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Overpopulation and its effects on the environment
Overpopulation and its effects on the environment
Environmental or social problems that relate to overpopulation
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RESEARCH
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.
Over the last 50 years, the population of the earth has increased at a concerning rate. In 1950 the world’s population counted to around 2.6 billion, compared to 2017 which now stands at over 7.6 billion, having increased by almost 3 times.
Overpopulation is generally caused by an increase in births, reduced mortality rates, an increase in immigration and improved medical understanding.
This is a global issue, affecting all of humanity. Only 9% of countries worldwide have a consistent or decreasing population, generally being associated with war or natural disasters, showing that this is a concern for the entire globe. The whole world contributes to harming the environment through human activities, and as human population expands, the damage to the environment rises.
Impact today
Overpopulation has drastic effects on the world today.
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The main causes are open mines and factories, who dump waste water containing toxic substances into waterways, and have caused permanent damage to ecosystems. Ocean pollution is also increasing, with the ocean eventually collecting all of the sewage, sediment from forest clearing, fertilizer and pesticide run-off. The oceans play a key role in our world, not only as a food source, but also in climate regulation. As the oceans climate regulation weakens, the extremer temperature variation has been
Overpopulation does not only affect humans and put a greater risk of getting in a vehicular wreck caused by a deer running out in the highways and interstates, but it has tremendous effect on environmental
Ocean Pollution is a serious issue in today's global politics. The delicate balance of Earth's ecosystem is put in jeopardy when the ocean is not clean. Problem evolving from ocean pollution directly harm marine life and indirectly affect human health and the Earth's many valuable resources. Ocean Pollution is a Broad term that encpompasses any and all foregin matter that directly or indirectly makes its way into the ocean. This includes everything from the extreme: oil spills, Toxic Waste dumping and industrial dumping-- to the small scael: human activities and basic carelessness. Because the oceans and all other water bodies are invariably, somehow connected, and because they account for 3/4 of the Earth's surface, they are an ideal method of transportation for pollution, allowing the rapid spread of seemingly far away toxins into a river near you! It is increasingly important that we educate ourselves as to what, exactly, ocean pollution is, so that we can identify the causes at their source and take action in small and large ways, and hopefully, prevent this terrible form of pollution from getting any worse than it is today.
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...
There are many different ways the ocean can become polluted. One major way would be man-made pollutants such as pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, detergents, oil, sewage, plastics, and other solids, finding their way into the ocean and collecting at the ocean's depths. In fact, this makes up 80% of the ocean's pollution. At the depths, they are consumed by small organisms that introduce the pollutants to the global food chain. Many of the pollutants are released into local streams, rivers, and groundwater and are eventually deposited into estuaries, bays, and deltas. This can cause massive amount of algae to grow, taking oxygen from the water and places marine life can exist. In the past 2 years, these dead zones have increased by 1/3. Scientists have discovered around 400 dead zones in world.
Water pollution has had devastating effects on the environment, which include irreversible effects on the oceans ecosystem. People often underestimate the importance of the ocean. They don’t realize how much damage pollution has caused to the ocean and the thousands of creatures that inhabit it. Earth is a huge place, but resources are actually very limited and will not last forever unless there is a balance. We must protect the resources we have in order for them to last into the next generation.
Overpopulation has become a drastic issue, for no one knows how many people the earth
However, the idea, that Earth is overpopulated, was questioned by Natalie Wolchover, who claims that “although the population of 7 billion people is an alarming number, is it necessarily overpopulated? (Wolchover)” Wolchover claims that in reality the Earth is not overpopulated, claiming that “scientists think that Earth’s maximum carrying capacity is approximately 9 or 10 billion people,” meaning that the Earth’s current resources and land have the capability to feed and provide necessary resources to a population of 9 or 10 billion people
The coral reefs require clear, salty water. Pollution from the land, like dirt and mud, enters streams and rivers. It enters the ocean through its natural process of erosion and makes the water cloudy. Other materials dumped at sea are metal, glass, wood, plastic and chemicals. The build up of greenhouse gases is causing global temperature to rise which also makes ocean temperatures rise.
The Human Population By some, the human population is viewed as an environmental problem. There are also those who do not view it as a problem. In my opinion the human population is not yet, but is soon becoming a large problem. This is because very soon we will run out of room and resources for the amount of people who will be living on this planet. Because the world’s population is increasing at a rate between one and two percent, we expect it to double within the next 35 to 70 years.
About ten years ago while in a science museum, I saw a counter that estimated what the world population was at that given moment. Innocuous at first glance, since a number in excess of five billion is difficult to comprehend, what became alarming after watching the counter for a minute was the continual increase in the population. Thinking about the circumstances related to the population rise logically made the problem seem apparent. The earth is finite both in terms of physical size and in resources but the population is growing towards an infinite value. At some point the steadily rising population will move from being a problem that is geographically distant to one that is immediate and more salient than just an increasing value on a faceless counter.
"Overpopulation: Environmental and Social Problems." Effects of Overpopulation on the Environment and Society. Institute for Population Studies, 2010. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.
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.
There are various systems in handling population rates and its various issues that connect with threatening our environment. The population and environment debate will forever be a back and forth problem because there is possibly no way to completely stop carbon emissions but ease its production. To help the environment, we must incorporate all potential solutions in governing population such as family planning and governmental involvement and practice renewable resources and stop on using nonrenewable resources, as well as ways to tackle overconsumption to support our corrupting environment.
Water pollution is also a major thing in the world because almost 60% of it is fishes. It occurs due to several factors; the industrial waste dumped into the rivers and other water body’s cause am imbalance in the water leading to its severe contamination and deaths. And the infamous Global warming is the emission of greenhouse gases particularly CO2 is leading to global warming.