Overpopulation

By: Joshua No




Envision yourself in the future having to live in a confined space with little to no healthy breathing conditions, and the inability to have your own privacy. This could very soon become a reality for the world, as soon as the year 2050, as the worlds population is estimated to be anywhere between 8 to 11 billion. At this moment in time, the earth can support the current human population however it is becoming evident that this will not last very long. The growing population could potentially become the driving force behind global warming, environmental pollution, and the reduction of natural resources such as fresh water and arable land.



 The potential devastating effects of over population can be shown through the present day conditions of India, Singapore, Israel, and much more of the Middle East. In India especially, the population has reached 1.3 billion and is expected to reach 1.5 billion by 2030 and 1.7 billion by 2050. This massive population has led to the lack of resources and has put great pressure on the economy as a whole. Countries that struggle with overpopulation are consuming more resources than they are producing and depend on other countries to make up for their shortcomings. On top of these detrimental effects, there is also a growing gap between the rich and the poor as the number of shelters and the homeless is growing significantly.


 Once the worlds population reaches around 11 billion as it is expected to by around 2100, it would be nearly impossible to reverse the devastating effects that it would cause. Climate change is one of the worlds biggest issues and would only be fueled by the increasing population as human activity is directly related to the changing climate. The near doubling of the worlds population would cause a huge increase in the build up of human-generated greenhouse gasses. People across the world are working their best to address this growing problem by reducing their carbon footprint by consuming less resources but these efforts will be easily overwhelmed if population growth is not controlled. In addition to these efforts, the evolving forms of technology could potentially increase the earth’s carrying capacity but the decrease in resources would still present a huge problem. These problems may not affect us in our lifetime, but it is our responsibility to give future generations a healthy planet to live in and not let our shortcomings affect their lives.

What are your thoughts regarding overpopulation, and how do you think we should address this problem?



Sources:

http://www.everythingconnects.org/overpopulation-effects.html

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-overpopulation-impacts-the-environment-4172964

https://www.populationmedia.org/2010/07/11/new-index-highlights-most-overpopulated-countries/

