It cannot be argued that the growth rate of world population has drastically increased over the years. Whilst reaching the figure of 5 billion has been a challenge to the world, the sixth and seventh billions of people were added to global population in record 12 years time (Haub & Gribble 2011). Moreover, the population is projected to reach 9 billion people in 40 years (C.G.W 2014). Such rapid growth raises an argument of whether it affects world’s economic development, environment and resource availability (Grenham 2012). Though some people state that increases in population may be beneficial for the world’s economy and development in general, it is evident that various challenges associated with overpopulation will arise in the future and some of them can already be seen nowadays.
It is crucially important for the society to identify possible issues that arise because of the overpopulation and find the ways of dealing with these issues. In this essay I will seek to critically evaluate challenges in economic, social and environmental aspects that the world may face in upcoming years and suggest the ways of overcoming them.
Firstly, it is evident that our planet has a limited number of resources, and despite attempts of their wise allocation, there are often not enough of them for everyone; and rapid population growth may put even more pressure on the world’s already scarce water and energy supplies (Bart 2005). Therefore, overpopulation leads to various environmental issues like attrition of fresh water resources, deforestation and even ozone layer depletion due to increased greenhouse emissions from densely populated areas. The problem exacerbates because, with a few exceptions, there is no market mechanism to make polluters ...
... middle of paper ...
...r, there are still not enough policies that fight with negative impacts of overpopulation. It is hard to determine whether all policies suggested above would be successful and helpful in dealing with challenges arising, but if no actions are taken, in a couple of decades the world can face serious problems. It is better for one to start developing strategies for overcoming these problems earlier in order not to be left with a range of unresolvable issues one day in the future. However, it must not be forgotten that increase in population numbers brings not only challenges for society, but also opens vast opportunities for economic and technological development; and by taking advantage of opportunities along with implementing successful preventive strategies towards challenges, humanity may be able to reach a balanced and sustainable societal structure in the future.
Garret Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” is an article that identifies the nation’s current problems and predicaments that can’t be resolved through the use of technical solutions. Hardin’s work heavily focuses on overpopulation, a prominent and unceasing issue that significantly distorts and affects the stability of the Earth and the abundance of the planet’s resources. In his article, he mentioned some reasonable and important solutions to overpopulation, but he also explained its downside and how the said solutions may not be ideal and practical. “Tragedy of the Commons” revealed that the human population will continue to flourish and how it will be greatly detrimental to our society unless individuals get the education that they need and
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.
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
Countries in the world hold different attitudes to the population policy, some of them tend to delay the increase of population while others introduce policies to encourage childbirth. After centuries of continual growth, which started at the first industrial revolution, the global population reached over 7 billion individuals in 2013. Research by Ezeh, Bongaarts and Mberu (2012) states that increasing population is a threat to individuals and societies by bring problems based on unsatisfied demand. The “increasing population” in this essay can be defined as net rising in birth rate during a period, especially in the poor developing countries. This essay will argue that the world cannot sustain an increasing population. The reasons for this are firstly, limited nature resources can hardly maintain huge population and environment may be polluted; next, economic problems, especially the gap between the rich and the poor can be caused by increasing demand; and lastly, social wellbeing pressures brought by population growth.
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.
The past many decades have revealed a dramatically large increase in the global population. For example, the population increased from about 2.5 billion in 1950 to over 7.3 billion in 2015. This huge increase in population resulted in a need for many changes to be made in society. Global population growth is leading to deep changes in the demographics, economies, ecology, health, and governments of the world.
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.
Arresting global population growth should be second in importance only to avoiding the nuclear war on humanity's agenda. Over population and rapid population growth are intimately connected with most aspects of the current human predicament, including rapid depletion of nonrenewable resources, deterioration of the environment and increasing international tensions. (Ehrlich 18).
“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.
We as individuals do NOT understand the problems with overpopulation. We do not take the time or the effort to be educated enough; therefore we do not help in the prevention of future problems to keep our society as it is now.
Since the beginning of mankind, we have reached many great achievements. We have developed many technologies and theories to solve and explain many of our questions and to improve human life. Through our years of evolution, we have severely increased our own survivability. This has been a great achievement for us, but in the recent decade, overpopulation is becoming a great issue. In the recent years, the rapid increase in population growth has troubled many in the field of political sciences. Scientists like Ehrlich have calculated and expected our population to grow even faster if we do not act upon the increasing rate of population growth. The birth rate of our planet is increasing exponentially, meaning that the birth rate has surpassed the death rate and that the rate of growth will only increase if left alone. The politics of population is a debate that involves both the fields of sciences and moral and ethical considerations. Science may provide an insight of
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.