Overpopulation Is Not The Real Issue

In recent years, Earth’s issues have become increasingly politicized, publicized, and economically important. When you examine how the environment affects us and how we affect it, it’s easy to see that overpopulation is one of earths most pressing environmental issues.

The cause of human overpopulation is birth rates. The high amounts of birth rates are causing overpopulation to grow each year. Research shows in the year 2030, the population is expected to reach 8.5 billion people and 9.7 billion people in the year 2050. Developing countries is straining the already scarce resources. Intensive agriculture practices damage the environment through the use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and insecticides. As the population expands further, many natural resources such as fossil fuels, water, and forests continue to plummet. Lessening population will definitely solve many problems such as poverty, species becoming extinct, food shortages, water and air pollution, and even lower crime rate. High birth rates can be solved by spreading awareness, educate people about overpopulation, and increasing accessibility to birth control.

No matter how many people do claim overpopulation is not a relevant issue, it very much is because of the simple fact that starvation and pollution are very real and existing issues that are ultimately offset by overpopulation. In an article titled “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem,” author Erle C. Ellis uses the analogy “Like bacteria in a petri dish, our exploding numbers are reaching the limits of a finite planet, with dire consequences,” to argue that overpopulation is not a problem by stating the opposing claim. “We are nothing like bacteria in a petri dish,” Mr. Ellis solemnly asserts, “...these claims demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of the ecology of human systems. The conditions that sustain humanity are not natural and never have been. Since prehistory, human populations have used technologies and engineered ecosystems to sustain

Humans are the reason the planet is having environmental issues, and we cannot continue denying that. With a higher population comes more environmental issues, and the best thing we can do is make sure our population is stabilized. America can set an example for the rest of the world by funding Planned Parenthood. If America can convince the rest of the world that education and health care among women is important, maybe we can fix the population issue, and be confident in the fact that our future children will live a long, happy life.

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

The best-selling novel by “DaVinci Code” author Dan Brown “Inferno” has a plot that is driven by the human overpopulation crisis. Brown depicts a mad scientist that believes he can rid the world of the majority of its health and environmental issues by simply purging the world of two-thirds of its population. But is the assertion brought forth by Brown’s antagonist that far from the truth? When we look at the effects of human overpopulation on food, air quality, water shortages, and other natural resources it’s hard to disagree.

The ethical issue to be focused on in this paper is that of global population growth and the negative impact this has on the environment, living standards for those currently living and on future generations. The current world population growth rate is 1.2% per annum (Haub and Gribble 2011: 2). This implies a steadily increasing world population with negative effects on health, food supply, water supply and quality, oceans, forests, biodiversity, climate and standards of living (Hinrichsen and Bryant 2000).

Eventually the earth's population is going get over populated and that’ll become a problem in the future. The way to stop that from happening is by either killing off the animals and becoming cannibals or limit the number of children to be had. Luckily that even will happen only if we become over populated but we won’t have to worry about it happening too soon if abortion stays legal (http://www.choicematters.org/2007/12/legal-abortion-arguments-pro-con/).

"Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victim." This was said by Martin Luther King, Jr on May 5, 1966. If this was said almost 49 years ago by one of the greatest leaders of American history, why hasn’t the issue of overpopulation been solved yet? Simply because we lack the universal consciousness of the serious issues overpopulation bring and the education required on how to prevent it. The world just can’t support every single human being if we continue to ignore the issue. So what would happen globally if the demand for natural resources is greater than the supply? There will be conflicts and wars, environmental degradation and climate change. In addition to having a high demand for natural resources and a low supply, it will also cause a rise in unemployment and raise the cost of living.

The topic of overpopulation has different perspectives regarding whether or not it is happening as well as its apparent effects of both the environment and its inhabitants. The idea of human overpopulation being a problem most clearly begins around the time of Thomas Robert Malthus’ publishing of An Essay on the Principle of Population as It Affects the Future Improvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers. In his writing, Malthus describes how the growth of the human population will always outgrow the resources required to maintain it. “The increase of population will take place, if unchecked, in a geometric progression, while the means of subsistence will increase in only an

The biggest fear regarding overpopulation is if there are enough resources to supply the unlimited demand of the human population. The real problem is not that the resources of earth can’t sustain the population, but that they are not used efficiently enough. The fluctuating population densities and the means to efficiently use the resources are some of the biggest flaws of the human population. When overpopulation is debated about the main concerns besides the plight of the dense populations are the birth rate, standard of living, and ecological well-being which are all on the low/negative side of any spectrum when comparing the earth in its entirety. Urban populations cost so much to the environment and is unlikely to change. The

Overpopulation is blamed for many of todays problems around the world including poverty, hunger, and war. In reality, overpopulation is not the issue. In fact, the term “overpopulation” shouldn’t even be used because it makes one infer that there is too many people on this planet. That, however, is not true. There are plenty of resources to go around and the population may actually be declining instead of growing. Overpopulation will not be an issue for the future of planet Earth because the poverty rate is decreasing, there is plenty of food for everyone, and birth rates are going down.

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.

The global rate of human population growth peaked around 1963. However, the number of people living on Earth and sharing scarce resources like water and food has grown by more than two-thirds since then. Population growth causes multiple environmental problems, such as the clearing of rainforests, the loss of thousands of plant and wildlife species, an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. In our class, we addressed few philosophical positions and arguments about population and environment issues from each author. They tried to find out root causes of population growth and solve the problems behind. In this paper, I would like to discuss two main arguments of environmental issues that caused by population growth.

Should governments fine people who have too many biological children in order to reduce environmental damage due to overpopulation?