Comments

Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
March 5, 2019 at 6:13 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is a significant issue that impacts both humans and the environment. It is of utmost importance that we try to control our population as soon as possible before it has even more harmful effects. One way that we can have enough food to support a larger population is if more people cut meat out of their diet, ideally going vegetarian. However, it is best that we find ways to educate more people in developing countries about birth control techniques than to find ways to accommodate to a bigger population. Hopefully, we are able to safely put a stop to the ever growing population before we seriously damage our environment.
March 5, 2019 at 6:15 PM
Anonymous said…
There are numerous reasons that we need to address the current issue of overpopulation due to the fact that overpopulation has the potential to detrimentally harm the environment in a large number of ways. For example, not only will overpopulation result in an increased demand for freshwater as the unsustainable use of our water sources causes water to be too polluted to be used, but also an increasing human population could accelerate the process of species extinction through an intensification in the fate of ocean acidification, climate change, deforestation, overfishing, invasive species, and more. Moreover, the actual health of the citizens of the nations that are experiencing a rapid growth in population will be detrimentally affected as many nations will experience a degradation of the quality of life due to the constraints of available resources, which will cause a lower life expectancy that can be caused from an increasing occurrence of malnutrition and infectious disease. With the widely harmful effects of overpopulation in both the state of the environment and the health of the actual people living in these nations, we must somehow find a way to minimize the damages wrought upon the world as a result of overpopulation. (Source: http://www.everythingconnects.org/overpopulation-effects.html).
March 6, 2019 at 4:58 AM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is a dilemma that human kind has been looking at for a long time, but not necessarily dealing with. It’s logical to assume that, using the principles of basic math, the exponential growth of the human population would eventually spiral to a point where there is too much strain put on the environment at a time. This seems to be a ticking time bomb, but is it really a problem we should be very concerned about. Yes, the growth of the population will eventually hit those big numbers, but I believe the growth will actually slow down drastically. With every passing year, it can generally be said for every country that education levels increase. With the education increasing, we can conclude two results from this. The first is that the education of environmental issues and studies would eventually spread all across the world. With this massive boost in awareness I feel as if the levels of pollution and sustainably would evnatully become better as people become educated. Another effect that would come is the natural decreasing of birth rates. As countries become more and more developed, the education about the human body, contraceptives, and want for a higher career would increase as well. With this, the birth rate would naturally fizzle out. Many third world countries often have an average of children at more than 4; however, as we move up the ranks to more developed nations, we can see that the birth rate slowly inches towards 0. With this in effect, the population would naturally slow down until there is a relatively stable population at all times. This could help alleviate some of the issues that come along with overpopulation as the less amount of people and heightened education could help the environment. With this trend, there eventually will spring a problem about the increased rate of medical care fees especially with the older population making up a majority of the income; however, this seems to be an economic issue rather than envionrmental, so we’ll save it for another time. Overall though, I believe we should keep finding alternative solutions to maybe decrease the consumption to actually speed up the process of this neutralization of population on the environment and spread just more awareness of this pressing issue to help.
March 6, 2019 at 7:01 AM
Anonymous said…
As the years go on and advancements in technology lead to the elongation of lifespans and higher birth rates, explosive population growth seems to be an inevitable phenomenon. This overpopulating of the earth might exceed the carrying capacity for humans on this planet, which is a rather sobering thought. If the planet can’t support all the humans on the planet, eliminating parts of the population would be the only way to return to sustainable levels, a solution that can never even be considered to be applied. Instead, we must work on instituting policy to either curb population growth, or find ways to somehow increase our planet’s carrying capacity for humans. I believe that we should spend our energy on investing in resources that will help support larger numbers of people with more efficiency. Another interesting solution to this problem could be expanding into space, perhaps colonizing some other moons or planets.
March 6, 2019 at 5:20 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation, despite its consequences, seems to be a good problem to have. Rather than having it deal with short life expectancy and excessive disease in the human population, we are faced with prolonged life expectancy to the point where it exceeds the earth’s carrying capacity. This is all due to medical progress and advancements in technological capacity. Therefore, it is a good thing that we’ve been able to make progress towards a longer lifespan. Howvever, now we must deal with the ramifications that accompany this, such as production of more fossil fuels and overcrowding in cities. It is uncertain whether we will be able to completely solve these issues, especially since they are exacerbated with population rise. One solution to this would be to colonize new planets in order to expand our horizons and shift population growth to other areas. In anticipation of more population growth, progress towards doing this has already begun: there is a “colonizing Mars” mission that will commence in the near future.
March 7, 2019 at 12:34 PM
Anonymous said…
While I believe that overpopulation will be one of the biggest drivers in pollution and problems, as we’ve learned, population growth only becomes as big as its carrying capacity can hold. Eventually, even with increases in technology, the human population will reach its carrying capacity. I just hope that we wont destroy the planet before we can become stable with it.
