Caribbean. Our understanding of population control is built on a social framework that thrives on mass hysteria and uses political skepticism to perpetuate impaired ideas about diseases and the environment. These ideas are rooted in ignorance and the misinterpretation of climate change. By analyzing the social, political and environmental factors, this paper aims to discuss how the spread of disease is framing our understanding of population control.

Today the world is more interconnected than ever and so, different international organizations have been put in place to manage global issues such as war or an epidemic outbreak. The World health organization (WHO) is an international agency under the United Nation (UN) that is interested in international public health and safety (WHO, 2019). Conspiracy theorists often criticize the WHO for their lack of urgency when pandemics occur, particularly in third world countries. For example the Ebola crisis of 2013, rather than a medical disaster, critics believe that Ebola was a biological weapon created by the United States to depopulate the planet. Soon after, the center for disease and control (CDC) released a report stating they had patented the virus. This new information further strengthens critics arguments about population control and, the consensus within the community was that the CDC had been working with the pharmaceutical industry to create a new vaccine that they could make a profit out of. As the epidemic continued, many countries took precautions and issued travel bans, as well as denied entry to individuals from those countries. Conspiracy theorist claim that this was part of the initial plan, and so Ebola wasn’t simply created to depopulate the planet, but also to impose quarantines, and eventually martial law. However, what critics fail to account for is that the 2013 epidemic was not the first instance of an Ebola outbreak. The first Ebola outbreak was reported in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo where it resulted in 218 deaths with a fatality ratio of 88%. Therefore, it shouldn’t odd that the CDC already had a vaccine for a virus that attacked over 30 years ago and has a high fatality rate, making it extremely deadly. There were also environmental factors that contributed to the spread of Ebola, that weren’t addressed. For one, the 2013 outbreak began in a small rural village in Southeastern Guinea (CDC, 2018), where the people often worked on manning sites and foraged for food in the forest. Guineas main export includes Aluminium, Gold, rubber, and Fish. According to research, a population is more susceptible to infectious disease in areas where the environment is continuously depleted of resources, therefore leaving room for toxic compounds to contaminate food and drinking water . In most cases, these rural communities do not have access to proper healthcare, and even if they did, it wouldn’t be of good quality. So, many of them allow symptoms to get worse before they come to the city to seek help. By then, the individual has become extremely contagious therefore, exposing a greater number of people in the city to the disease. Most of the symptoms of a disease that poses an epidemic have a latency period, and so the symptoms do not become noticeable until about a few days or even weeks after, this is because the virus needs time to reproduce in the system. By this time, the infected individual has come in contact with hundreds of people, especially if the individual is in a commercial area, and by the virtue of technology and globalization people are able to travel and trade easier and faster than before, creating the perfect scenario for an epidemic outbreak. It should be understood that the spread of disease is not orchestrated by an elite society but rather, a combination of the socio-economic factors alongside the environment that causes a ripple effect that leads to an epidemic.

In a discussion on population control and diseases, it is important to address the policies that are in place to control the spread of the diseases in question. Planned Parenthood focuses on reproductive health which includes the use of contraceptives such as birth control and abortions( planned parenthood, 2019). Many conspiracy theorists claims that the liberal views on planned parenthood are in fact ploy to depopulate the planet. They are suspicious of the efforts made by international agencies to educate people in developing nations about their rights to contraception. They continue to support the notion that NWO will not only depopulate developing countries using disease but also developed nations with the use of planned parenthood. Critics claim that in developed countries, planned parenthood has been given to the public under the guise of human rights and free will, where in fact, having these options are a threat to our individual liberty. In general, the word “control” frightens people, especially those in power such as legislators, this causes population experts to go on the defensive, and so according to critics, this is why planned parenthood advocates refine using the word “control”. Some conspiracy theorists have claimed that China's one-child policy is a prime example of population control. Between the years of 1976 to 2015, Chinese parents are only allowed to have one child per family, if they wanted more they would have to pay the government. At that time, only about half the population could afford to have a second child. China’s one-child policy is an extreme case of population planning, rather than control. At the time, China was the most populated country in the world with a growing population of 1.2 billion people, which accounted for 21 percent of the world population. Countries that are overpopulated then to suffer from pollution and land degradation, as their resources are depleted faster than necessary. There is also an overall lower stranded of living. The one-child policy was meant to tackle this problem but not necessarily depopulate the entire country. The benefits of the one-child policy can be seen today, over the last 40 years China has been able to improve the overall standard of living in the country. Citizen are able to have access to natural resources, workers have inclusive medical insurance that covers disabilities and nursing mothers. Life expectancy has increased from 35 years in 1946 to 76 years in 1996, infant mortality rates have also decreased by 17 percent. Throughout this time, China was able to maintain a thriving economy and, its status as one of the most populous nations in the world along with Russia and India.

