Overpopulation and The End of the World as We Know It

the population is said to reach 9 billion by 2050. The overpopulation of humans is causing destructive impacts on the environment and a high demand for resources. One destructive impact would be climate change because of the exceeding rate of humans, causing pollution in the air. While the Earth is having a tough time sustaining particular resources, the high demand causes the earth to force to get its nonrenewable resources. Overpopulation can lead to dangerous impacts of pollution, depleted resources, habitat loss, etc. Overpopulation is a controversial topic. While there are those who are not paying attention to its effects, the world is displaying its resources will soon disappear due to the depletion of nonrenewable resources such as water, oil, and soil. Addressing the problems and concerns of overpopulation now, can help save the lives of individuals in the future, LITERALLY!

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

The article by Dennis Dimick brings up some very good points about the increasing population. He states that with our current population of 7 billion people, we currently do not have enough food to eat. With the population increasing day-by-day, we will face more shortage in the future. He also brings up the issue of natural resources. We are currently using so much natural resources that we will run out very soon. The use of natural resources tend to increase with increase in social standing (wealth).

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

Overpopulation can damage or even destroy the environment. The need for resources will grow with the population, but natural resources will not be produced at a fast enough pace. Man may try to produce the resources they need themselves but will there be enough space? According to Young the average person needs a minimum of 100 square feet to feel comfortable in a living space (“How Much Space Do You Really Need?”). Using the estimated population size of 2050, human living space will take up 43.8 billion square feet. Assuming most of these people live in apartment buildings so there is room for farming. Farms will need to switch out crops every year to slow down the process of soil degradation.

After Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, his view of classical economics flourished. One of his successors Thomas Malthus continued with a more pessimist view of society, while still keeping to Smith’s fundamentals. Out of this pessimistic viewpoint comes the Malthusian Doctrine, which states that as the population rate grows greater than the rate of produce to feed it, and, if unchecked, the world 's population will double every 25 years. At the same time land cannot keep up with the population growth, because land cannot breed. This will lead to a population growth problem. This paper will explore the effects of the Malthusian catastrophe throughout the past few centuries. Reviewing the implications of population growth and the need for implementations to limit population growth and natural resource depletion, providing questions challenging this point of view, and interacting with arguments of opposition can provide a well-formed argument for the implementations of new policies regarding this topic.

“When we have peace, then we have a chance to save the planet. But if we are not united in peace, if we do not practice mindful consumption, we cannot save our planet.”(Thich Nhat Hanh) We as the human race have entered a new age of the Earth: the Anthropocene, a term that became popular in the early 2000s. It means “ Man New”, because of the new world we have created and the amount of extinctions, pollution and alterations in the world’s functions that has come from our expansion. Due to the large amount of waste a small portion of the world produces, it affects the whole world in terrifying ways. People that argue that overpopulation is the largest issue have to understand that it is not the majority of the world that creates so much waste

At the beginning of our era approximately 250 million people lived on Earth and by 1650 the population had grown only to 500 million. Yet, the rapid growth of population, starting in the nineteenth century, coincided with the development of the industry making the impact of the humanity on the environment, and in particular on the temperature change, considerable. In 1830 the planet population reached one billion, in 1930 it reached two billion, and four billion around 1975. In 1990 it was estimated 5.3 billion. It is clear that the growing population is consuming more resources, using more energy.

One of the largest of these arguments today’s society sparks from the rapid increase in the world’s population. Many viewpoints on this debate exist, and two views in particular contradict each other. These viewpoints include those of Garret Hardin and Julian L. Simon. Hardin’s view is expressed in “The Tragedy of the Commons,” and Simon’s in “More People, Greater Wealth, More Resources, Healthier Environment.” These debate problems and solutions of the growing population, including the use of natural resources in order to supply the world’s growing population.

