Overpopulation

913 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Carbon dioxide effects on the environment

Stories of current times could sound surreal to citizens of the year 2552. Tales of water coming out of the ground, fuel sources called fossil fuels, or vast areas covered in trees would all be stories around the virtual campfire. Lands once known as Africa have become uninhabitable to even the most resilient organisms. At the poles, it is so cold that the fuel lines in vehicles freeze in eleven seconds. The descendants of seven billion people currently inhabiting this world would be faced with hard times if we fail to take action. An additional 80 million people each year are just going to add to problems such as global warming, food and water shortages, fossil fuel depletion, and destroyed ecosystems. All these problems will become more prevalent as world population increases. In 1804 there were a mere billion people. By 1927, it doubled. There were three billion in 1959, four billion in 1974, five billion in 1986, and six billion in 1999. With 218,000 more mouths to feed each day, we are running out of time to take appropriate measures. If the current rate of population growth remains the same, then earth will run out of the land and resources we consume to maintain our lifestyles.

The term overpopulation is normally associated with a specific number that represents a large number of people. However, overpopulation is the phenomenon that occurs whenever the environment can no longer sustain the demands of the species that inhabit it and the carrying capacity is exceeded. The carrying capacity is the amount of species that an environment can hold before it begins to degrade. We are edging closer to the threshold of Earth's carrying capacity. We are currently consuming 20 percent more natural resources than our planet can rep...

... middle of paper ...

...quences-of-unequal-d_b_674779.html>.

Hoevel, Ann. "Overpopulation Could Be People, Planet Problem." CNN. 25 Sept. 2007. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. .

Kristof, Nicholas. "The Birth Control Solution." The New York Times. 2 Nov. 2011. Web. 17 Mar. 2012. .

"Living Planet Report 2002." WWF. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. .

Minois, Georges. "Too Much Life on Earth?" The New York Times. 13 July 2011. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. .

Show More
Related

  • The Veldt And There Will Come Soft Rains

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the past 50 years, life expectancy has increased tenfold. Technology has allowed people to live longer, stay healthier, and be able to reproduce; we are looking towards and currently in and overpopulation. Also, the standards of living in third world countries are increasing. People are becoming wealthier and having much more children. By 2050, at the rate at which we are growing, there will be approximately 10 billion people living on earth. Also at the rate of resource consumption, there will not be enough food for everyone. With fresh water already being scarce, there would be a shortage. Most bodies of water will be polluted and certain countries will become dictators. There could be a war just because resources are limited; do you think humanity is ready for

    Read More

  • Too Many People? by Vanessa Baird

    1435 Words  | 3 Pages

    The worldwide population is approaching 7 billion and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 (Baird). This projected population number is down from a once predicted 16 billion (Baird) and while some are not concerned, others are worried about any increase in population. Population growth is discussed in the articles “Too Many People?” by Vanessa Baird; “Population Control: How Can There Possibly Be Too Many of Us?” by Frank Furedi; and “The Population Bomb Revisited,” by Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich. Baird and Furedi concur that a concern for population growth has been around since mathematician Thomas Malthus, in 1798, warned that overpopulation could lead to “the collapse of society” (Furedi). Furedi claims that too much human life is being used as an excuse, by population control supporters, for the world’s current and future problems. Baird tries to discover if “the current panic over population growth is reasonable.” For Ehrlich and Ehrlich the concern over population growth is very real, and they reinforce and support their book “calling attention to the demographic element in the human predicament” (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 63). While taking different approaches to their articles, the authors offer their perspectives on population growth, population control and the environmental impacts of a growing population.

    Read More

  • Overpopulation in the 1900s

    372 Words  | 1 Pages

    Some people believe that immigration in the 1900’s was a good thing, however, they would be wrong. The United States government should have restricted the immigrants around that time. Some reasons are the population, the taking of new jobs and lowering wages, and diseases spreading quickly. These all factored importantly into why they should not have been allowed in.

    Read More

  • Animal Overpopulation Essay

    639 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thousands of animals are put to sleep each year due to not having any available homes for them to be adopted. According to Jennifer Sexton and Tom Warhol in Domestic Animal Overpopulation, “The average female cat can produce two litters of six kittens per year, a female dog can produce one litter of six or more puppies per year, making pet overpopulation a significant problem.” Animal overpopulation is costing money and you can help the pets with spay and neutering programs. A new solution is mandatory contracts for breeders and spay and neuter programs. This paper will talk about spay and neuter programs, contracts for breeders, and why some people don’t think animal overpopulation is a problem. Thankfully there are solutions to this issue of animal overpopulation.

