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Overpopulation and its effects on the environment
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Recommended: Overpopulation and its effects on the environment
Regina Yarborough
Environmental Science
Essay
10 August 2015
Overpopulation and its effects in 50 years
Overpopulation is an unwanted condition when we start having the human population more than the mother earth can accommodate. Overpopulation is generally caused by many different factors. Some of the key factors are lack of education, mortality rate, above average medical facilities, poverty and a few more that directly affect overpopulation rates. Earth has limited amount of resources and when we start depleting all our reserves we know that overpopulation is the cause. Human population is growing at an alarming rate like never before. Every 12 years we are adding 1 billion to this planet. That 's around 220,000 per day.
The ultimate root of
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It includes shortages of all our resources, war and social conflict, limits on personal freedom, overcrowding and the health and survival of other species. Food shortages are one of the main effects, one out of every 7 people alive, go to bed hungry. About 25,000 people die of improper diet and diseases caused by malnutrition. Almost 18,000 of them are children under 5 years old. Air quality has been effected due to increased population. In many parts of the country asthma has risen to alarming levels in the past 20 years and will get worse in next 50 years if overpopulation isn’t controlled. This problem is not just in the developed countries where we have a strong industrial sector but it’s also present in the underdeveloped countries and effects the children as burning wood to stay warm and overuse of natural gas, oil and coal is present. Increase in the number of vehicles and different industries have affected the quality of air in a harmful way. Rapidly increasing amounts of CO2 emissions leads to global warming. And we all know the changing weather pattern year after year is a good sign that we need to take a serious
To begin with, the rise of technology has allowed people an easier way of transportation, but everything comes with a cost, such as greenhouse gases. Cars, power plants, factories, oil sands, clear-cut, to name a few, has all played a factor in the increase of climate change. This can cause the extinction of species. Animals without homes, migration patterns scattered and algae blooms
According to the article “Pet Statistics” by the ASPCA estimates there are 70-80 million dogs and 74-96 million cats owned in the United States. It is impossible to determine the number of stray dogs and cats, but the ASPCA estimates there are 70 million cats alone that are strays in the US (“Pet Statistics”). The overpopulation of dogs and cats live either on the streets and die each day, they live in a shelter and try to get adopted, but even then they die. The ASPCA states that nationwide about 7.6 million companion animals enter the shelter and of the 7.6 million approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 million are cats (“Pet Statistics”).
In, The Population Bomb by, Paul R Ehrlich, he explains the problem of population increase, and how there are people everywhere! The feeling of feeling over populated. He talks about how if there are more people then there is more food that needs to be produced then ate. He explains on the rich people becoming wealthier and the poor are going to be even poorer and there is going to be a starvation. Population is doubling every year and how our energy is turning into
and is existing surely because of humans themselves- overpopulation. “Overpopulation is the problem” and causes other externalities such as pollution, deforestation, and a greater handful of biodiversity losses. In addition, overpopulation causes economic and political factors such as more consumption per person and the reduction of resources that can be provided per person. This contributes to the strain on ecological systems and the economic and population growth. With overpopulation, many resources become finite and an umpteen amount of ecosystems are being destroyed. Overpopulation relates to the impact of humans on pollution. Obviously with more human life, there is more necessity for jobs such as factories that give off fumes, automobiles, and the use for burning fossil fuels. In greater extent, this leads to an environmental factor in that it accumulates chemicals in food chains such as mercury, arsenic, and copper. It can lead to political problems as well, when trying to interact with other countries and stop the problem of global pollution and eventually endin...
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.
Have you ever wondered why there are 7 billion living on earth today? According to Webster’s Dictionary, population is the total number of people inhabiting a country, city, etc. (Merriam-Webster). There are a lot of people in the world and the earth doesn’t seem big enough to sustain the growing population of the earth. Having this many people on earth is too much so something must be done about it because it can cause a lot of problems in many countries especially in less developed countries. There are many ways of making the world a better place and overpopulating is not one of them. Even with the knowledge of its history, causes and effects, it is still a topic that is a major concern today.
Fewer people are becoming increasingly 'successful' and wealthy while a disproportionately larger population are also becoming even poorer. The developed nations, by systematic spoliation of the non-renewable resources of the world, are also destroying the ecosystem. Around the world, inequality is increasing, while the rest of the world is further globalising. In many cases, political interests have led to a diversion of available resources from domestic needs to western markets. Historically, politics and power play by the elite leaders and rulers has meant that people and their land can be controlled, which has further increased poverty and dependency.
Overpopulation describes a condition where the number of people uses the resources in a closed environment so that it can no longer maintain that population (Elliot Institute). Around the early 1900 's, the world population had grown to a billion people, and English scholar, Thomas Malthus and partner economists predicted that mankind would outgrow its available resources because a limited amount of land wouldn 't be able to support a population with a limitless potential for growth. Today our population is more than 7 billion. Despite the fact that better health care and medicine along with advances in food production and easier access to freshwater and sanitation have given us the ability to feed ourselves and fight many sickness 's, some
Over the centuries our civilization has tried to come up with an ultimate solution concerning
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)
Industrial revolution is also a well-known paradigm shift because it introduces many new scientific and social progresses. At the same time this paradigm shift brings humans convenience, it comes with some drawbacks, too. A large amount of fossil fuels and forests have been used; this produces a lot greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide. Data from Earth Policy Institute also indicates that every ten years are approximately 0.28 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the previous ten years since 1970. From 1880 to 2012, the global temperature has raised roughly 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems that these numbers are small, but the high-carbon society has already resulted in climate and resource issues. Ice and glaciers are melting all over the world, which lead sea level to rise rapidly. Floods and droughts will become frequent and some plant or animal species will die out due to natural hazards, such as polar bears. Mosquitoes are more likely to spread diseases because of the humid weather. Weird weather also influences crop harvests. For example, the poor harvest of barley r...
Seven and a half billion. Enough steps to walk around the globe a hundred and sixty times. Our planet is trying to provide and sustain for a colossal number of people which is expanding every single second. Now the concern that has been put forth by scholars come from the idea that the consumption and effects to our planet by our current society is an international security risk that greatly compromises the future generations. Confucius even mentions this at the earliest start of civilization by saying:
Overpopulation is going to continue to be a growing problem all over the world unless we come together and help each other out. This is a difficult task but it can be dealt with. This is the most important environmental issue because it leads to many others. It leads to loss of species, shortage of land, lack of resources, deforestation, health issues, pollution, and famine. Overpopulation is a growing problem we can stop. The only way this is going to be stopped is by humans taking action and trying to help each other.
In order to grow, besides using technology, the economy also feeds on natural resources. This in turn emits waste that pollutes the air and threatens the climate, causes an overuse of natural resources such as oil and gas, and in the long run, this will create a skin hole which will swallow up the economy, environment and society.
Overpopulation can be seen as one of the key factors responsible for the state of our rapidly decaying earth. Developments in medicine, agriculture and technology have allowed for the human race to take over all other species and be excluded from the natural food chain. Humans, particularly westerners, lead lives of extreme consumption that take huge tolls not only on the earth but also on certain groups within society. A great division has developed between the western world and the third world.