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Population growth and its impact on the environment
overpopulation essay 123helpme
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Overpopulation
The twentieth century has drawn to a close and civilization faces the dilemma of supporting an overpopulated world. Throughout time, mankind has lived as though there were no consequences for his actions. But now, as people of the future, we see what is happening to the world we live in. Despite our knowledge, these straightforward problems are still being ignored. Our actions in the past have dictated the present, and our actions now will determine our future, and generations to come. We caused the overpopulation problems we are now facing; so we must also be the ones to solve the problems. The link between population growth and environmental impact seems obvious. More people, consume more resources, damage more of the earth, and generate more waste. In the book Earth Odyssey, by Mark Hertzgaard, he quoted Paul Ehrlich’s statement, “The United States is the most overpopulated country in the world” (197). Today’s children are likely to see a tripling of the global population within their lifetimes unless, solutions emerge decreasing population growth. Hertzgaard points out “the world’s population will stabilize at much less than eight billion people, and an eventual total of ten or twelve billion is quite possible” (220). We must take action to save our planet.
One crisis the earth and its inhabitants fear today is lack of resources due to the increasing number of people. Justifications for our path of destruction are; destroy trees for more farmland; excessive consumption of food sources by over harvesting and overgrazing causing barren wastelands; continued use of fossil fuels and chemicals needed for transportation, creation of electricity, and heating our homes; and more people means more homes will be built again
forests and natural habitats of animals.
In unit 3 we learned about sustainability, our ecological footprints, oil resources as well as trade. The sustainability dilemma is divided into three sections that each show a way the earth is struggling to sustain us. When studying population, we learned that the global population is slowing down, but will continue to increase for at least thirty years. Furthermore, in unit 4 we learned about population change. When studying exponential growth, we learned the United Nation has three predictions for the future global population. These predictions include our population increasing rapidly, decreasing rapidly and stabilizing. These two ideas are connected because they both explore the future of our population. The diagram represents
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.
In Anthony Barnosky and Elizabeth Hadly’s Tipping Point for Planet Earth, one of the many dangerous trends they bring up is the issue of overpopulation. At our current rate, we are expected to reach an estimated population size of over twenty-seven billion by 2100. Along with this massive increase in population size is an expected rise in food shortages, an increase in over populated cities like Delhi or New York, increase in life expenses, and overall loss of quality of life. In order to combat these potential dangers due to overpopulation, Barnosky and Hadly suggested that there are three ways to go about doing so. The first and worst of the three is a global catastrophe which would wipe out a majority of the population, whether that be
In 1994, the world population was 5 602 800 000. This population had a doubling time of only forty-one years (De Blij and Muller, 1994, p.527). The massive amount of people has had highly destructive impacts on the earth’s environment. These impacts occur on two levels: global and local. On the global level, there is the accumulation of green house gases that deplete the ozone layer, the extinction of species, and a global food shortage. On the local level, there is erosion of soils (and the loss of vegetation), the depletion of water supply, and toxification of the air and water. The earth is dynamic though, all of these aspects are interrelated, and no one impact is completely isolated. All of these destructive elements can be traced to our enormous population. As the population increases, so do all of the economic, social, and technological impacts.
Humankind will always have to overcome challenges. Three key challenges that we are currently facing and require immediate action are overpopulation, land use, as well as cultural conflicts. These issues have been prevalent topics in the media in recent years. Unless we start taking the steps to address these concerns, we will continue to see these topics in the media for years to come.
In today’s society that we live in, there are countless of environmental problems that we face, such as global warming, fishing, pollution, and many other topics of that matter. These issues have affected our environment for the worse and have caused problems physically and economically. Yet, out of all the issues that effects our world on a daily basis, it is shown that overpopulation is one if not, is our biggest issue in our environment that is only getting worse due time, especially due to the rapid growth of the human population and the limited resources that are left on earth that we absolutely need to tend to our growing population. Even Dr. Charles A. Hall, who is a systems ecologist, states that, “Overpopulation is the only problem, If we had 100 million people on Earth or better yet 10 million, no others would be a problem.” Which helps prove that overpopulation is a major issue that we must act upon if we want to save our world.
