Global information technology infrastructure in addressing the borderless problem of overpopulation

Abstract

The world has been beset with fears of future global overpopulation overwhelming the earth’s ecological system and producing shortages of energy, resources, water and food. The sustainability has been a major long-term concern, climate change is thought to be causing a warming of the planet, an increased incidence of extreme weather events, a reduction in agricultural yields, melting the ice caps, and rising sea levels which will eventually cause flooding of low lying islands and coastal districts. As a result, there is dire need for population checks in the world. The causes of overpopulation are attributed to cultural beliefs, lack of sex and population education, religious beliefs etc. The effects of overpopulation include mass poverty, increased death rate, unemployment, etc. It becomes eminent that some measures should be put in place to address this global issue. Some past measures included equipping and funding public and special libraries to disseminate population control information. However, this has not impacted positively in addressing this menace. As a result, the paper purpose to use the global information technology infrastructure in collecting and disseminating information on population control to the masses. This shall be achieved by examining the causes and severity of overpopulation and efforts of addressing them globally, assessing the global information technology infrastructure readiness, stating the ways in which ICTs can be used to control population globally, and making policy recommendations based on the findings of this study. This will be accomplished by content analysis design with continents as the target population. Stratified sampling technique will be used to select the region in each continent. Descriptive analysis will be employed. This paper will help world demographers and population experts advocate population control. Recommendations to all countries to fund and equip telecentres, knowledgebase systems, and Geographical Information Systems are made to address this problem.