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 …show more content…
In their book "The Population Explosion", Paul and Anne Ehrlich explain the problem of overpopulation could be solved with no change in the number of people, but by advencements of industrial production and changes in consumption, however difficult it might be (Avilés). According to the US Census Bureau, a total of 83 countries and territories are now thought to encounter below-replacement fertility (Eberstadt). Below-replacement fertility primarily means that the rate of people being born is less than the rate of people dying. Those places have nearly 2.7 billion people that are about 37% of the world population (Eberstadt). Global population growth is predicted to decelerate over the next generation. In fact, slightly fewer people will be born around the globe in the year 2025 than at any point over the last four decades (Eberstadt). A quantity-quality of correlation was discovered by Willis and Becker Lewis in 1973 discussing how the quantity and quality of children is related (Shah). They explained how the marginal cost of a child is higher the greater the cost is per child (Shah). On the other hand, the marginal cost of child quality is higher the more children there are. This pertains to why most poverty-stricken people who live in developed countries have much higher birth rates than higher-income people in more western countries because the impoverished parents tend to lean toward the quantity approach (Shah). Figure 2 demonstrates the quantity-quality tradeoff curve. The curve illustrates how as quantity increases past the maximum utility curve, the quality quickly decreases. This means when the people of developing countries begin to have increases in income, the quantity of children should decrease and birth rates should
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, 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
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.
With Australia’s population rapidly nearing 23.5 million people, the issue of sustainability and the number of people Australia can allow to live comfortably without significant damage to the surrounding environment is extremely important. The misconception that Australia is underpopulated with plenty of room to accommodate the worlds rising population is widespread. With the majority of Australian land being arid and inhospitable, finding available land and resources to accommodate a rising population is placing a huge amount of pressure on the Australian environment. Australia’s population growth consists of two main components; births minus deaths and net migration. While Australia’s birth rate sits at 1.9, lower than the 2.1 needed to replace our aging population, our expanding population comes from overseas migration accounting for around 60 per cent of our growth (Department of Immigration and Border Protection). Currently the total migration rate is set at 210,000 people per year making Australia’s population quickly on the rise. This poses an important discussion regarding the impacts of such a rise and if there is a specific number that constitutes a sustainable Australia regarding population. The issues that may come to pass as a result of overpopulation are great and varied. These include and are not limited to; resource shortages, social conflict, overcrowding, pollution, habitat and biodiversity loss and a lowering in national health standards. The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has put forward arguments opposing a rising population due to the predicted environmental damage we would face as an outcome. A few of the main problems associated with an unconstrained population are outlined in this essay.
It’s a frightening thought to think that the day will come when all the food, water, and oil in the world isn’t enough for the population to survive on. Of course, that’s already a reality in several overpopulated countries like China and India. Similarly, there are numerous opinions on overpopulation, some say that it can be hindered, while others think that the human species will come extinct due to deprivation of resources. According to Gilland (2008), overpopulation is every so often defined as the lands inability to feed its population. This lack of resources can be explained by the social-conflict theory which views overpopulation as not a crisis of the number of people, but of the way resources are distributed around the world.
The size of population tends to exceed the environmental resources an area can sustain because of increased birth rate, lowered death rates and increased migrations. Consequently, the over populated world encounters global crisis such as global warming, depletion of natural resources, unemployment and slower economic development. A report from The Nation, talks of overpopulation in the world in the following manner.
