preview

Causes And Effects Of Overpopulation

Decent Essays

Overpopulation is being populated with excessively large numbers. The main cause of the human race overpopulating is that there is a higher birth rate than death rate. Other causes may include; better medical facilities; technological advances in fertility treatment; immigration and lack of family planning. Although these factors improve the living standards, it has lead to an overpopulated planet which has many devastating effects on the environment. One of the effects include the depletion of natural resources like food and water. These vital resources have fallen severely short with 80% of people living below the poverty line (living on less than $2.50 a day). Another effect is the degradation of the environment which is due to our increasing population. As the population increases, there is more coal used and other fossil fuels, more space needed so forests cut down, more water and food needed, etc. For example, India is the second most populous country in the world after China. In India’s last census in 2011 the population was 1,210,193,422. With this many people needing the basic necessities of life, the environment is at a loss, with people's needs coming before its protection. Therefore, due to overpopulation we have altered the environment beyond repair through the depletion of natural resources and degradation of the environment. Overpopulation is irreversible, and the process is unable to slow down, there will just keep being more and more people with less and less resources available.

Pollution is the introduction of a harmful substance that has a negative effect on the environment. Millions of metric tons of pollution is pumped into the atmosphere every year. The effect of the colossal amount of pollution is massive for our current generation, let alone the build up created for the new generation in 50 years time. Pollution comes from countless sources, including aerosols, coal or wastewater. For example, China has the worst air pollution in the world, as seen in the picture below. In 2016, only 84 out of 338 cities met the national standard for air quality. Every year, this abundance of air pollution alone kills hundreds and thousands of chinese citizens. China is just one example of one kind

Get Access