Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
overpopulation crisis
causes for overpopulation essay
Negative effects of overpopulation
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: overpopulation crisis
It’s a scary 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. Moreover, there are numerous opinions on overpopulation, some say that it can be stopped, while others think that the human species will come extinct due to lack of resources. According to Gilland (2008), overpopulation is sometimes 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 problem of the number of people, but of the way resources are distributed around the world. The world’s rate of population growth is 1.2%, which means that the population will double its size to 14 billion in 58 years Pimentel (2012). The greatest concentration of human population can be seen in Africa and Asia. It is believed that about 75% of the world’s population resides within the overpopulated continents. Such as, the people there have accepted a new standard of living; where malnourishment and overcrowded cities are a familiarity.
The first cause of
…show more content…
Japan, for example, became overpopulated in the 1960’s, but they solved this with economic growth (Gilland, 2008). Japan increased its production of grain, thus developing a way to feed its people and help its economy. Those countries that found a way to the industrial revolution have left the others behind and the poorer nations were made worse because of this. There are still countries that have cultural traditions where families will have more than three children. This used to be a necessity because children would succumb to diseases and malnourishment. But due to the industrial revolution, vaccines have been developed and this has declined the overall death
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 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.
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
The developing countries, are the main concerns for overcrowding. 1996 statistics show that 75% of the worlds population live in both Africa (13%) and Asia (63%). The overpopulation in these continents, is so much higher for many different reasons. The main reason being culture. When comparing a continent like Africa, to a continent like North America, there are many different, noticeable, differences. An example of this being the fertility rate. In Africa’s particular culture, having many children equals high fertility rates and this, they believe, is a great blessing from God. Also, here women are not educated, as well as the developed countries, and there is no or very little knowledge of contraceptives.
China and India both being tremendously overpopulated countries already thriving with areas facing extreme poverty could potententially predict more tradgedy. “Overpopulation will continue to lead to famine and war. When resources become scarce due to overpopulation people will feel the need to fight for them” (Miller pg.7). Water scarcity is an issue that is fastly approaching in the near future. Natural resources are being depleated faster than the can be replenished. Countries all around the world will feel the effect of overpopulation and the destruction it has on our natural resources.
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.
The first consequences for the overpopulation is the over consumption of the global resources and this includes the Earth’s fresh water, fossil fuels, food, arable land, energy, and frontier forests. According to Norwich University (n.d.), by 2050 and 2030, the world will experience water, food, and energy supplies, which means 66% of the global population will live with a lack of water so they need more water, more food, and more energy (p. 2). The deficiency of resources will lead to competitions between countries for natural sources, which is a reason for having wars. Another effect by overpopulation is that expensive life which leads to poverty and unemployment people. As Norwich University (n.d.) noted, “If the threats of overpopulation are not solved 3 billion people will be living in poverty” (p.
If it weren't for natural disasters, famine, or policies set for limiting birth rate, the present as we know it would be very different. In the beginning of the development of human beings, we probably had a big explosion of a population. Compared to today, it was most likely a narrow population. It is probable that many diseases that we know of today, were not around at that time, so it grew fast enough to keep us from going extinct. Back then, It was very beneficial for us to reproduce, now, on the contrary, it will be why we might go extinct. Due to the world already being considered overpopulated, some policies have been established. According to National Center for Biotechnology Information, between the years of the 1930s and 1970s China had a massive growth of population; specifically, an increase of 500 million people. In 1979 China introduced the One-child-Policy for the reason to keep a stabled economy. As of today, that policy has slowly faded out. This is a big concern to many scientists because it is alarming that the results of the policy are implying that we have insignificant control over overpopulation. Equally important, The Economic and Social Affair stated in the book “World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision”, “by 2100, the world population will reach 11.2 billion.” That being the case, These statistics are agitating and should be concerning everyone.
The human population has been growing at an exponential rate over the past two-hundred years. What is the reason for this drastic change in the population, and what factors contributed to it? There are many factors, but one of the largest has been the advances in medicine and technology over the last two centuries. The problem is that with such a large population, there will not be enough resources to supply us all. This will lead to massive famines, and wars between nations over land, and resources. First let's take a step back, and see how did we get here, then we will discuss ways to fix the problem.
“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
Experts worldwide are warning that the current global population has exceeded Earth’s carrying capacity, and that current population growth trends are already leading to overpopulation. According to these experts, the effects of overpopulation could exacerbate poverty, unemployment, urban sprawl and lead to serious food and water shortages. As well as stating his position, this author will briefly explore these claims.
Human population is drastically increasing by the second, with the addition of one billion people every 12 years. Overpopulation creates an abundant amount of issues ranging from environmental and social problems. Nations attaining copious amounts of population introduce a wide array of problems to the world around and such nations. These environmental problems consist of but are not limited to lack of resources such as food and water; which may cause malnutrition in large populations, poor air quality, and overuse of fossil fuels such as petroleum. Social issues that arise from having a superabundant population consist of overcrowding, limits on freedom, and an increased amount of uprising and conflict within the nation itself. China and India are the two most populated countries in the world. China has a population of 1.34 billion and India closely follows behind as the second most populated country with a population of 1.21 billion (Index Mundi). This accounts for 37% of the world’s population (Index Mundi). China contains up to 20 percent of the world’s population ,which is 1.3 billion people and India is forecasted to soon surpass China’s population in the year 2028 according to the United Nations (5). Due to the increasingly large amount population, China and India have conducted several policies throughout the past. These policies range from China’s strict One-Child policy to India’s flexible National Population policy. In retrospect, if India’s government does not become more strict and enforce their population policies as well as provide proper sexual education, India’s population will surpass the population of China within
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 in 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 then we can produce. This leads to the lack of resources in many areas. When expanding we create a lot of pollution in the air, water, and land. The pollution affects many humans health. Overpopulation is doing more harm than any other environmental issue. Overpopulation also causes many of the other issues we are dealing with. This is very dangerous to not only us humans but the planet. Even though many wealthy countries are not affected by this overpopulation, I feel like they should help the cause. There is always two sides to an issue like this. Some people don’t think that overpopulation is a big problem and the ones who say it is an issue that needs to be dealt with.
Human population growth was relatively slow for most of human history. Within the past 500 years, however, the advances made in the industrial, transportation, economic, medical, and agricultural revolutions have helped foster an exponential, "J-shaped" rise in human population (Southwick, Figure 15.1, p. 160). The statistics associated with this type of growth are particularly striking: "Human beings took more than 3 million years to reach a population of 1 billion people...The second billion came in only 130 years, the third billion in 30 years, the fourth billion in 15 years, the fifth billion in 12 years..." (Southwick, p. 159). As human population has grown, there has been simultaneous growth within the industrial sector. Both of these increases have greatly contributed to environmental problems, such as natural resource depletion, ecosystem destruction, and global climate change. Also linked with the increasing human population are many social problems, such as poverty and disease. These issues need to be addressed by policy makers in the near future in order to ensure the survival and sustainability of human life.
Overpopulation occurs when the population growth is larger than the natural resources to sustain life. Many believe that human overpopulation may become a global issue. One could argue that overpopulation will not become an issue due to natural selection, the amount of open space that is left uninhabited on earth as well as the use of genetically engineered food.