March 7, 2019 at 12:37 PM
Anonymous said…
It’s the problem of overpopulation in developed areas that’s the real issue, as developed countries produce far more emissions and pollution than undeveloped. However, the future may not be so bleak. Many scientists predict that our population will level out at relatively sustainable levels because developed countries have increasingly low birth rates. As we saw with the Green Revolution, humans find solutions for problems they face, and that may apply to pollution and overpopulation in the future.
March 7, 2019 at 5:01 PM
Anonymous said…
It seems to me like the problem of overpopulation was inevitable because of the large technological advancements throughout the years. This does not seem like a bad problem because this technology has allowed the life expectancy to increase as well as cures for diseases, which decreases the death rate. However, the more technology produced, the more fossil fuels people have to burn, leading to pollution and other environmental problems. I believe that if the population can fix the environment, then overpopulation will not have such a heavy burden on the planet.
March 7, 2019 at 9:18 PM
Anonymous said…
I completely agree. Overpopulation is a serious issue which threatens environmental stability. Although there are several different approaches to combat this dire situation, I believe technology can play a major role in protecting the environment. For example, new innovations in renewable resources and agricultural methods can help protect the planet and support the population. Additionally, education can be a helpful tool. By teaching about the effects of climate change, we can start implementing global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and waste.
March 9, 2019 at 3:09 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is a topic that concerns several matters, especially the environment. The increased use of fossil fuels has a negative effect on the health of the environment in terms of air and water pollution. Rising fossil fuel use also means a greater build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, higher greenhouse gas emissions, and global warming. Technological advancements have contributed to this rapid growth increase, mainly caused by a decreasing death rate and particularly an increase in average human age.
March 15, 2019 at 7:13 AM
Lauren Pan said…
Overpopulation is a serious problem that humanity as a whole must face. Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth. Overpopulation is caused by number of factors. Reduced mortality rate, better medical facilities, depletion of precious resources are few of the causes which results in overpopulation. Consequently, there are numerous effects of overpopulation as well. Depletion of natural resources, degradation of environment, conflicts and wars, rise in unemployment, and a high cost of living are a few examples. I believe the solution to these pressing adversities is better education. One of the first measures is to implement policies reflecting social change. Educating the masses helps them understand the need to have one or two children at the most. Families that are facing a hard life and choose to have four or five children should be discouraged. Family planning and efficient birth control can help in women making their own reproductive choices. Overall, human overpopulation is one of the most important environmental issues, silently aggravating the forces behind other world catastrophes.
March 17, 2019 at 8:48 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation was inevitable because of technological advancements in the medical field. Technological advancements such as cures for common diseases, surgery and vaccines allowed the death rate to decrease allowing more people to live. However, the more technology produced, the more fossil fuels people have to burn, leading to pollution and other environmental problems. I believe that if we work together to protect the environment we can counteract the negatives of theses technological advancements.
March 18, 2019 at 7:09 AM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is something that we have to adress. However it really is a very controversial topic as it is not easy to talk about with how much we can value life. Furthermore, overpopulation will cause problems with the large amount of pollution that follows the supply that is created to match the demand for new technology and overall to support the conversion of energy. However, we need to look into technology to see how we can make the world better and help us make sure that the environment is kept safe.
March 18, 2019 at 12:27 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is obviously a very serious issue with potential impacts ranging from economic downfall to increased climate change. The gravest and possibly most important threat is its impacts on conflicts. With more overpopulation and the increase of internal pressure and loss of homeland will likely push more and more people out of their homeland and into other areas. This would put more pressure on host countries and lead to mad max esque resource wars.
March 18, 2019 at 1:01 PM
Jibran Khalil said…
Over population is a relevant issue that we too often ignore. It's as if the issue doesn't exist; although overpopulation will have devastating effects, we act as if it's merely an issue for future generations to take care of while, in fact, it is our responsibility to take care. Possible ways traduce overpopulation is through regulations like China's One child policy; however, that may be too extreme. Instead, adapting practices in third world countries which educate women is the best solution to reducing over population and ensure that there is enough infrastructure to support people.
March 18, 2019 at 8:49 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is clearly a serious issue with potentially devastating consequences. I’ve read recently about countries creating laws pertaining to he number of children a family can have. While it may seem like a good idea on the surface, I’m afraid there will be backlash from communities about the ethical side. I’m not entirely sure how to handle overpopulation, but it needs to be addresses more especially regarding the environmental impact because humans play such a huge role in how healthy our environment is
March 18, 2019 at 9:55 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is a very relevant issue that we cant ignore. With a growing population comes higher demand for needs and goods. This leads to depleting resources and can lead to conflicts and an exceeded carrying capacity. I think It is crucial for us to work together and look into possible solutions and ways to be sustainable with our resources to deal with what we are facing.
