Annotated Bibliography

Should the United States send birth control programs overseas in order to help correct overpopulation?

Xenia, Jillian. "Overpopulation". TakingITGlobal. 7 Dec. 2008 .
This article is written by a 17 year old Canadian student named Jillian Xenia. She talks about the causes of overpopulation in our world. The resources in our world are not evenly distributed and this leads to malnutrition and poverty in certain third world countries. The women in these third world countries don’t make enough money to pay for birth control, so they continue to have babies. A vicious circle is created because overpopulation leads to poverty and poverty leads to overpopulation. Female illiteracy is another issue because if more women in third world countries were educated, they could make better decisions for their family in knowing that they shouldn’t have more children than exceed their family’s resources. Religion also plays a deep role in overpopulation because many belief systems tell females that using birth control or having an abortion makes you a sinner. She ends the article by stating that what it all comes down to is inequality. If we all work together and educate each other we will have a much stronger world.

Bedard, Paul. "Third World Birth Control Tops Gore's". WestLake Solutions, Inc. 7 Dec. 2008 .
This article is about the views of Al Gore and how he has found a connection between overpopulation and pollution. He believes that over-seas birth control programs can help the overpopulation issue, which would then assist the pollution issue. He states that there are three solutions to overpopulation. First, he said that cutting child mortality rates will encourage families in developing countries not to have so many children. Second, making birth control information more easily available and culturally acceptable will help. Third, empowering women both socially and politically will allow them to participate in childbearing decisions. The article ends with a quote from Al Gore, “‘I can’t imagine that we would allow this [global warming] to happen.’” This article illuminates my topic by describing a significant effect of birth control programs in third world countries and how this doesn’t only affect overpopulation, but how it may also effect global warming.