The human population has increased by 4.5 billion since the last sixty years (Engelman 1), this tremendous growth in the human population has startled numerous individuals. As a matter of fact, the biosphere’s population of humans is expected to grow additional, resulting in a total of nine billion by 2050 (Pearce 1). Some individuals may see this as a concern for the planet, whereas others assume that there are other more imperative hitches that humans should deal with. Although Erle C. Ellis agrees that overpopulation is not a problem for this planet, conversely, Fred Pearce and Joel Kotkin argue that there are other more vital problems to mend; unlike Ellis, Robert Engelman disagrees, proclaiming overpopulation
inevitably the earths resources will run dry and the human race will be no more. There are
The world as we know it is slowly being depleted of its natural resources. Habitats are being destroyed, and wildlife animals are facing extinction, these are just a few of the effects of over population. Over population not only affects nature and the planet but the human way of life. Imagine a world where the water is polluted, the soil produces no crop and the air is so toxic that we can’t breathe; this is where the world is heading. Due to the fast growth of people, humanity itself faces great danger. There are solutions to over population such as Family planning and sexual education.
Every year the human population grows, every decade it grows twice as much. In 2000, the global population was a little over six billion. As of the year 2014, the human population has grown over seven billion people. Although people live in different areas and are somewhat spread out, there are some regions where it is densely populated. A lot of problems can occur just because of overpopulation, for example there could be major environmental changes, a decrease in living space, which could lead to huge amounts of overcrowding. According www.slate.com, “John Beddington, the chief science adviser to the British government, has warned that by 2030 the interlocking trends of climate change, population growth, and resource scarcity may result in “major destabilization,” including street riots and mass migrations as people flee shortages of food and water.” This means that population growth could be a huge factor in what they call “major destabilization” and with the population already large by that year, many people will most likely try fight over food and water. Over time the world’s population has been increasing and has therefore begun to create major problems not only in countries with vast populations, but possibly the world.
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...
Today there are more than seven billion people living on Earth (Kuo 23). One billion of these people are on the verge of starvation, and even more have absolutely no access to sanitized water (Kuo 23-24). Some say that this is due to overpopulation. Having more people on earth proves the need for more food, water, housing, medication, and other necessities (Kuo 24). Though most people who read this paper will not encounter these problems, they happen all over the world (Cover 444). The world population has almost doubled since 1965 and is currently growing at a rate of more than 80 million people every year (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 557). This is causing the climate to change and unemployment to increase. The world is slowly depleting its resources, and something needs to be done about it (Cover 444; Kuo 24). It is essential that the world implement global population control policies such as family limitations.
“If we do not voluntarily bring population growth under control in the next one or two decades, the nature will do it for us in the most brutal way, whether we like it or not.” - Henry W. Kendall. This quote is just a small factor of what overpopulation around the world is doing. Each and every single day more and more people are born into this world, and the population increases rapidly every second. For example, the population right now in the United States is approximately 325 million people. The population in India today is about 1.25 billion people. The country with the largest population in the world right now is currently India, with 1.35 billion people, and China is not that far behind. With overpopulation in the world, there are less natural resources around the world, because all of the farmland is being taken up by new housing, buildings, and factories. Another problem it causes is air pollution. With all the factories being built, so many
An overarching issue that concerns all people due to its far-reaching implications is the subject of overpopulation. In the last two centuries, the global population has dramatically increased from 0.9 billion in 1800 to 7.6 billion in 2017. Some people may say growing population is beneficial since more people generates a bigger market and a bigger economy. On the other hand, the ramifications from dramatically increased population demonstrates the irrefutable negative facts on overpopulation. To understand the effects of overpopulation, it is imperative to explore its negative impacts on the environment, people’s lives, and the economy.
...contemporary environmental crisis, we are able to gather a concise understanding of issues that are often hard to explain yet alone understand. Wealth has become a power system evoking dualism of the western and third world. Power and quality of life is measured against the wealth of an individual. This is a result of human’s tendency to over utilize and eventually deplete the resources available to them inevitably leading to overpopulation. In the next fifty years, the success of the environmental movement may depend much more on its ability to change ethics and values. Environmental philosophy gives an invaluable lens into the issues of overpopulation by deconstructing complex dynamics within society. By spreading ideas within environmental philosophy to all different corners of the globe then everyone will have a chance to learn how to live rightly in the world.