    Read More

  • Animal Overpopulation

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    There can be no doubt that shelters in the United States are overcrowded, feral cats roam our city streets, thousands of dogs live in grotesque conditions in puppy mills across the country, and yet most American citizens when polled will readily declare that their cat or dog is like ‘a member of the family’. The state of companion animals in this country is precarious at best; caught between scientists who subscribe to Descartes’s idea of ‘anima ex machina’ (unfeeling, a living example of biological processes without the status of ‘being’) and the more common phenomenon of people who pamper their pets in ways that most people would envy. For most individuals living in an urban society such as ours, the most common interaction with animals happens within the home – if the animals that we relate to and interact with the most continue to be abandoned and mistreated on a large scale, there must be some solution that involves more than just building more animal shelters or performing euthanasia more liberally.

    Read More

  • The Cause of Animal Overpopulation

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    Did you know, according to the “Pet Statistics” from ASPCA, there were about 5,000 animal shelters in the United States? In those shelters, about 5-7 million animals were rescued each year and approximately 3-4 million of them were euthanized. That was nearly half to the animal rescued. In other words, thousands of animals were euthanized daily. However, many of these euthanized animals were healthy, treatable, and adoptable pets. What caused these adoptable companions to be euthanized in animal shelters? The major cause was the overpopulation of animals without a home. Moreover, the irresponsible owners and breeders that did not sterilize their animals caused the overpopulation of animals.

    Read More

  • The Negative Methods Of Birth Control

    2023 Words  | 5 Pages

    For thousands of years, people have used various birth control methods to limit the number of children in their families. Birth control encompasses a wide range of devices along with rational and irrational methods that have been used in an attempt to prevent pregnancy. It has been and remains controversial. Today, birth control is an essential part of life. In fact, 99% American women of childbearing age report using some form of contraception at one time or another (NIBH). In his book, The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution, author Jonathan Eig writes "For as long as men and women have been making babies, they 've been trying not to” (Gibson). He reports that early contraceptive options offered

    Read More

  • Population Control: The Causes And Dangers Of Overpopulation

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    Overpopulation is the idea or belief that the population of the earth is growing and cannot grow much more without more food being grown or made. Overpopulation would help control growth by having only one baby born or no children at all. This would help limit the population and allow the world to grow and the population does not get out of hand.

    Read More

  • Population Control

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    As of October 1999', the world obtained 6 billion people. Predictions have been made that by the year 2075' there will be 12 billion people. The major question asked by concerned people is "Is our planet able to provide a healthy and prosperous life style, which we are all a custom to, and can it, be for twice as many people in the future?" "If not, what measures can be taken to prevent such population growth?" "If the United States does take precautions, will these measures be fair, just, and not interfere with natural human rights?"

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Vertical Farming

    2585 Words  | 6 Pages

    Overpopulation has become a drastic issue, for no one knows how many people the earth

    Read More

  • Human Geography: Overpopulation

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    Our world today has many issues that need dealing with. The issues of overpopulation, cultural conflict, and land use will not only effect us currently, but when not addressed, will most certainly effect us in the future. Therefore, we must undertake these challenges before us, in order to create a brighter and better future for us all.

    Read More

  • Negative Effects of Overpopulation on the Environment

    2004 Words  | 5 Pages

    Stancheva, Tina. "Effects of Overpopulation on the Environment." Human Nature, Technology & the Environment. Swarthmore College Environmental Studies, 6 June 2003. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.

    Read More

  • Overpopulation Is a Growing Problem

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    Overpopulation is a growing problem all over the world. This is a very important environmental issue and needs to be dealt with. This environmental problem is affecting many countries around the world, but mostly the poor and impoverished countries that don’t have the resources to help deal with these issues. It also affects the environment like plants, animal life and air quality. When the population of people expands we need more natural resources from the environment, so we consume more than we can produce.

    Read More

  • The Problems that Our World Faces Today

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the problems facing our world is population. It began about ten thousand years ago when the humans settled and began farming. The farming provides more food for the people thus making the population grow. Now we are about 6 billion in population and in a few years we will be around 10 to 11 billion. Therefore, our population will almost double in size. This means that we will need more food to support us. A study in 1986 by Peter Vitonesk, a Stanford biologist, showed that the humans are already consuming about 38.8 of what is possible for us to eat. Thus, if the population keeps increasing, the percentage will increase also, making us closer and closer to the biophysical limits. By studying the earth's capacity, Dr. Cornell, another biologist, believes that we are already crowded for this would. He believes that our world can only support two million people. Not only this, but population can cause complicated problems to the countries with very high population. These countries will need more schools to educate its people, they will need more hospitals and public health to take care of their people, and they will need more water and more soil for farming to feed all the people. In order to solve the population growth problem, the people should be educated. Once the people are educated they will be aware of the problems they ca...

    Read More

  • ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

    1653 Words  | 4 Pages

    The reduction of the Earth's resources has been closely linked to the rise in human population. For many thousands of years people lived in relative harmony with their surroundings. Population sizes were small, and life-supporting tools were simple. Most of the energy needed for work was provided by the worker and animals. Since about 1650, however, the human population has increased dramatically. The problems of overcrowding multiply as an ever-increasing number of people are added to the world's population each year.

    Read More

More about Overpopulation

Open Document