Everyone knows that overpopulation is a major issue; an issue is only going to increase over the next few decades. Every person should have a general understanding of this problem because it is going to affect everyone on the planet if it has not done so already. Many countries on our planet now are already overpopulated. In many third world countries, parents do not have enough money to feed themselves, let alone food for their own children. It is estimated that over one billion people wake up every day and do not have enough food or safe drinking water. In addition, according to many scientists, we are supposed to exceed 14 billion people by 2100 and nine billion by the year 2048. Even though we will most likely all be passed on, imagine a world with seven billion more people. How will people be able to have jobs and support their families?
What is our world’s carrying capacity? Before we can try to answer that, we need to understand what carrying capacity is, according to the Merriam-Webster: Dictionary it is the maximum number of individuals of a species that can exist in a habitat indefinitely without threatening other species in that habitat (“Carrying Capacity”). Some might try to say that technically, by that definition we have already reached out carrying capacity in some parts of the world. We might not truly know the carrying capacity of the Earth is until we reach that limit. That is a scary question to think about, but hopefully by then we will have found other
The world population of 7.2 billion in mid-2013 is projected to increase by almost one billion people within the next twelve years. It is projected to reach 8.1 billion in 2025, and to further increase to 9.6 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion by 2100. This assumes a decline of fertility for countries where large families are still prevalent as well as a slight increase of fertility in several countries with fewer than two children per woman on average.
Research physicist for the American Center for International Policy Studies, Gioietta Kuo, in her article “Mega Crisis? Overpopulation is the Problem” describes the possibility of a global mega-crisis, a “perfect storm” of political, economic, and environmental instability resulting from overpopulation and leading to the extinction of mankind (Kuo, 23). The purpose of Kuo’s article is to stress the fact that overpopulation has been over looked as the source of many of the problems afflicting the world today, including climate change, food and water scarcity, environmental degradation, as well as other economic and social effects like unemployment. She adopts logos, ethos, and pathos as well as an urgent tone in order to persuade the United Nations, government officials, and the general public to acknowledge the fact the current high population is the main cause of the problems affecting the world today and also to stress that the unchecked population growth will lead to a mega-crisis.
In the world there is over 300,000 births per day. If the world continues like this, then in 2030 we might be up to over 30 billion people. If the world’s population got so high we would not have enough geography, space for those lives. Jobs, resources, crime, diseases and much more things would be in jeopardy!
Throughout the last few hundred years, humans have built a foundation. Compared to all of the other animal species on Earth, humans are the most intelligent. We have built houses everywhere, developed a system to sustain ourselves, and now inhabit almost every piece of land on earth. Humans are smart, strong, and know how to fend for themselves. But, humans have a tendency to take it too far, and we have already done so. There have been numerous advancements over the past few hundred years which could ultimately lead to the downfall of the human race. The main issue is overpopulation due to the advancements in technology and general knowledge. The statistics from an article by Kenneth Smail show that “In the year 1900, there were almost 2 billion humans living on Earth. Throughout the 1960’s, the baby boom, there were 3 billion humans on Earth. Today in 2016, there are just over 7 billion humans living on Earth.” Currently, we have taken up just over half of all available land on this planet, and with increased amounts of people having kids, our population will only increase. Overpopulation is becoming a serious problem all around the world, especially in countries such as China and India. There are many global problems associated with overpopulation that are becoming more and more prevalent, which will all have dangerous effects on the foundation that humans have
In the article Overpopulation Is Still the Problem, Alon Tal (2013) claims that overpopulation remains the number one problem facing the world today and discusses various problems and possible solutions. Tal unveils the falsely assuring news stories refuting overpopulation as a problem. He particularly dissects Ellis Erle’s assertions, in the New York Times, concerning China’s seemingly magical works of technology. Erle comes to the conclusion that China’s amazing technology has and will always be able to keep them out of any problems regarding overpopulation. Of course Tal is able to rhythmically rebut Erle’s claims by explaining that, “Anyone with a teaspoon of historic sensibilities about the country 's environmental history might want to mention its long litany of famines which occurred precisely because carrying capacities were consistently outstripped by a growing population”. Tal then goes on to explain other problems linked directly to overpopulation in China like the food crisis from 1958-1961 which led to the starvation of over 20 million people. He also discusses the Chinese one-child policy describing it as “tough medicine” although the application of the policy was flawed he depicts how it has prevented the next round of famines. Tal ties the China population problems into the rest of the article which is mainly about how quickly the world is growing and what we need to do about it. He presents distressing facts like 1 in 8 people in the world suffer from
Overpopulation is looked down upon. But why exactly should someone even care about this? Human overpopulation is one of the most pressing environmental issues to this day. This can be seen through the questionable factor of the rise of an upcoming mass extinction, as it is affected by population densities, and through a decrease in life expectancies for less developed countries.
In the globalization ages, all nations confronting the overpopulation problems, its may sound general while overpopulation hidden many consequence toward the livings and resources.
