Humans have greatly impacted the global environment. Throughout the course of history, human populations have rapidly increased. Especially in Africa, these numbers have reached extraordinary proportions. Out of all the continents in the world, Africa’s population is increasing the most. The type of growth here is exponential. “Overpopulation is a condition when an organisms numbers exceeds the carrying of its ecological niche.” The growth rate of a population is equal to the birth rate minus the death rate. Therefore, for overpopulation to occur, the birth rate must surpass the death rate (Wiley). The current population of Nigeria is estimated to be 155,215,573. Most of the population consists of the younger generation. More specifically, 41% of the population is between the ages of 0-14. 56% of the population is between the ages of 15-64. However, only 3.1% of the population is 65 and over. This age group represents a very small part of the population. (CIA)
Overpopulation drastically affects the standard of living of the people. Not only does it affect the standard of living, it affects the environment as well. The environment has a certain carrying capacity of humans that it can support. When this carrying capacity is exceeded, the environment starts to deteriorate. With a large amount of people, land that can be used as valuable farmland is wasted. Also, with a great amount of humans, there is more waste produced. This waste contaminates local water and spreads disease, eventually leading to the destruction of wildlife. Animals as well as humans have a limited use of water because of the microorganisms and fecal matter in the water. Many ideas have been debated upon to help improve these conditions for both animals and peopl...
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African demography is exceptional because of its significantly growing population. African developed countries are facing substantially high population growth rates which are causing a lot of worries recalling Malthus’ hypotheses. In fact, the Malthusian theory states that the arithmetic increase of food production will not keep up with the exogenous geometric growth of population, and thus will increase the difficulty of subsistence. Of course this model has been proved to be wrong especially since industrialization, but still it somewhat explains why developed countries among them Africa have a negative point of view of population growth which will cause issues in accommodating the population’s needs and exercise pressure on the country’s resources. However, empirical evidence shows that even though Africa is facing many stalls, it is actually moving towards low fertility rates. The develop...
Thus, a decrease in the fertility rate will still result in a greater absolute number of births, as there are more potential mothers. Populations are very slow in adjusting to decreases in fertility rates. This is especially frightening when considering that South Asia has a population of 1 204 600 000 (and a doubling time of thirty two years), Subsaharan Africa has 528 000 000 (doubling time: thirty one years), and North Africa/Southwest Asia has 448 100 000 (doubling time: twenty seven years) (De Blij
Initially, it is argued that increasing population may lead to environmental issues to the world by consuming nature resources and causing variable pollution at the same time. According to Hinrichsen and Robey (2000), with a rapid growth of population, the needs of most developing countries to improve living standards are urgent. To meet the demanded of developing, both developed and developing countries consume resources much faster than they can regenerate. That means humans are destroying resources needed for future to satisfy present needs. This is supported by Loucks (2005) who reports that with population tripled in the 20th century, the water withdrawals have increased by 6 times, that means water use inc...
Overpopulation remains the biggest and toughest problem that needs to be solved because of the future consequence that it may produce such as lack of resources to feed the people. Today’s population rise could be traced from as early as the stone ages to as late as the industrialization era (Penfound, 1968). The population before Jesus Christ took 40,000 years to double with a 2% growth rate. In 1850, the human population was at one billion people and then rose to two billion just eighty years later in 1930. Three decades later in 1960, it reached three billion, and in 1975 it ballooned into four billion people (Howard, 1969). Paul R. Ehrlich, author of the book, “The population bomb” said in 1992 that the earth will be facing “the need to support at least twice its present population of humans whether the earth’s life support systems’ uncertainty of sustainability” (Daily and Ehrlich, 1992). He also projected that in 2025, the population of Earth will be at 8.5 billion, and eventually level off to 11.6 billion in 2150, based on “positive assumptions of contin...
Earth has a population of more than six billion people. As this number continues to grow, the populated land masses fill up, and it seems that eventually they will all be overcrowded. Certain areas are already showing this overpopulation, such as large American cities including Los Angeles and New York City. Some countries do not suffer from overcrowding due to high population, but to a high ratio of population to resources. As the natural resources of an area are depleted, the quality of life of the people who live there decreases. If the human race is to prosper as a whole, there must be enough resources to support the global population. In order to support our increasing population, we must learn to harness new resources.
Efforts to improve the standard of living for humans--through the control of nature and the development of new products--have also resulted in the pollution, or contamination, of the environment. Much of the world's air, water, and land is now partially poisoned by chemical wastes. Some places have become uninhabitable. This pollution exposes people all around the globe to new risks from disease. Many species of plants and animals have become endangered or are now extinct. As a result of these developments, governments have passed laws to limit or reverse the threat of environmental pollution.