International agencies concerned with public health, have always advocated for the use of contraception in developing nations such as Zimbabwe. Skeptics, however, find this interest suspicious and, claim that it's a ploy by the NWO to the depopulate the country and take their natural resources. Zimbabwe is abundant in gold, diamond iron, and coal but has a debt of about17 billion US dollars. Critics claim that by imposing population control tactics, the economy would continue to suffer, thus making it easier for the west to exploit the country. According to the WHO, the main reason for the advocacy of contraception in Zimbabwe was because of the high rates of HIV/ AIDS in the county. Similar to other HIV/ AIDS countries, the epidemic affected individuals in their 20s and 30s, so much so that, the national life expectancy dropped to 34 years for women and 37 years for men. The distribution on a graph shows a shrinking adolescence population with a sustain aging population but, a high birth rate causing the graph to look like an hourglass. This is because the young adults in the country are the most sexually active, thus putting them at a higher risk of exposure to HIV. Once exposed to the virus, it is poorly managed and so they are unable to live long enough to take care of the young and old. With that being said, the best response, in this case, would be to implement precautions such as contraceptives in order to restore and manage the declining youth population.

The medium through which disease is spread in the environment and this medium is changing very quickly. So quickly, that skeptics often question the legitimacy of climate change. Some believe climate change is happening but humans are not responsible for it. Others believe it’s natural for the planet to be getting warming after the ice age era. While others draw their conclusions from studying other planets such as mars, they claim that similar to the earth, Ice is melting on Mars as well but humans are not present. So clearly global warming is a natural phenomenon therefore, humans are not the cause of climate change on earth. Even some scientist are on the fence on whether climate change is a threat or not. According to the British medical journal, a letter was sent and signed by over 50 members of the American Meteorological society warning lawmakers that some climate policies that are in place “are based on the unsupported assumption that catastrophic global warming follows from the burning of fossil fuel and requires immediate action.”. The intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) has been accused of being unable to prove that human activity is the primary cause of climate change. They have also been accused of corruption during the climate change peer review process. According to skeptics, the idea of global warming assumes extreme heating at the poles however, global measures show the planet is actually cooling rather than warming. In light of this, they believe that policies should be made based on facts and not predictions.

Contrary to this, global warming is defined as the gradual rise of the global average temperature, which includes extreme weather patterns such as heat waves or snow storms. Since the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide emissions (Co2) have risen exponentially. The effects of Co2 are well documented and have been noted as the roots cause of a rise in global temperatures. By simply comparing pictures of the coral reefs in 2009 years ago to now, we see a difference. It is clear that high Co2 emissions have acidified the ocean waters, bleaching the coral reefs. On the surface levels, examining polar temperatures gives little to no information about the glacial covering. Since 1912, about 80 percent of glaciers have melted or retreated, this can be observed with rising sea levels and the loss of polar bear habitat in the Arctic. As the sea levels rise, it is expected to see natural disasters such as hurricanes, flood, wildfires, drought, famine and so on. Extreme climate change and natural disasters directly cause food and water shortages which puts people at risk of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, Ebola and so on. For example, hurricane Katrina, in 2005, killed over a thousand people, leaving many others sick, homeless and poor. The effects of hurricane Katrina can see today, as many residences were sick, as a result of water contamination and exposure to pathogens. Examining climate trends, the data shows us that, there is a strong correlation between extreme weather patterns and the spread of disease. Although correlation is not causation, drastic weather changes like flash floods provide optimal conditions for an infectious disease like malaria and cholera to thrive.

In spite of countless of evidence, some people are still inclined to believe or create conspiracy theories about population control and disease. The common themes in conspiracy theories are fear and power. Fear in a sense that, unpredictable situations cause anxiety, and so people start to see patterns that do not exist. In the real world, these anxiety-producing situations come as natural disasters, unemployment, poverty, literally anything the causes the individual to feel like they have lost control. This feeling is further heightened as news outlets and social media continue to carry the story, creating mass hysteria. So naturally, individuals get defensive and embrace conspiracy theories that support their claims. Social media is not policed and so, it becomes a platform where conspiracy theories can be expressed. These theories are either supported or rejected, soon after, a following for the theory gets stronger, polarizing both sides of the movement. The second is power, everyone wants power, its either taken or it is maintained. The profile of a conspiracy theorist cut across race, gender, socio-economic status, education, occupation, and political affiliation. Conspiracy theorist can be found equally on both the left and right side of the political spectrum. However what they are susceptible to believe may differ, for example, liberals are more inclined to be suspicious of the media and see politicians as pawns controlled by elite society. While, conservatives are more likely to doubt academics and liberal elites, for they believe they are controlled by the same institution. Group affiliations also play on a role in the belief of conspiracy theories. African Americans are more inclined to believe that President Nixon and the CIA planted cocaine in the inner city neighborhoods. While white Americans are more likely to believe that the rich are unfairly taxed, in order to support the welfare system (Gardner, 1998). Most people support these theories with historical events. For example, the Tuskegee experiments are often used as a reference point as to why African Americans should believe that the CIA planted cocaine in the inner-city. In the Tuskegee experiment, Africa American men in prison were purposely infected with Syphilis without their consent, in hopes for clinicians to better understand the disease. So in other words, people doubt the government because it is common for people in power to be manipulative and lie to the public. Education also plays a role in conspiratorial thinking. About 50% of people with high school diplomas are more like to believe in conspiracy theories, whereas only 23% of postgraduate students believe in conspiracy theory. Essential the less educated, poor and marginalized the individual is, the more likely they are to believe in conspiracy theories.

In conclusion, it is clear that our understanding of population control is driven by a platform that thrives on public paranoia and uses the misplaced trust in the government, to incite false claims about the spread of diseases. Therefore, it should be understood that the spread of disease is a complex combination of social, political and environmental factors which in turn should contribute to our overall understanding of population control.