More handpicked essays just for you.
Overpopulation and its effects on the environment
Suggestions for reducing the risk of overpopulation essay
Overpopulation environment degradation and
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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.
Impoverished countries are suffering because of overpopulation. Overpopulation remains the leading driver of hunger, desertification, species depletion and a range of social maladies across the planet (Tal, 2013). If you look at the world most of the countries that are dealing with these problems it is due to overpopulation. Impoverished countries do not have the money or resources to help them overcome this issue (Tal, 2013). Impoverished countries also do not have the medicine or technology to even prevent the most common of illnesses (Tal, 2013). Malnutrition is also affecting...
... middle of paper ...
...hnology will help us as much as us helping each other out.
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.
Works Cited
Overpopulation is Everyone’s Problem, No author, 2013
Overpopulation is Still a Problem, Alon Tal, 2013
Overpopulation is not the Problem, Erle C. Ellis, 2013
Overpopulation is Sooo Over, Ronald Bailey
Overpopulation: The Facts and Solutions, Adria Saracino, 2012
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.
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
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...
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.
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
Overpopulation has become a drastic issue, for no one knows how many people the earth
Three quarters of the world's population is inadequately fed and the majority of these live in the developing countries. Massive surpluses exist in Europe and the US. Malnutrition and undernutrition is generally caused by poverty. Markets in the developed countries are often too big and produce too much food for a population to consume. Developed countries' agriculture is lacking from unemployment, untreated diseases, food shortage, bad hygiene, lack of doctors, lack of capital, low income, unsuccessful agriculture and the constant threat from the developed world who takes their money away. All these are factors of food shortage in the developed countries. The United Nations try to help but they don't help in the long run. Instead of helping the dying ones they should ge...
In the past ten years the world population exceeded six billion people with most of the growth occurring in the poorest, least developed countries in the world. The rapidly increasing population and the quickly declining amount of land are relative and the rate at which hunger is increasing rises with each passing year. We cannot afford to continue to expand our world population at such an alarming rate, for already we are suffering the consequences. Hunger has been a problem for our world for thousands of years. But now that we have the technology and knowledge to stamp it out, time is running short.
Despite the fact that one of the main goals of the millennium is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 (United Nations 2013), many developing nations are still facing severe problems of hunger and undernourishment. Indeed, the global performance in combating hunger needs better delineated actions aiming to fight this reality (FAO 2010a). Evidences show that some countries, mostly African and Asian countries, have insufficient performance in their fight against hunger, undernourishment, and underweight diagnoses (FAO 2010b). Despite the efforts of humanity fighting global scenario, in 2011-2013 about 842 million people were suffering from chronic hunger (FAO 2013b). Thus, about 65% of the world’s population that suffers from hunger lives in seven countries (India, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia) (FAO 2010a). African and Asian countries are those with the worst conditions in terms of food security as well as the worst progress towards achieving the millennium goal related to eradicate hunger (FAO 2013b; FAO 2010b).
Poverty is the main determinant of malnutrition in these communities (Sachs & McArthur, 2005). It is well known that the political situation and poor economic growth, changes in climate conditions as drought or overpopulation cause a scarcity of certain foodstuffs, a high prevalence of infectious diseases, civil conflicts and wars, natural and unnatural disasters contribute to increased malnutrition (Shetty, 2002, Mul...
Individuals can play a role in helping with the fallouts as outlined in the previous paragraphs though. Whether this is volunteering to help clean up a dirtied beach littered with garbage or switching to a water efficient nozzle so less water is wasted when you shower, these are just a few examples of immediate solutions that can make a collective difference. It ultimately won’t help the issue of overpopulation but can help deter the consequences as in the end, the concern revolves around the ability to sustain our world as more bodies are introduced. Keeping in mind that as society grows, the world makes advancements that work as viable solutions that tackle these problems. There just needs to be a mindset of utilizing more efficient measures into our daily lives right now so that we can make a positive difference. Even if it does not solve the issue in the long run, it does influence those around us and pushes the world towards a common goal one step at a time. It was said by Brundtlan (WCED, 1987) that:
The earth has proven overtime that it will balance itself out. We are able to see that greenhouse gases were 10 times higher now than they were 500 million years ago. So why do we need electric cars, contraception controls or food and water restrictions. We have the ability to harvest salt water to make fresh water combating limited water resources and can sustain life on none natural food products. Certain people still believe that life is all about taking whatever is needed in their lifetime regardless of the economic and environmental consequences. Many religious groups do not accept the right of personal contraception because of biblical beliefs. For the people who worry about the natural state of things we have created Zoo’s which imitate natural ecosystems that were lost. If we are able to harvest more resources to replace the ones we have tapped out and the Earth has the ability to repair itself then why would we need to worry about over population? The counter argument for overpopulation and sustainability of the ecosystem, economic and political issues all are valid. Such primitive thoughts in a world that has the highest rate of pollution, water/food shortages and extinction of animal species will lead to nothing but trouble in the
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.
One of the most complex issues in the world today concerns human population. The number of people living off the earth’s resources and stressing its ecosystem has doubled in just forty years. In 1960 there were 3 billion of us; today there are 6 billion. We have no idea what maximum number of people the earth will support. Therefore, the very first question that comes into people’s mind is that are there enough food for all of us in the future? There is no answer for that. Food shortage has become a serious problem among many countries around the world. There are many different reasons why people are starving all over the world. The lack of economic justice and water shortages are just merely two examples out of them all.
When we are told that the world is overpopulated, many people jump to the idea that there are too many people in one area, Sub-Saharan Africa for example. This is not wrong because there is a high total fertility rate in this area, but there are factors behind why the rate is so high in this portion of Africa. One factor being malnutrition to many of the children causing a high mortality rate in infants and children. A child born in Sub-Saharan Africa will not have the same amount of access to the proper food needs as a child would have in Los Angles, California. Nutrition programs and access are different all over the world due to access to resources; but there are several factors in different nutrition spread throughout the world, including: the status of the country, the programs established in the countries, and how it affects