6.5 billion…This is not a whole lot of bacteria, but when it comes to humans, it is a very formidable number. The human population has been increasing at an extremely high rate in the last century and unfortunately, not much has been done to slow down this process. Undoubtedly, overpopulation is a global issue. It is global because it pertains to all of humanity, but global also means that it affects the whole world, i.e. the environment. Almost all human activities impact negatively the environment in one form or another, and as human population expands, the damaging effects on the environment multiply. Here are some of the most imminent environmental problems that results from human population growth:
As long as there are homeless and hungry it’s selfish to make more people. Overpopulation is one of the most serious and old problems in the world. Every year it expands and become more danger than before. Even though it represents a great danger to the world. There were no solutions arouse that eliminate the problem completely. Human population growth had and still concerns scientists for many years. There are many issues attached to this problem as desertification and water problems .These sub issues must be addressed so that we can work towards solving the main problem, which is overpopulation .The population growth increases enormously all over the world .The current population of the Arab Republic of Egypt is estimated to be approximately 84.55 million people .The problem spreads all over Egypt , in both the countryside and the city .From the causes of overpopulation the decline in the death rate .As overpopulation is the difference between the overall birth rate and death rate in populations .The population will stabilize if the number of children born equals the number of adults that die .but as a result of better medical facilities and technological advancement .The death rate decrease with increase of birth rate which causes the huge population growth .Technological advancement in fertility treatment is another cause of overpopulation . with the many discoveries in medical science and technological advancement it become possible for couple who are unable to conceive to undergo fertility treatment methods and have their own babies .which lead to rise in birth rate .A third cause is lack of family planning .Most of developing nations have large number of people who are illiterate and ...
Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of the existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth. Overpopulation is caused by a number of factors. Reduced mortality rate, better medical facilities, depletion of precious resources are a few of the causes which results in increasing the population. In the future, overpopulation will become a huge catastrophe. Because of overpopulation, countries will run out of their resources, and they wanted to obtain more and more resources to destroy the environment. This undesirable condition cause destruction of forests and water shortage, but I think people can change some polices, and they also can promote
“Mouths multiply more quickly than our ability to feed them- yet we’re still feeding them”, written by the famous English economist Thomas Malthus, describing the rate of population increase and the disregard to the economy and resources correlated with the increase by the world today. Overpopulation is the population of the country in excess of the availability of resources to sustain without hurting the environment. As the population continues to increase, the environmental impact does was well. The general equation used for environmental impact is population × consumption × technology. These three factors provide a large importance to the existing overpopulation and reasoning for lack of action taking place to fix them. Environmental impact is defined as the effect on biodiversity, natural resources and ecosystems. Without these, people around the world would lose the many privileges, opportunities and enjoyment in our world today. Countries around the world contribute to the massive population growth were beginning to experience. Although some nations are larger or denser than others, the world as a whole continues to be in jeopardy. Each country adds or contributes various supplies and resources to the planet, where if one country’s resources expire, it would affect the entire world. The threat of overpopulation involves scarce resources, family size, quality of life and immigration. Overpopulation is a serious problem that will lead to an extremely negative impact on our country and our planet.
Our world is too small for our ever rapidly growing population. One day resources will run dry and vanish, which will bring death and loss to all nations on this planet. Many researchers and scientists have confirmed that the population will reach 10 billion by the end of the century and will continue to stream upward. There are many different ways in trying to decrease population to contain global warming and assist our environmental changes. The only way to steadily succeeding, families must be the regulators of their fertility and future. Environmentalism can head in a negative direction, which may result in population control and even anti-immigrant policies. Can the developing effort of ‘population integrity’ protect our world while recognizing birth moralities?
Overpopulation and social problems go hand and hand in today’s society and there are many reasons and factors as to why these problems exist. Factors that lead to overpopulation that causes social problems are the increase in the number of single mothers in poor neighborhoods opposed to the decline in birth rates in the more efficient parts of the country, how the death rate is at a steady decline because of medical advances in rich and poor countries, the effects immigrants have on an environment and the population growth that occurs, the influence parents leave on children, and what is being done to help prevent the spread of AIDS because this is a deadly disease which is lowering our population but causing many social problems.
Nigeria has the largest population of any African country and it is the 6th in the world. Population Growth is the change in population overtime. Nigeria is also the most densely populated country in Africa, that means, nearly one in six Africans is a Nigerian. Nigeria’s population is unevenly distributed across the country and the world. In July 2001, Nigeria’s population was estimated at more than 123 million people about 345 people per square mile. The population growth rate is influenced by the interplay of the three main demographic processes of fertility, mortality and migration. The population growth of Nigeria can be analysed through the Antiquity of the population of Nigeria, the Current population, the Trends and the Future Predictions of the population of Nigeria.
One of the major impacts of overpopulation on the environment is the fact that we overuse the resources in our habitat. Overpopulation leads to the exponential increase of need and consumption of natural resources to sustain the population. For example, the amount of woods chopped down for lumber increases greatly as the population in the area increase. Furthermore, exploitation of coal, minerals and metals to build factories, provide energy, and habitation for large groups of people causes the land to corrode faster, causing more landslides in mountainous areas. The lack of clean water in many parts of Africa, China, and India is also a result of overpopulation. Great consumption of water from wells, lakes, and rivers cause them to drain up much faster. On the other hand, the need for food also increases rapidly as the population grows. Another common phenomenon in many parts of the world is the quick deprivation of nutrients in soil due to an incredible amount of planted crops and harvest a...
For more than fifty years and counting, Paul R. Ehrlich has been alerting people to the importance of overpopulation and the threats that it may pose. In his 1968 best seller, The Population Bomb, biologist Paul Ehrlich more specifically declared, "In the 1970s and 1980s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now." Famines on that scale never arrived. The most important question in this essay is what are the threats that overpopulation will pose? Poverty is one main problem, if the number of people exceeds the capacity of the environment or habitat then there will be a huge number of demands and not all the people will have their needs fulfilled, and countries will be unable