There are more than seven billion people on Earth now, and about one in eight of us don’t have enough food to eat. So, with a projected nine billion people by the year 2050, how many people can the Earth support while maintaining a healthy population? Population changes are due to the relationship between births and deaths. If the number of births equals the number of deaths then the world’s population will remain the same, but if births exceed deaths, population growth will occur. Early in history, population was slowly growing because of high death rates related to wars, famines, and poor medical services. With advances in
Naturally, as our population grows in size our growth rate increases exponentially. As a result, we face the issue of overpopulation, one of the many dangerous trends discussed in Anthony Barnosky and Elizabeth Hadly’s Tipping Point for Planet Earth. Currently, if we do not make any changes, it is expected that we will reach a population size over twenty-seven billion people by the year 2100. Along with this massive increase in population size, we will also face a rise in food and water shortages, an increase in population density, and an overall loss of quality of life. In order to prevent these potential effects, Barnosky and Hadly suggested three possible solutions to combating overpopulation—a global catastrophe, a one-child policy, or an increase in education, job, and contraception availability among girls. Any one of these solutions will potentially help us prevent overpopulation; however, exactly which solution it ends up being all depends on our preparation and the actions we take now.
The convoluted problems concerning overpopulation remain to be a highly discussed issue in various countries throughout the world. Some issues that are in support of overpopulation include the opportunity to place innovative ideas into action, stimulating the economy, job openings in new growing industries, increased human resources, encourages competition, advancement in urbanization and development, demand for industries like farming, and allows for cheaper and more readily available products to be produced. According to an article on Chron, “More homes must be constructed, more food produced, more clothing manufactured. Even during periods of population growth, new technology may reduce the number of employees needed in one industry, while the needs of the people create new jobs in another.” By providing job opportunities in different industries, citizens in overpopulation areas would have the chance to explore new careers and would be playing an important role in supporting local businesses. Some values that are in support of overpopulation include quality of life, competition, and the right to live.
Gioietta Kuo discusses overpopulation as the main problem causing all of life’s problems on earth today. Moreover, if the problem is not rectified, the world faces extinction from a shortage of resources such as food, water, and land. Furthermore, the implied message is that overpopulation needs to be addressed, because without reducing the inhabitants in the world, humanity will run out of the means to sustain even the current population. This article relates to “Connecting the Dots between Species Extinction, Overpopulation, and the Use of Resources” by Marshall Marcus, because Marcus also believes that the extinction of any species can be traced back to the increase of the world’s population. Additionally, both authors feel that overpopulation is the cause for many of earth’s problems such as environmental destruction, climate change, and food shortage to name a few. With all the data, facts and references, I feel this article credible. Using this information in my paper will help argue my opinion on overpopulation.
Overpopulation is a major problem, as of right now the world population rate is 74 million people per year, stated by Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser. According to the United Nations, they have predicted that the world population will reach over 9.6 billion people in the year of 2050. Some may wonder what causes overpopulation to escalate so much, but there are numerous of reasons for overpopulation, the explanations are a decline in the death rate, enhance medical facilities, immigration, and families are developing. These statistics demonstrate how the population will continue to grow. Gioietta Kuo stated in her Journal “MegaCrisis? Overpopulation is the problem”, “That unemployment is already
The problem originated from the beginning of time. When God said, “Be fruitful, and multiply…” (Genesis 1:28, The New King James Version). Multiply the world has. The United States Census Bureau (2017) reported the following, “The world population increased from 3 billion in 1959 to 6 billion by 1999, a doubling that occurred over 40 years” (International Programs: World Population Growth Rates: 1950-2050 section). If the world’s growth rate doubles again over the next 40 years, the outcome will be catastrophic, bringing the population total to twelve billion people on the planet by 2039. However, the Census Bureau anticipates a slowing of the “growth rate” with only a 50 percent increase over 45 years (International Programs: World Population Growth Rates: 1950-2050 section). Even with the Bureau’s anticipated data on the decrease of the growth rate, it is not being accomplished fast enough. Gioietta Kuo (2012) article, “MegaCrisis? Overpopulation Is the Problem”, reports there are over a billion people with no access to food, clean water, or sanitation (p. 23-24). Furthermore, the number of people without these
There are several contributing factors to the overpopulation crisis, however, with changes these factors could also be part of the solution. A few of these factors are discussed in an interview with Melanie Asriel, the Psychological Sciences Instructor at WKU of Glasgow, Kentucky. According to Melanie Asriel, “The lack of family planning and contraceptive use has contributed to this problem…contraception, education, and the including of available abortion…all kinds of education, such as, sex education, contraceptive education… would be my solution to an over-population problem” (M. Asriel, personal communication, 04 October 2017). Melanie Asriel views a overpopulation problem stems from a lack of education in family planning,
Have you ever wondered what earth would be like in the near future with over 10 billion people from 7 billion? A newspaper source from Population Peril states that there are 210,000 new people everyday and by 2050 that there will be roughly 9.6 billion people (McClatchy). How are we going to prevent the disastrous measure of pollution, diseases, extinction of resources, more poverty, people and etc.? As the world’s overpopulation problem should be changed to prevent future severe issues.