On a sunny weekend afternoon on the playgrounds and crowded shopping streets of China, all is utterly normal, including a sight that would seem bizarre and mysterious anywhere else in the world. Among the children playing or walking with their parents, there is not a brother or sister to be seen. This is the simple but profound effect of China's one-child policy; the government's desperate, long-running experiment in population control and social engineering dealing with the use of birth control, oral contraceptives, and family planning. China's actions in implementing the one-child policy laws are due to the obvious overpopulation in their country, an issue that is seriously threatening the future of its people. Though they go against traditional Chinese customs, China's harsh policies of population control are indeed justified.
             Overcrowding almost always results in the ecological problems China is facing. Sadly, not only have people created many of the earth's existing environmental struggles, like pollution but also, they become the victims of it as well. Though many do not realize it, the environment plays a huge role in society. It deals with everything from the heat that the sun provides, to the food that ends up on the table for dinner. Overpopulation shows an extreme potential in damage to Earth's environment. The quality of air and resources in cities, like the ones in China, are especially fragile due to the extreme number of factories, different businesses, and cars that pollute the air. "China's crisis is that it is the world's most populous nation, supporting twenty-two percent of the world's people on about seven percent of its arable land" (Lev, Michael. Chicago Tribune.com. May 1, 2000. p. 3). So many people in a limited space of land consume more food than the land can offer. They look to other resources for food and water and speed the process of growing crops by using unhealthy fertilizers. Eventually, crops beco...