Problems Created by the opulatton Explosion(人口爆炸帶來(lái)的問(wèn)題)
Problems Created by the opulatton Explosion
This sudden increase in the population of the developing countries has come at a difficult time. Even if their population had not grown so fast they would have been facing a desperate struggle to bring the standard of living of their people up to the point at which there was enough food, housing, education, medical care and employment for everyone to have a reasonable life.The poor countries are having to run faster and faster in their economic activity in order to stay in the same place, and the gap in wealth between rich and poor countries grows wider every year.
The most pressing problem created by the rapid increase in population is a shortage of food. More mouths have to be fed every year and yet a high proportion of the existing population are not getting enough of the right kind of food. Over the past two years the total amount of food has decreased, and of course the total amount of food per person has decreased even more sharply.
More and more of the babies born in developing countries have been surviving infancy, and now nearly half the people living in those countries are under the age of 15. The adults have to work harder than ever to provide for the needs of the children,who cannot contribute to the economy until they are older. There is a shortage of schools and teachers, and there are not enough hospitals, doctors and nurses. Farming land is becoming scarce,so country people are moving to the towns and cities in the hope of finding a better standard of living. But the cities have not been able to provide housing, and the newcomers live in crowded slums.Finally, there are too few jobs, and unemployment leads to further poverty.
人口爆炸帶來(lái)的問(wèn)題
發(fā)展中國(guó)家的人口驟增在困難的時(shí)刻發(fā)生。即使其人口沒(méi)有如此迅速地增長(zhǎng)，它們也一直面臨著一場(chǎng)極其嚴(yán)峻的斗爭(zhēng)：為了把人民的生活提高到一個(gè)像樣的水平，達(dá)到人人能有飯吃，有房住，能享受教育、醫(yī)療和就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)，就要進(jìn)行艱巨的努力。貧窮的國(guó)家為了保持地位不下降，在經(jīng)濟(jì)上不得不加快速度急起直追，因?yàn)樨毟F的國(guó)家和富裕的國(guó)家在財(cái)富上的差距一年比一年大。
人口猛增造成的最緊迫的問(wèn)題是食品短缺。每年有更多的人口需要養(yǎng)活，而現(xiàn)有人口中的很大一部分還沒(méi)有得到足夠的像樣的食物。在過(guò)去兩年中，糧食總量在下降，不用說(shuō)，人均食物消耗量就下降得更多了。
發(fā)展中國(guó)家越來(lái)越多的嬰兒幸存下來(lái)了，現(xiàn)在，生活在這些國(guó)家的人口有將近一半不滿15歲。這種年齡的孩子要長(zhǎng)大一些才能為經(jīng)濟(jì)出力。為了撫養(yǎng)孩子，成年人被迫比過(guò)去任何時(shí)候都更加辛苦地工作。學(xué)校缺少，教師不足，醫(yī)院、醫(yī)生和護(hù)士也都不夠。 由于可耕地越來(lái)越少，鄉(xiāng)下人不斷流向城鎮(zhèn)，希望過(guò)上好一點(diǎn)的生活�？墒�，城市卻難以提供住房，新來(lái)的鄉(xiāng)下人只好住在擁擠的貧民區(qū)。最后，工作機(jī)會(huì)太少，失業(yè)將會(huì)導(dǎo)致嚴(yán)重的貧困。