Head Chair: Luca Bianchi Vice Chair: Ian Mai Moderator: Chiara Bianchi Position papers will be due on February 5th, 2020. The position paper format, and all other important conference documents, can be found on our conference website, http://lhhsconference.weebly.com/. Email all position papers to our committee email: [email protected]. Feel free to contact us via email if you have any questions or concerns!
Hello, delegates, my name is Luca Bianchi and I will be your head chair. I am currently a senior at Laguna Hills High School. Outside of MUN, I spend my free time playing soccer and surfing as much as possible. I also enjoy playing with my dogs, hanging out with my friends, and watching the Chargers lose every week. I am really excited to meet you all over Zoom for our conference!!
Hello, delegates, my name is Ian Mai and I am your vice chair for this committee. I am a junior at Laguna Hills High School. Outside from school, I enjoy cooking, photography, eating out with friends, watching tv, and sleeping. I’m looking forward to our online conference this year!
Hello, delegates, my name is Chiara Bianchi and I am the moderator for FSC. I am currently a sophomore at Laguna Hills High School. Aside from MUN, I am a part of ASB, run cross country and track, and am on the board of the Red Cross Club. I also love playing with my dogs, cooking, and hanging out with friends. I’m looking forward to a really fun conference!
**IMPORTANT NOTE: Since this is the Futuristic Security Council, the debate will be based on a Security Council issue that takes place in the future. Your issue is Overpopulation which will take place on October 22, 2050. During this debate, you delegates will be discussing the best way to handle the crisis of too many people inhabiting the planet. Keep in mind that country policies can be a little different than normal because it is in the future, but keep it reasonable. Everything in this committee is hypothetical but it needs to seem as it is a real issue that needs solutions.
During the time of this committee, the human population has exceeded the carrying capacity of Earth at 12 billion people and it is rising at an alarming rate. While the birth rate has decreased to 2.15 children per family, the numbers continue to rise. The link below will give each of you an estimate of your country's population on the date chosen for this committee. Your position paper should be based around ideas from your current country policy and your current population.
Background: At the current population rate it is predicted that by the year 2050 the world population will be at around 10.88 billion people. Data shows that around 140 million people are born every year, while 58 million die. This is an average increase of 82 million people every year. Population size is dependent on many things such as, birth rates, death rates, fertility rates, and life expectancy. Also, with a decrease in child mortality rates, the population continues to increase. In the past, countries have tried to fight overpopulation. China, for example, had a one child policy for years, in an attempt to lessen the population. By the 22nd century, scientists have predicted that 8 out of 10 people will live in either Asia or Africa.
UN Involvement: In the past, the United Nations has sought that socio-economic transformation was the main goal in cases of population control on Earth. Since more non-developed countries will usually have issues with rising population rates, it has been proven that population policies cause more harm than resolve. Yet socio-economic transformation has always been a partial solution, as it is not beneficial over the course of many decades. Socio-economic transformation creates partial balance for nations that have struggled with overpopulation. The UN faces a new struggle, in the year 2050, as the population has grown too much. There is no real solution for a rapid decrease in population, and the only law that has been put into place world wide is the limitation of children allowed to be born. The UN has tried and utilized the, Provisional Indicative World Plan for Agricultural Development of the Food and the United Nations/FAO World Food Programme, in order to make sure more non-developed countries have access to resources, but food scarcity across the world is at its lowest.
Bloc Positions Western Bloc: Western nations on average are primarily developed and will be less affected by overpopulation. Nations such as the United States and Canada are opening their borders to more refugees to combat their declining populations. More developed nations in this bloc are dealing with decreasing birth rates that could drastically affect the economic standpoint of these nations. Many of the more underdeveloped countries are struggling to minimize the birth rate to two children per family. In many cases, people emigrate from these nations to those that are more developed.
Latin Bloc: Many Latin countries are struggling with overpopulation and are unable to support the needs of their people. This is causing many of these countries to fall deeper into poverty with nearly half of the Latin population being unemployed. Many corrupt governments are turning towards drug lords to help their countries stay afloat with many people immigrating to Europe or the United States.
African Bloc: Countries in Africa are struggling to keep up with the demand of their citizens as many nations in Africa have a birth rate of over 3 children per family. Furthermore, approximately ⅓ of the African population is unable to work due to disease or lack of basic necessities to survive. Countries in the more southern portion of the continent have found minerals to sell to more developed countries which has allowed them to prosper in this unforgiving time.
Asian Bloc: Countries are either struggling to manage their increasing population or decreasing population because of much stricter immigration laws in this bloc. China and India are at a tipping point with their populations being two of the largest in the world while the country of Japan is having to mandate a policy of at least two children per family due to their rapidly declining birth rate.
Questions to Consider:
What is the growth rate of my country’s population?
What kind of infrastructure can help support the growth or decline of my population?
What are the immigration policies of my country?
How limited are the resources in my country?
What solutions could be produced to help my country and bloc survive this population spike?
Sources
Roser, Max. “Future Population Growth.” Our World in Data, 9 May 2013, ourworldindata.org/future-population-growth.
Population Migration. 30 Aug. 1974, www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/E_CONF.60_19_Plan.pdf.