World Concerns
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United Nations
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More & Less
Serving The World
Equal Dignity & Worth
The Peace Process



    More And Less
    grades: 7-9 (ages 12-15)



    Areas of Study

      Mathematics, Social Studies, Biology, Health

    Themes

      People-Their Numbers, The Span and Quality of Their Lives

    Related UN work

      Lookout for Future World Developments; UN Population Activities

    Objective

      Explore how the numbers of people in the world affect each person's chance to a full life

    Suggested Time

      Two or more class periods

    Helpful Tools

      Basic Facts about the UN; UN Chronicle

  1. The Most Important Change in Your Lifetime.
      By the year 2025, six out of ten children in developing countries will live in cities, and more than half of them will be poor. Currently more than 300 million children live in absolute poverty in the shanty towns and slums of the developing world's cities (UNICEF Annual Report-1996)

      Divide class into cooperative groups and ask them to consider these statistics and to identify three implications of this dramatic population shift. Select a recorder to list implications on the board. Discuss.

      Population Explosion
      In the 1980s a baby was born in the country of Yugoslavia. So what? Babies are being born every minute. So why was this one important?

      This one made the number of people living on the earth reach five billion. This is more than had ever been before. AND people are being born faster and faster; more and more are expected, at least three times as many within 75 years.

      What do you think this has to do with you? with everyone?

      1. Danger Ahead! The World Picture
          The United Nations has been compared to a watchtower, manned by lookouts ready to warn the world of trouble approaching. A few years ago the call was given: the world's population is growing faster and faster. If we don't act quickly, there may soon be more people than the earth can sustain. See graph, Total Rural Population

          How did the UN Secretariat discover this possibility? Using reports and figures from different countries, the staff estimated how much food could be produced with the land and water available and how many people that food would feed. They concluded that not many more than 15 billion people could live comfortably on earth

      2. Why We Must Act Now
          This story-exercise, How Many People, shows the way population is growing and why we must start now to slow that growth and share resources fairly.

          Figuring can be done with actual object such as pebbles. Not only is this clear but it enables you to really sense the growth and crowding now so near at hand. At the end compare the growth in the story with the growth patterns in the Total Rural Population graph.

  2. How Can We Live in a Much More Crowded World? Survey and Model
      From Part I you have seen that even if people start now to have fewer children, the population will continue to rise before it levels. This is true even in those countries where the birth rate is already dropping. During your lifetime you can expect that there will almost certainly be about three times as many people but probably no greater resources than there are today.

      1. What Does Each Person Need?
          Together the class can list 1) people's physical needs (air, water, food, shelter, etc.) and 2) emotional, social and spiritual needs, such as affection, security, education and a sense of "dignity and worth".

      2. How Does Your Community Meet These Needs Now.?
          Your class could divide into groups, each taking responsibility for one or two of the needs on your list. If the whole community is too large for you to cover, take just one part of the community.

          One group can find out where the water comes from, how much each person uses and who decides how it is allotted. Another can explore the kinds of occupations people have, what proportion of the population works in agriculture, commerce and industry. And so on. Another workgroup might also look at groups and programmes responsible for helping children to learn social traditions, beliefs and practices, assisting the sick, homeless and elderly, etc. You might also talk with older people about how the community met these needs when they were young. Once the information has been gathered and shared with the class, make a map or a rough model of the community showing water, farmland, woods, the main buildings, etc.

      3. How Will Your Community Meet These Needs When the Population Triples?
          Now imagine what life will be like in 50 years when there are three times as many people in the community. Will there be enough water? Is there enough land to grow three times as much food? What about housing and where will the building materials come from? On the map or model triple the housing units (you can put some on top of one another if you want to conserve open spaces and vegetation). How can your new town or city be designed and arranged so that people live in small communities with community facilities and gathering places and with their work not too far away? What about transportation, fuel, schools, hospitals and refuse or disposal of waste material?

          Lastly, you will want to discuss how the community can organize to meet all these needs. Who should be responsible for insuring that each person has a fair share of water, food and other limited resources and that his or her other needs are met? Will there have to be more coordination than there is now? With smaller families, how may the roles of women and other people be different? Will the people in the community have to share and help each other more than they do now?