Population continued to grow rapidly from the years 2001–2010 with little to no sign of slowing down. The Great Acceleration also notes the changes in the fertility rates that foresees the exponential population growth, and states that it will soon be over. This case study shows various graphs and they show that the resource use has continued to grow through the most recent decade, fertilizer consumption, paper production and water use on a global scale, have all risen, but one of the most important trends of all is the rapid rate of urbanisation. over 50% of the global population now live in urban areas.

Merely dismissing Malthus’s argument as doomsday nonsense overlooks the reality that indeed, the global population strains natural resources and furthers environmental degradation. This green version of Malthusianism more aptly addresses the consequences that exponential population growth has on our society. Water is often seen in a Malthusian light as scarcity, in areas like Yemen, are exacerbated by high population growth. Although the absolute amount of water on the globe is enough to sustain the world’s population, it is not distributed equally, resulting in scarcity for certain populations. Moreover, with increases in populations, our pollution destroys lands and GHG emissions continue to exacerbate climate change. These effects are most greatly suffered by the poorest as they are often dependent upon the land and are the most vulnerable in the case of a natural disaster. Currently, industrial nations consume a disproportionately large amount of the world’s resources and already strain ecological limits. As the global south continues to develop, so will their consumption. This model of high consumption seen in the first world cannot be sustained and impossible for developing nations to reproduce given the ecological limits of the earth. As the middle class in countries like India and China rapidly grow, it is important that governments—particularly in developed nations—face the

During the 1960s, dire Malthusian warnings about the impact of overpopulation, consumption and resource depletion caused only a ripple of concern in the international community as the Green Revolution and modern birth control methods and practices appeared to provide a viable solution to these problems. Unfortunately, even though innovations in agricultural practices have increased yields even further than during the second half of the 20th century, most authorities agree that realistic limits are already being reached. Complicating issues for policymakers today is the paradoxical nature of population growth, with many wealthy nations experienced negative population growth while a number of impoverished developing nations are experiencing explosive population growth, placing even heavier demands on already scant resources. To determine how the issues of overpopulation, consumption, and resource depletion relate to wealthy nations and developing nations and how can these issues be addressed, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature, followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

The question does not concern whether or not overpopulation is an environmental issue. The evidence is clear, the majority of researchers address this established issue with their own reasoning behind what the biggest cause or effect is. Overall, Hardaway (2014) found that around every one third of a second, the world creates room for one more human. Creating room for another person requires 3.2 tons of carbon, 2,000 square meters of fresh water, and 207 gigajoules of energy (Hardaway, 2014). This takes up more room and resources that the earth does not have. With this rapid growth in population, by the year 2050, the earth would need to have another living area the size of Brazil to accommodate for all the people (Kuo, 2012). With the lack of land availability, overpopulation will be impossible to survive off current natural resources. Researchers focus on why and how overpopulation is effecting the earth such as pollution, consumption, lack of resources, and overcrowding (Kuo, 2012; Wutich and Brewis, 2014). Overpopulation has numerous effects on the environment, and there are many different views on what is causing the biggest effect on the earth.

The world is currently home to around 7 billion people, but only a century ago there were only about 1.6 billion people living on it. It is estimated that the world population will soar to approximately 9 or 10 billion within the next forty years (Lambert 6). Along with the increasing global population, climate change and water scarcity are also burdening the survival of our planet (Lambert 5). The FAO has warned that agriculture must produce 70% more food within the next 40 years to feed our expanding population, but the world’s resources and land are dwindling as quickly as the population is expanding (Lambert 5). The world urban populations have been increasing consistently and are

The growing concerns of population are not limited to environmental degradation such as losses of biodiversity, soil depletion, and toxic rivers and oceans. It goes further through the risks it imposes of “epidemics, resource war, terrorism, and deaths from violent climatic events” (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2012). Malthus argued that, people growth respond to wage or income that correlate negatively with the size of population (Lee 2011). On the other hand, climate change correlates positively with increase population. The pollutants such as greenhouse gas emissions from industry, transportation, agricultural activities, deforestation, and desertification are all associated with massive population growth. Thus, overpopulation is major