Population Problems Among Citizens Of Wealthy Countries

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 Wreck of Time,” written by Annie Dillard, illustrates societies battle with population. Dillard emphasizes the disasters that savage our world. According to the author, “ By moderate figures, the dead outnumber us about fourteen to one. The dead will always outnumber the living.” (Dillard 168) The amount of natural or man-made catastrophes do not affect the population as much as we claim. Dillards opinions are supported with facts throughout her essay, but readers are still left to question, why is our world considered to be overpopulated? Perhaps it is time for our society to consider Earth is not overpopulated in terms of people, but in resources. In addition, humans are struggling to grasp that other ecosystems are also being affected. With the introduction of Darwinism (the theory of evolution, by natural selections), humans are programed with the mentality of “survival of the fittest” forcing our humanity to evolve. Although evolution proved to be beneficial, as our immune system and way of life improved, we sacrificed our natural resources along the way. The problem with our society is not the lack of knowledge, but the ignorance and selfishness within our society. Overpopulation, threatened by the lack of resources, intimidates humans to disrupt biodiversity as we know it. (1) Man-made changes jeopardize our biodiversity. (2) As a result, the Earth’s resources are being depleted due to rapid consumption. (3) Even though we lack resources,

Dr. Forsyth implements plenty of evidence as well as proven statistics to back up his outlook on these issues. The growth of human population is happening at an exponential rate, implying that in a short period of time population growth will double. “We find it difficult to comprehend exponential growth, but it may prove to be our fatal blind spot” [3]. When analysing the world’s population over a long period of time, it took roughly 19,000 years for the world’s population to go from 5million people to 500 million people in 1500 A.D. [4] With an estimated population of 7.5 billion people [5], for a period less than 1000 years, population increased more than 1500 times its size than it was in the 1500’s. In addition, on a more minute scale of time, in 1950 the world’s population was roughly 2.5 billion people [6] in merely 50 years the world’s population has tripled. With these statics, it is evident that the world’s population is increasing at an incomprehensive rate. With populations at their peak, overconsumption is another problem this world faces, as Dr. Forsyth affirms “humans consume far more than their fair share of the Earth’s natural productivity.”[7] Due to this over consumption of resources, there is a vast demand for cheap food which results in the clear cutting of large forest to generate room for new plantations of food. When doing so, humans destroy habitats that

The message of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’s Governing Board is that human impacts on this resilient natural world are so unprecedented and extensive that we crossed the line into unsustainable consumption some time ago and are now depleting ecosystem capital stock instead of living off its sustainable goods and services.

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

Imagine if Earth’s population was so large that all of the world’s resources had to be exhausted to their last limits just to provide food for only half of the population. That is exactly what 17th-century demographer Thomas Malthus envisioned when he predicted how the world’s population would affect the world’s resources. In An Essay on the Principle of Population, published in the late 18th century, Malthus expressed many controversial predictions in which he argued that the increase of resources was arithmetic while the increase in population was exponential; thus, he concluded that the population would greatly outpace the amount of resource growth on Earth. Being that Malthus made his predictions during the industrial revolution (which was when North America and Europe reached stage two of the demographic transition), many critics of his theory claim that Malthus’ calculations were inaccurate because he did not consider technological advances in relation to food production. Also, Malthus’ critics believe that he overestimated population increase (mainly because of the time period he lived in) and (adverb) underestimated the production rate of resources. Though both sides of the debate are plausible, it is evident that Malthus’ views were incorrect because modern-day statistics regarding population and food production do not support his claims. Therefore, because of Malthus’ uncircumspect approach when he predicted population

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.

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.

In the decade of the 1970s, the United Nations organized several important meetings on the human environment to study a very serious problem . We humans are destroying the world around us . We are using up all of our natural resources . We must learn to conserve them, or life will be very bad for our children and our grandchildren .

There are many articles and newspapers about how bad the world is becoming overpopulated. The overpopulation of humans and animals is a constant threat to people way of life on earth. Monbiot states, “The growth in human numbers, they say, is our foremost environmental threat” (Monbiot 1). Suggestions for extending women’s reproductive choices should be made, and the world population would drop dramatically because of this. George states, “If this need were answered, the impact of population growth would be significant, though not decisive: the annual growth rate of 83 million would be reduced to 62 million” (Monbiot 1). Because the population of the world is increasing drastically, many problems are created and produces many effects.

In the late eighteenth century, Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus described how human population, when unchecked, grows exponentially while resources (specifically food) exhibits arithmetical growth (Moseley, Perramond, Hapkie, & Laris, 2014). Malthus primarily blamed the poor for high fertility rates and argued for the abolishment of all welfare, believing that if the poor succumbed to the negative effects of poverty, overpopulation could be stopped. While this may seem a distasteful solution to modern environmentalists, one cannot completely erase population from the environmentalist equation. Despite the technological advances that rendered much of Malthus' musings passé, one cannot ignore the idea that the carrying capacity of earth loom unknown

Over seven billion people live on the planet Earth. That is four billion more people on Earth today than around 57 years ago (Smith 1). Over time, humans have had many technological advancements which increased the rapid depletion of renewable and non renewable resources such as water, food, and space. This, causes scientists to believe that the more people on the earth, the more we are going to run out of our resources. Although, many believe that Earth is quickly reaching its carrying capacity from the depletion of resources, that capacity is not within reach because the Earth has enough resources to sustain a much larger population than what is prevalent today.

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

Many years ago, Aristotle discussed about the best size for a city, and arrived at a conclusion that “a big increase in the number of population would bring a level of poverty on the citizenry. Poverty will be the cause of all evils including sedition” (Overpopulation: Environmental and Social Problems, 2010). According to studies, human population is expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050. On the economics point of view, as global population is predicted to grow and more countries become more developed, the demand for natural resources will also increase and may be greater than the supply. Much of the growth in population will also have strong economic growth, and this will occur in developing countries. As the per-capita income of these nations increase, the demand for raw materials for use in electronics, military, farming and urban development will also increase. Because of the global warming issue, green energy and green tech production are expected to rise in developed countries. Unfortunately, future supply of these natural resources may not be able to meet the increasing demand (Supply and Demand, 2013). This essay aims to explain what things could happen to the world if the demand for natural resources becomes greater than its supply due to overpopulation. Does overpopulation causes the demand for natural resources to be greater than the supply, and what things could happen as a consequence for this? Yes, overpopulation results in higher demand for natural

The industrial revolution known for many things including the peak point where human population hit one billion. It took humans 130 years to hit two billion and as time moved on it took less and less time, the fifth billion only took 13 years to accomplish (Worldometers). It may have started as a great thing in the industrial revolution but now in the twenty-first century population has become a global issue. A global issue can be identified because it is not only affecting the whole human race, but also global in the sense that it affects the whole world. War and conflict, poverty, high cost of living, degradation of the environment, depletion of natural resources, and unemployment all caused by the ever growing human population. William Halal and Michael Marien identified, what is known as the Mega Crisis, “A global environmental and economic collapse or near collapse, along with attendant problems of rising prices, mass protests, wide-spread psychic stress, and lawlessness.” (Halal and Marien. 2011) and although I admire the work of these authors one aspect that they tend overlook is the connecting link between all trends leading to the Megacrisis, overpopulation. Over population is when the number of living humans is compared to the available resources, such as water and the essentials they need to survive. Imagine in some extraordinary event the world loses a quarter of its population, many of these trends mentioned and those identified by Halal and Marien would