People migrate to urban countries and developed countries in search of better employment , more opportunities , higher level of education and better living . Almost 3% of the world population are not living in the country they were born in. United States has the maximum number of permanent immigrants. Due to immigration it becomes difficult for the countries to maintain the population . Also the population density increases which makes it difficult to handle the country with such a huge population . It is also known that overpopulation is seen in developing countries rather than developed countries due to lack of awareness , no family planning , less education etc. migration created an imbalance in the population density of the overall world. Also it is said that in the next 45 years the population in the richer countries would shrink more and more and that in the poorer countries would increase immensely . some of the reasons are that the population in developing countries consist of a lot of young people from the age of 15 to 30 .So the rate of fertility is very high and gets higher every year . also there is poor education and lack of information and awareness about protection and family planning which adds to increase of births. It is difficult for humans to discuss reproductive control maybe because of shyness . Also many parents are not much open to their children to talk about such things as a result there is lack of information which leads to unplanned fertility
There needs to be limitations in these lesser developed countries, birth rates undoubtedly need to be lowered because the amount of births are not possible for the space and living standards that these countries have to offer. When you have to live on $1/$2 a day it’s hard to make a living and support yourself let alone a family. No one could ever live a decent life with that sort of income, it’s asinine. This leads to income inequality, when the wealth in a country is inadequately distributed amongst its citizens. “Overpopulation” wouldn’t be an issue if people didn’t live in poverty; if individuals were able to get a standard education, access to fresh water, adequate nutrition, suitable shelter and incomes this would not be an issue. It’s frustrating to think that many people—more than three billion—are not able to have the privileges we so easily overlook everyday. This overpopulation issue can only lead to negative outcomes such as lower life expectancies, increasing complications to supply resources (water, food, energy, housing), increases in infectious diseases, etc. By 2050 the population will have surpassed 9 billion and more and more individuals will have to deal with the overpopulation issue and many more people will have to suffer because of it. Food production is not evenly distributed globally so developing countries are increasing
There are approximately 6 billion people on our planet now and by 2050 that number is expected to jump to 9 billion people. (http://www.prb.org/datafind/datafinder5.htm) Picture yourself driving down a crowded street or stuck in a traffic jam, have you ever wondered how it is possible for that many people to live all on the same planet. I have had those thoughts several times and believe that overpopulation is one of the biggest problems in the world today. Overpopulation has become a major crisis in the twenty-first century and it's detrimental effect on our living standards, environment, and much needed resources. The problem is not the number of people in this world, but the way people choose to live. The dilemmas created by overpopulation affect people of all races and social status. This is why we as the ?human race? must work together to preserve our planet and necessary resources before it is too late.
Of all of the environmental issues we perceive on the planet today, overpopulation is one that can be easily overlooked. Challenges such as pollution, climate change and global warming all seem to take priority in coverage, education and discovering solutions, but the majority of key environmental issues flow from the very fact that humans are over populating the globe. Overpopulation is the rapid increase of the human population, which is gradually exceeding the capacity of the globe.
At this rate, humans will inevitably overpopulate the planet. The question is, how long do we have before it is truly too late? We have governments and financial systems that help to support a steadily declining network of nations and societies. They prevent chaos. We have filled our prisons to the brim and our systems and energy are on the way to a slow death. How long before the amount of people outweighs the amount of resources? How long before we inflict too much damage on our planet to grow food and sustain life? These are not the questions of a paranoid tree-hugger. These are some of the most important and influential questions of our time. If we don’t start finding legitimate answers to these questions now, it will be too late. I have an idea that could be a possible solution. The probability of my idea’s actual consideration is highly unlikely due to
Overpopulation is a major challenge that humans face today. The human population is close to 8 billion, and at our current birthrate, we are adding nearly one billion more people every 12 years. Issues including depending on natural resources, degradation of the environment, poverty, unemployment and other dangerous effects which are extremely likely to effect the human race as a cause of overpopulation.
“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.
Overpopulation is considered as one of the most dangerous problems that affects our world very badly. Our world now is completely overpopulated. People have suffered a lot because of overpopulation. As overpopulation caused in many other problems, as because of overpopulation, it is easier to catch and spread diseases. And it leads to food shortages. Overpopulation also causes a problem for the environment because the population produces a lot of waste and the earth won’t be able to handle this amount of wastes someday. The media will play a very important role to aware people about such a problem, and to start solving this problem. And one of the smartest ways to discuss the problem and aware people of it, is to present it to the audiences in an ironic way as cartoons. Take for an example, these two cartoons. The first cartoon shows the earth as a human being and it is beaten up which show us how the earth is suffering from overpopulation. The second cartoon shows the earth as a human being also but this time he (the earth man) is being showered by a lady, which show us the amount of pollution caused by this problem. Although both cartoons address the Overpopulation and its effects on earth using some persuasive techniques, yet the cartoon of the earth man and that lady is much stronger and more persuasive, because of the smart use of some techniques like Irony, Exaggeration and symbolism.
Another trend that the world is getting overpopulated is the statistical data presented from the World’s Economic Crisis, during the World War II the populations tripled which increased the world’s trade by two hundred times (Toth, 2016). This means the by the population obliterating the world's resources by demand, not by necessity its meeting the populations need not greed. But if it was to do that, then the world would be at risk for starvation, because there wouldn’t be enough resources to go around sustaining the world (Toth,