March 18, 2019 at 10:01 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation has benefits and consequences, both of which should not be overlooked. Because overpopulation is inevitable, it brings many advancements and modernization to many industries. As population grows more technological advancements occur and people strive to create many new things to help the society. All the while, those industries are harming the environment. There are more pollution occurring through the manufacturing of these advancements while the growing population increases the demands for resources and goods. This causes the earth’s resources to be depleted at a much faster rate and can lead to the sustainability decreasing in certain ecosystems. I think that we need to find a relevant way to prevent such consequences from occurring and resort to other ways of using up resources.
March 18, 2019 at 10:21 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is because of better medicine excess food and modern technology. This leads to clustered houses and horrible living conditions. This has led to resources being depleted at a much faster rate.
March 19, 2019 at 10:33 AM
Anonymous said…
Obviously overpopulation is going to be a significant problem in the future, but I think the bigger problem is the actions humans make. We can blame our high consumption on our large population, but the fact is if that large population was making better decisions there wouldn’t be such a big problem. America is one of the highest consumers (maybe the most I don’t remember) even though it doesn’t have a highest population. This proves that the real problem isn’t the number of humans. We need to stop focusing on overpopulation because while it can prove dangerous it distracts from the much greater problem of human caused destruction on the environment through careless actions.
March 19, 2019 at 12:13 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is very commonly discussed. There is never an easy and simple solution to this ever expanding problem that could very well threaten our world. We are already struggling with the issue of resource use and conservation and the problem can only worsen in the future. It is our responsibility to make the world habitable for generations to come and protect the environment from out own harmful actions. Overpopulation fuels overconsumption and although the United States does not have the largest population, it does have one of the highest consumption rates. The changes to this problem need to start with us so that we can help developing countries fix their problems as well.
March 19, 2019 at 12:19 PM
Mallory Odom said…
As with many environmental issues, overpopulation is controversial because many people don't like the solutions. If our populations continue to grow at the rate they are going, the best way to combat this will be to shrink our ecological footprint and use fewer unrenewable resources so that we can continue to maintain our supply of fossil fuels and keep our environment from suffering the dangerous consequences of severe overpopulation.
March 19, 2019 at 3:48 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is a problem we must address soon. We need to start conserving more resources and shrink our ecological footprint. Failure to do so can lead to overpopulations becoming drastically more worse in the future. It is this generation's responsibility to save the environment from humans actions. We as a species need to work towards fixing this in each country to ensure the brightest possible future.
March 19, 2019 at 7:56 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is very scary as it is hard to control and almost impossible to prevent. A big issue is that undeveloped countries are growing at an alarming rate while first world countries gradually fall off. I feel like impossible issues require impossible solutions. One idea is to potentially expand out into the universe and find a place suitable for humans to live. Although our generation would never see the benefits of this happen, it would save the human race lots and lots of trouble. As time goes by, we will gradually begin to see the effects of this overpopulation and horrific events will begin to occur. It’s an issue that the whole world has to address, not just the US.
March 19, 2019 at 8:46 PM
Anonymous said…
Overpopulation is a big issue the world has been facing. Not only does it affect humans, but also the environment. It has positive and negative aspects. It means that we have advanced technology and will continually be advancing but it also means we are depleting resources very quickly. We need to be careful of how much of our resources we use before it’s too late and we run out.
March 19, 2019 at 9:05 PM
Anonymous said…
Previously, it was believed that an exponentially growing population would not be an issue as it could be supported by an exponentially growing agriculture. However, what we failed to take into account was the vast number of other resources, especially non-renewable ones that would not be able to keep up with the growing number of people on the earth especially with such a high rate of consumption. The best way to solve this would be to ensure that people are using resources more effectively and conserving them and that they are sticking to renewable resources.
March 20, 2019 at 4:06 AM
Caroline Tuggle said…
Overpopulation is a major problem that causes many families harm every single day. I think that the reason why overpopulation gets so bad is because so many families are in search for better healthcare, homes, food accessibility, etc. which causes the areas that have these to become crowded and overpopulated. I agree that it is an issue that needs to be altered and looked at with more care and concern.
March 20, 2019 at 10:24 AM
Adam Ghanem said…
Due to modern technological and medical advances that allow us to live longer and give us cures for illnesses that would at one point kill us, overpopulation has seemingly become a big issue globally. It seems as though there are no many solutions that are attractive. China's one-child policy seems to be a step towards limiting population increase, but at the same time, it limits the ability for family's to grow. This issue needs to be addressed on a global level in order for there to be any development.
-Adam Ghanem
March 24, 2019 at 8:43 PM
Anonymous said…
I think overpopulation in itself can be a controversial topic because we can't make people stop having children. Even if we did, just like China, there would be far worse repercussions. Developing countries see more children as more tools to make money. I think the best way to solve the issue of overpopulation would be to go to third world countries and educate the less fortunate about why having more children actually does them more harm than good.
March 25, 2019 at 4:17 PM
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