Causes and Effects of Overpopulation

Population Growth is an issue that exists in today’s world that needs to be confronted before it becomes out of hand. The population itself has reached overwhelming numbers making it a problem that could turn to be dangerous. The amount of humans that the earth can support or the carrying capacity is slowly rising but at a much slower rate than the population growth rate. The increasing growth rate has its negative effects environmentally, agriculturally, socially, and economically and also has its positive effects nationally, and economically. The government is brainstorming and trying to come up with ways to decrease

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

Thesis: The topic of human population growth is an important issue due to its impacts upon people in developing countries, economics, religion, food production, and the environment; without any limitations, population growth can lead to negative consequences, such as famine and environmental destruction, or even positive outcomes, such as potential economic growth.

First of all, high poverty rates mean less education regarding family planning and less access to birth control methods. Secondly, high poverty rates might also encourage families to have more children that will eventually provide supplemental income or physical labor (Merrick). So population growth cannot be stabilized without addressing problems of poverty and addressing problems of poverty will mostly likely aid in population stabilization. Figure 1 and 2 in the Appendix show a visual representation of the poorest countries and the countries with the highest fertility rates. Focusing on the area of Africa, it is evident that the poorest countries also have the highest fertility rates.

Major progress has been made in curbing population growth. The United Nations Population facts August 2010 states that there has been substantial declines in fertility, total fertility in the rest of the developing world(excluding the least developed countries) declined by about 50 per cent between 1970-1975 and 2005-2010: from 5.0 to 2.5 children per woman. Additionally fertility in the least developed countries dropped by 34 per cent since 1970-1975, from 6.7 to 4.4 children per woman. Bangladesh is exceptional with a reduction of over 60 per cent, from 6.9 children per woman in 1970-1975 to an estimated 2.4 in 2005-2010.

While it may be observed that the exponential rate of growth is slowing, the world population is still growing rapidly. Perhaps the biggest concern is not the actual population increase but the distribution of the growth (Wilson, Population).

According to the United States census, the world population is over 7 billion and a birth occurs every 8 seconds. China leads with well over 1.3 billion people. There are rural areas, in Africa that women have never heard of any form of birth control. In those areas, women have 6 or more children. According to the United nations report (2013), The world 's population is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. There is already a lack of natural global resources. The environment is showing signs of misuse caused by humans. While, reproduction is a part of life and a human right. We as people need to work on preserving our natural resources, for the betterment of our future. And, birth control is a considered method in helping control our population. Birth control is also another way of helping developing countries due to lack of obstetric care, or countries that are disease, and poverty stricken.

All over the world, the human population fluctuates throughout each country due to several different factors. Some of the factors that can lead to an increase or decrease in population include industrialization, economic instability, poverty, laws, disease, resource destruction, sanitation, natural disasters, birth control, and access to education (Class notes). Although population decline is possible and relevant in some countries, the more important issue facing many countries today is overpopulation. Some over population problems include decreases in food sources, housing needs, land, increase in distribution problems, decrease in job availability, and poor health care environment (HowMany.org, 2014). One important question related to controlling

Junior Thesis: Effects of Overpopulation and How to Solve It Society includes both good and bad elements that make society better or worse. People in society all hates problems that occur in the society. Sadly, there are many problems the society may face today and people in the society may realize these problems too. The terrible conflicts in the society can lead to destruction to the economic and social life.

The expansion and development in all of the earth’s climate zones and habitats, as well as modern agriculture’s ability to grow more food for each unit of farmed land, play an important role in the population growth. Socioeconomic factors such as, healthcare, culture, family structure, marriage and social status also influences population growth, are contributors to population size increases through birth rate, as well as, decreases through the death rate. This imbalance of population equilibrium is a result of improved sanitation and health care, and the development of antibiotics and vaccines for the control of infectious diseases ultimately resulting in population death rates dropping.

With the acceleration of the Industrial Revolution since 1700, the population increased significantly. In particular, the last 50 years the population growth rate rose and this is due to progress made in medicine and to significantly increase in agricultural productivity by 1960. It is no coincidence that the population within a 50 year period doubled with predictions to talk about further increase within the next 12 years.

Recently, the world’s population has been going through exponential growth since the industrial revolution because of improvements in technology, medicine, sanitation, and agriculture. The first major increase in the world’s population was during the agricultural revolution that took place about 10,000 years ago (Brennan, Withgott 4). The cause of the increase was that people were beginning to settle and farm, which increased their chance of survival. The second was the industrial revolution in the mid-1700s and caused the greatest amount of growth(Brennan, Withgott 4). This was only because improvements were made in technology involving medicine, sanitation, and agriculture. This allowed life expectancy to increase and the security provided

Advances in medicine and the industrial revolution were the catalysts to the population boom. There are fewer deaths now and babies

Since the year 1800, the global population has grown from one billion to the estimated current population of 6.5 billion. By the year 2070 the world’s population is expected to continue to grow to 10 billion people. The major increase in population has occurred in the past 50 years, and based upon the United Nations (2007) estimates and projections up to the year 2050, it is believed that the population burst experienced worldwide over the past half century will have slowed down in the northern and contemporary countries, whereas the population will continue to increase in less developed countries and southern nations. While the large population is taxing enough on the already fragile economic markets of the United Kingdom,

The TedTalk, “Overpopulation Facts-The Problem No one Will Discuss” by Alexandra Paul, discusses that a cause of overpopulation is the decline of death rate. Ms. Paul goes on by giving an example on how rapidly the population grows by stating, “But now we have to stop it or it will be our downfall and just to give you an idea of how fast population grows, bangladesh had a hurricane that killed 139,000 people. How long did it take Bangladesh to replace those deaths with 139,000 new births two and a half weeks” (Paul). She points out how quickly the human population recoups from a natural disaster in as little as two weeks and a half. Another article examines the advancement of technology, and how it plays a role in the cause of overpopulation. The article, “A Paradox of the World Population Stabilization Policy” talks about the expansion of technology. “Technological advancement means expansion of technology in different new sectors, not only updating technology in existing sectors.” (Alam et. al.