Overpopulation: A Persistent Myth Rescheduled Many Times

There are always statements or phrases in literature that lead to misconceptions, confusion and perplexity. Authors often don’t realise the gravity of such implications that can misconstrue the thoughts and intentions of the reader and sometimes bemuse them as a repercussion. While reading articles, blogs, statements and any piece of writing, readers gain the perspective that the author lays out for them, however sometimes, if misled, the reader attains a perspective that the author was not intending on implying. In the article “Overpopulation: A Persistent Myth Rescheduled Many Times” the author conveys many statements where ambiguity may be caused. This post will analyse one statement to shed light on the assumed meaning of the author.

The opinion given by the author in this article is that overpopulation is a myth and there is more then enough room for the entire human population to live on earth, comfortably with all the resources needed. One comment in the article that I found needed to be analysed was “What of famines? True there are shortages in the world here and there. We have plenty of food here in America…”(Charles Pope, 2009). This is a bold statement that could be interpreted in a number of ways. If read incorrectly, the reader would gain from the statement that there are food shortages around the world, but in America, there is plenty of food and we should not be worried. This is the literal meaning of the statement. If we look deeper into the statement we will see that it becomes much more elaborate.

Ending extreme hunger around the world is a very complex subject. Without taking into consideration major factors which affect the ability to grow food environmentally; whether or not people are educated to grow food, and whether or not people have the tools required and mindset needed to work together to harvest food sustainably. We will never come close to finding a solution to the hunger epidemic.

When reading the statement chosen from the article “Overpopulation: A Persistent Myth Rescheduled Many Times” the reader might assume that the person writing the article has not taken into account these important factors. The author states “What of famines?” as if they are not a problem, and “True there are shortages in the world here and there. We have plenty of food here in America”(Charles Pope, 2009), blowing the subject off as if it is not of importance. Rather then assuming the author has not taken into account the factors listed above, if you read further into the article we see it is quite the contrary. What the author is trying to imply is that we have plenty of food here in America; shortage is not a problem. Distributing food equally around the world is our problem, and is one we need to face to have equal opportunities on our globe.

The author is not saying forget about all the starving people around the world. He is simply saying do not worry about having to produce more food, focus on finding a method to distribute food around the world so no one has to suffer from starvation or malnutrition. In conclusion, we find that there are many different viewpoints that can drawn from this statement. By taking the statement out of context or without analysing the statement the reader may not realize the true meaning behind it. To avoid ambiguity, conceptual analysis was needed to clarify the authors point.

References:

C Pope, (2009) Overpopulation: A Persistent Myth Rescheduled Many Times. Archdiocese of Washington. Sept 23, 2009.

http://blog.adw.org/2009/09/overpopulation-a-persistant-myth-rescheduled-many-times/ Accessed 25 Oct 2009.