      4. How Will the World Community Meet Human Needs?
          The world community also needs to coordinate plans to meet people's needs worldwide. When the United Nations alerted the countries that the world's population was growing dangerously fast, a World Population Conference was held. First the delegates visualized what life would be like in 50 years. They saw a world of more and less: more people and, therefore, more needs to be met with limited resources... more food to be grown on less land... more goods and services but less raw materials... more, many more cities, probably more industry ... less open spaces and trees. Then the delegates exchanged ideas on how to reduce the number of births and meet people's needs. Finally, they decided that in order for everyone to be able to lead a decent life
          • people should be helped to understand how to have smaller families and why
          • people should conserve resources, stop waste, and grow more food
          • food, water and other vital resources should be shared fairly so each person would have enough to live on
          • not only the United Nations and governments, but people themselves must help with a well-targeted plan of action

  3. What Can You Do
      To students: You have had a chance to imagine the world of the next 50 years and to think about the kind of life you may be able to live. The population explosion situation is dangerous but it is not hopeless. Expansion can be slowed if people now alive will have fewer children. There can be enough food and resources if people live carefully and put the good of the community above their own wishes.

      These questions are intended to help you clarify your own values and priorities. Think about your answers. What are my personal goals and priorities? What do I think is the ideal family size? What are the most important values that I would teach to my children? In thinking about these questions, ask yourself, "What would happen if everyone in the world decided to do as I plan to do? How would my decision affect another's chance for a full life?"

    4. Other Ideas

      To the Teacher
      Since the numbers of people in the world affect every aspect of life, this unit can be extended in any direction you and the class choose. It may be useful, however, to focus on human relations and other topics of special concern to young people. Some of these are suggested below.

      Planning for Living in the 21st Century
      Learning from traditional societies. It might be helpful to study how traditional societies have developed ways to share limited resources. The class could learn how these societies reinforce feelings of community solidarity through rituals, festivals, joint building projects, etc. They could also investigate how older people still contribute to family and community life. Students could then propose ways that these traditional ideas might be used by people with smaller families living in cities.

      Industrialization, Urbanization and the Quality of Life.
      As the total population grows, a larger percentage of people will be living in cities. Although industry and cities have brought many conveniences, they also cause congestion, noise, polluted air and other difficulties. People in all parts of the world are concerned about the tensions of city living-the break-up of family and community ties, loneliness, violence, over consumption and waste, lack of care for the future; all these seem to be unraveling the fabric of societies.

      Consumption and Injustice
      Consumerism is a theme that preoccupies many young people.

      "There is enough material substance and technical knowledge in the world to feed, clothe, shelter, educate and transport many more people than this planet now holds, but we have population and development 'problems' because of our refusal to allocate resources equitably. This is the result of inequitable values which create social and economic institutions and laws in which injustice is entrenched."

            -Interview with Secretariat member of UN Population Fund. UNESCO Associated Schools of the US newsletter.

      In the United Nations community, "Southern" members have drawn attention to the unfairness of the world economic system and the calamities that the population explosion will bring to the poor majority. These matters, however, are too important to ignore in Grades 7-9. At this stage students might discuss the implications of some of the following facts:

      • By the year 2000 the population in the less developed countries will be nearly twice the total world population in 1950.
      • In a single month a citizen in an industrialized country may consume the energy and resources which will have to last the entire lifetime of someone in a so-called "developing" country. If everyone consumed what is consumed by the average person in industrialized countries today, then the world could only sustain two billion people.
      • "The consumption patterns of the two worlds (North and South) are indeed poles apart. Today 1/5th of the earths population (the affluent and technologically advanced) is responsible for consuming 4/5ths of the earth's natural resources. Given the vicious relationship between poverty and exploding populations, it is high time that the world community puts removal of poverty on its agenda."



    Comments to Teachers

      Human Values
      What would a visitor from the 17th century find most astonishing about life in many countries today? the numbers of people? electricity and airplanes? Probably not. He would be coming from a world in which only a few powerful and rich people mattered; the rest were treated almost as beasts of burden. Therefore, he would be unprepared for egalitarian behaviour or hearing people say that each person is considered important and should have a chance at a decent life. What an idea! Revolutionary indeed...

      The idea of "the dignity and worth" of each human being is at the heart of most of the great changes in the world today. It is central to the United Nations' goals and work. It is the clue to understanding "sustainable development" through which nations hope to tame economic forces and make them serve the well-being of people (see IV-A). Concern for the environment, the search for meaningful work, women's call for full participation, the democratization of education-all the topics in this book reflect these human values.

      But, people are also concerned that economic forces today have dehumanized life. In some places economic growth may be valued more than human development. Modern living is apt to be impersonal; in technologically advanced societies, most work has become specialized and mechanized. Some people feel that they are treated only as numbers in some bureaucratic computer.

      Whether human values prevail may depend on education. Not just the curriculum but teaching itself will need to be inspired by the same beliefs voiced by UN Secretary-General U Than in 1971: "I feel more strongly than ever ... that the worth of the human being is the most unique and precious of all our assets and must be the beginning and end of all our efforts."