Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Environmental impacts of overpopulation
Environmental impacts of overpopulation
Negative effects of population growth
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Environmental impacts of overpopulation
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is becoming one of the fastest growing problems facing our human civilization. This serious condition is growing every year, every minute, and every second. It’s the root of most, if not all, of the world’s problems. Our planet now provides around 5.8 billion people, projected to be around 10 billion by the year 2050. One very serious effect of the population explosion is its devastating effects on the global environment. Increasing amounts of food, energy, and shelter are required to fulfill the needs of human society.
Much of our energy is derived from the burning of fossil fuels. The amount of land required for food production alone will grow larger and larger, while the amount of available land will grow larger and larger, while the amount of available land will grow increasingly smaller. An example of this forma recent documentary, called food Inc. , shows that cows are supposed to eat grass. Because of the lack of land and the demand on food supply they are being fed corn. Cows cannot easily digest corn this is causing e-coli to set up. The cows are being treated with antibiotics. These antibiotics are being taken to our dinner table. Food Inc. also shows that chickens have doubled in size over the past few years in order to meet the food supply demand. These chickens are being injected with steroids and are growing so large so fast their legs cant even hold their large bodies up.
Another problem with over population may also threaten people’s health. We can easily see that with a crowded nation it is hard to maintain a health care
system that can take care of all people. Also, the low income of each large family isn’t enough to afford a nutritious diet and treat disease when ...
... middle of paper ...
....
Kinder, Carolyn. “The Population Exposion: Causes and Consequence.” Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. N.P. 2010. Web 11 Apr. 2010 http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units.1998/07/02.x.html#c
Lindsay.Heather E. “global Population Growth. “ Associated Content.N.p., Mar. 2001. Web. 8 Apr 2010. http://www.esa.com/discoveryguides/ern/01mar/overview.php
Lion,Bob “ the Effects of Human Population Growth.” Associiated Content. N.p, 15 Apr,2009. Web.8 apr 201.
“Overpopulation Growth. “ Safe Enviroment. N.p 19 Aug.2008 Web.8 Apr 2010
“population Growth.” Global Change Program. N.p 4 Jan. 2006 web 31 Mar 2010
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/human_pop/human_pop.html
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
Parfit, Derek (2004). “Overpopulation and the Quality of Life.” In J. Ryberg & T. Tännsjö (eds.), The Repugnant Conclusion. Kluwer Academic Publishers. 7-22.
As small mobile groups of hunter-gatherers adopted a sedentary lifestyle, they mastered both agriculture and animal domestication. These small settled groups quickly evolved into cities and towns that encompassed the entire globe. Today the estimated population of the world is over 6.2 million people.1 As the population has grown, it has had several deleterious effects on the Earth. These include climate changes, the spread of diseases, declining food production, deforestation, and environment pollution (particularly air pollution). As people have become more conscious of these harmful effects, they have begun to devise strategies to combat this problem. Among the suggested responses include a switch to renewable energy, a call for zero population growth, and adopting sustainable agricultural practices.
It is a known fact that the world population is increasing without bound; however, there is a debate if this increase is a good thing or if it will prove catastrophic. The article “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin discusses how the ever-increasing world population will exhaust the world of its natural resources, and eliminate human’s capability for survival. On the other side of the argument is Julian L. Simon who wrote “More People, Greater Wealth, More Resources, Healthier Environment.” This article proposes the theory that with an increase in population, humans’s quality of life is amplified. One particular issue that they both mention and have drastically different views on is the future of agriculture and human’s ability to sustain it.
GEE, ELLEN M., "Population Growth." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2008, "population Growth." A Dictionary of Biology. 2004, John M. Last, and Michael Allaby. "Population Growth." Encyclopedia.com. HighBeam Research, 2002. Web. 08 June 2016.
Overpopulation drastically affects the standard of living of the people. Not only does it affect the standard of living, it affects the environment as well. The environment has a certain carrying capacity of humans that it can support. When this carrying capacity is exceeded, the environment starts to deteriorate. With a large amount of people, land that can be used as valuable farmland is wasted. Also, with a great amount of humans, there is more waste produced. This waste contaminates local water and spreads disease, eventually leading to the destruction of wildlife. Animals as well as humans have a limited use of water because of the microorganisms and fecal matter in the water. Many ideas have been debated upon to help improve these conditions for both animals and peopl...
Howmany.org. "Overpopulation:." Effects of Overpopulation on the Environment and Society. Institute for Population Studies, 2009. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
As an American who’s been raised in a country that firmly believes in its own excellence, I’ve always believed that my government would do anything within its power to protect me from all harm, and that I will be safely enclosed by its borders. Some may perceive this opinion as naive, but I have never had any reason to doubt my security. I believed a country as great as America would always be able to handle any issues that it encountered in a reasonable and measured fashion, equally maintaining the freedom of all of its citizens. However, I was mistaken.
With all the industrialization and urbanization in the world today, the population explosion has been become a serious problem. Research indicates that the better does a country developed, the worse situation it will be faced(Jensen,1966).
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.
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.
In 1927, for the first time in history, the world’s population reached two billion people. In 2011, less than one hundred years later, it passed seven billion (Worldometers). Some may think that this is a positive increase, creating economic growth and significant innovations in fields such as agriculture, industry and medicine. However, the amount of difficulties our species will encounter over the next century because of this population increase, will greatly outweigh those few optimistic beliefs. For example, twelve to fifteen million hectares of forest are lost every year, the equivalent of thirty six football fields per minute (World Wildlife Fund). In 2011, there were an estimated nine and a half billion metric tonnes of carbon emissions put into our atmosphere (CO₂ Now). The list could go on and on, but ultimately, these are all just contributors to what might be humanity’s most challenging problem yet: climate change.
An increase in human population can influence our economy. Some of the factors that are affected are unemployment, poverty and the restriction of economic expansion. When the population increases, the cost of health, education, and other areas of urban growth are affected. Unempl...
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:
The reduction of the Earth's resources has been closely linked to the rise in human population. For many thousands of years people lived in relative harmony with their surroundings. Population sizes were small, and life-supporting tools were simple. Most of the energy needed for work was provided by the worker and animals. Since about 1650, however, the human population has increased dramatically. The problems of overcrowding multiply as an ever-increasing number of people are added to the world's population each year.