The Current World 's Population

The world population of 7.2 billion in mid-2013 is projected to increase by almost one billion people within the next twelve years. It is projected to reach 8.1 billion in 2025, and to further increase to 9.6 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion by 2100. This assumes a decline of fertility for countries where large families are still prevalent as well as a slight increase of fertility in several countries with fewer than two children per woman on average.

There are more than seven billion people on Earth now, and about one in eight of us don’t have enough food to eat. So, with a projected nine billion people by the year 2050, how many people can the Earth support while maintaining a healthy population? Population changes are due to the relationship between births and deaths. If the number of births equals the number of deaths then the world’s population will remain the same, but if births exceed deaths, population growth will occur. Early in history, population was slowly growing because of high death rates related to wars, famines, and poor medical services. With advances in

Impacts on the Environment website). Our population is rising beyond the earth's ability to maintain a reasonable quality of life. This enlarged population has also increased the land uses, resource uses and pollution problems. A raise in land use

The Global human population increases growth amounts to around 75 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7 billion in 2012. It is expected to keep growing, and estimates have put the total population at 8.4 billion by mid-2030, and 9.6 billion by mid-2050. Many nations with rapid population growth have low standards of living, whereas many nations with low rates of population growth have high standards of living.

By the year 2050, the human population will reach 9.0 billion (United Nations 1). According to a professor of sociobiology at Harvard University, Edward O. Wilson, this is a number that humans do not want to reach. Dr. Wilson, along with many other accredited scientists, estimate that the Earth’s maximum carrying capacity is somewhere between 9 and 10 billion people (Wolchover Par. 2). Carrying capacity refers to the maximum number of people that can be supported by Earth due to the limitations of the availability of essential resources such as food and water. If the population hits this limit, it will be extremely difficult get the resources that each person needs; however, not everyone agrees that the Earth will get to this point. Many people would disagree with this argument due to the fact that fertility rates are dropping; however, the United Nations’ World Population Prospects report takes these dropping fertility rates into account. In fact, the United Nations estimates that by the year 2050, fertility will drop from 2.5 to 2.0 (3). Even when accounting for dropping fertility rates, the human population will still be pushing its limits. A growing population is problematic because of the affect it will have on the environment and the availability of essential resources.

The world currently has about 7 billion people and with so many people reproducing, even if a slow rate, the population is still growing exponentially every minute. In only slightly over two decades, the world population increased by 2 billion people (Gribble and Haub, 2011).

The current population on Earth is around 7 billion people, statistics show that by 2050 the world will reach to about 8 – 11 billion people. If we look back on the progression of the world and its increase in population you will currently find that the world population is growing rapidly, this leads to the fearful effect of overpopulation. Overpopulation is the number of the existing human population that exceeds the capacity of the Earth. Progressively the human population continues to grow at a fast pace due the reduction of the world’s mortality rate. Our constant progress in medicine and the many scientific methods of increasing the human fertility rate have added to the increase of world population. This has taken a negative toll on how well the world will progress as a whole in terms of maintaining resources and sustaining economical needs. Many people today wonder how humans will be able to sustain and support a working life and the cost of living if the world’s population continues to grow. Studies show that the cause of overpopulation will lead the world into a battle for natural resources, possible involvement in war, and a high increase in poverty due to the rise of unemployment.

However, the relationship between population and surroundings is complicated. Scientists are concerned when they estimate consumption of natural resources, the demand of the population, and the limits of the earth’s ability to support 4 billion people more (“Global Population Growth” 49). Indeed, communities’ effect on the environment takes place in two greater parts, as reported by the “Unit 5: Human Population Dynamics Section 5: Population Growth and the Environment.” The first is that people consume more and more natural resources

According to the projections from the United Nations, the world population will reach 9.3 billion in 2050 (Lee. 2011). The figure is expected to reach 10.1 billion by

Overpopulation: when the number of existing humans exceeds the Earth 's carrying capacity resulting in resource depletion, poverty, lack in biodiversity, global warming, starvation, unemployment, the spread of disease, water contamination, desertification, CO2 emissions, climate change, and rising conflict between territories among many others. Although unrealized by most, these issues, as a result of overpopulation, are a major problem facing the world today due to the recent substantial increases in global population over the past century (Gavenus). Our planet is beginning to run out of available resources for the world 's more than 7 billion inhabitants. Overpopulation is causing both our renewable and nonrenewable resources such as

This data provides evidence that a rapidly growing population will lead to conflict. The REL4 solution will alleviate the overpopulation problem by addressing the need for contraceptives and limiting all consenting adults to four children. The United States Census Bureau website population clock stood at 7,424,919,320 as of 13:38 CT, 01 October 2017. In fifteen days the world’s population has grown by 3,372,370. The world can no longer continue to rapidly multiply, because it is out of land and food.

Throughout many years, the Earth has been a sustainable resource that humans have taken advantage of and been nourished by during evolution. Humans consider one of their main goals to reproduce and populate the Earth. As shown in the graph by World Bank , the world population as of 2013, is estimated to be over 7.1 billion. This is the result of exponential growth from previous years. This massive populations have effects on our resources, causes social problems, overcrowds areas, and effects other species. Earth is hitting the maximum capacity that it can handle. “Human population is growing like never before. We are now adding one billion people to the planet every 12 years. That 's about 220,000 per day” (“Overpopulation: Environmental and Social Problems,” para.1). As more people are kept alive and the reproduction trend continues, it results in too many people being on Earth at the same time. This phenomena is referred to as overpopulation, and will be the focus of the paper.

Another serious effect of human overpopulation is global warming. According to the Center for Biological

Nowadays humanity accepts its more than huge population as normal, assuming that the overwhelming amount of people, with all their life processes and results of their activities do not harm the ecosystem of our planet. The majority of contemporary people falsely believe that we can continue to increase in our numbers, and that this practice does not affect the environment, flora, fauna and the life of humanity itself. Despite everything seems normal, humanity has already crossed all the borders and limits, presented by our planet. The Earth is not able to sustain such large population of people.

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