Essay about The Effects of a High Global Population

Overpopulation is not an issue many people in developing countries face at this point in time. Put simply, overpopulation is “the condition of having a population so dense that it causes environmental deterioration, an impaired quality of life, or a population crash” (Merriam-Webster). It should not be taken lightly because it cannot be reversed in a short time period. Changes must be made gradually so that future generations do not suffer consequences that current generations have place upon them. It will be important to think about this theme in the future because of the issues it may bring up, namely food shortages or lack of other natural resources humans need to survive.

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).

The problem is that people don’t know how to properly sustain a population at their carrying capacity. Some places have met their carrying capacity but most places haven’t. The places that have don’t know how to make the best of what they have for the amount of population they have to care for. We also have places that have run out of the resources necessary to sustain a population of their current size.

In areas where power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of a few, it is difficult for the poor to break out of the cycle of poverty that is often passed from generation to generation. Rapid population growth makes this effort even more difficult. Hunger has always been a companion to poverty. Most experts agree that the world could feed today's population, and a considerably larger number, if income were redistributed, if modern farming methods were used everywhere, if land reform policies were put into effect, if meat consumption were reduced, if non-nutritious crops were replaced by nutritious crops, and if waste and corruption were controlled. However, rapid population growth may intensify the hunger problem; in the most rapidly growing countries, population growth can reduce or eliminate food production gains resulting from modernization of farming. Population pressures may also encourage practices such as over irrigation and overuse of croplands, which undermine the capacity to feed larger numbers. In some cases, population growth is quite directly related to a social problem because it increases the absolute numbers whose needs must be

The world is growing at an extremely fast rate which will lead to an unhealthy place for people to live in. If current trends persist, there will be 2.5 billion more people on the planet by mid-century. It will be difficult to feed that many people. There are many problems with population growth and the laws associated with it, but there are also ways to counteract these issues. By spreading awareness, creating laws, and more family planning we can prevent population from growing out of control.

Earths population is rising at a really high rate about 75 million a year. Its estimates the population will be 8.4 billion by mid 2030, and 9.6 billion by mid 2050. The more the population rises the more materials thats gonna be used for everyday life resources. More deforestations gonna happen for land and room for houses and what not.

I think most people can agree that if we all change our mindset and governments work together to solve the problem, there can be drastic improvements. As stated from greenliving.com, “An increase in population size makes excessive demands on natural resources, and increases the demand on agriculture and livestock.” Overall, there are many negative impacts associated with population explosion. Some environmentalists believe that the human race will reach its carrying capacity relatively soon and our population will plummet. I beg to differ because I think that humans will find a way to solve the population problem before disasters arrive. The most efficient and easy way to solve the problem is very controversial. In The Tragedy of the

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

Sustainability issues go hand in hand with increases in population, “urban sprawl”. Phoenix continues to see an increase in population growth and thus a sustainability issue that has arisen from such growth is traffic congestion. Having too many cars on the road, cars traveling at lower speeds, and having longer trip times then in previous years causes traffic congestion (Frias, 2007). Traffic congestion in Phoenix is observed from a local spatial scale as Phoenix is composed of many suburbs. It is important to look at the history of this problem, as it seems to go hand in hand with urban sprawl. The more spread out Phoenix has become; the more traffic congestion seems to prevail (Frias, 2007). From 1982 to 1999 traffic congestion

One of the problems facing our world is population. It began about ten thousand years ago when the humans settled and began farming. The farming provides more food for the people thus making the population grow. Now we are about 6 billion in population and in a few years we will be around 10 to 11 billion. Therefore, our population will

In the present era, there are many issues that pose a threat to our way of life. Overpopulation is one of the most serious threats to mankind.Overpopulation is a serious problem that will eventually have an extremely negative effect on our countries and our planet. Overpopulation is generally defined as an inability of the environment to support the existing population of human or other living things. Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of earth. If a country or city is overpopulated, it has too many people for the amount of food, materials, and space available there. Overpopulation is caused by number of factors. Reduced mortality rate, better medical facilities,

It’s a common fear that population growth will exhaust resources and result in social or economic disaster if it is not controlled. It is anticipated that most of the projected population growth during this century will take place in developing nations. These countries have faced many challenges in recent years, including low levels of education, poor health standards, scarcity, limited housing, natural resource exhaustion, strife, and monetary and governmental command by other countries. In places like Africa, industrial development has stalled and most workers still make a living from survival agriculture. The association between population and the environment is a complicated one, human cultures’ bearings on the environment are a

The exponential growth of global population has seen the per annum population increase go from taking 100 years between the 1st billion and 2nd billion to just 16 years between the 6th and 7th billion (Ray, 1998). The Malthusian (/ neo-Malthusian) model developed by Thomas Malthus in 1798, as well as the Vicious Circle Model (VCM) both regard population growth as an extreme problem for both the environment and for the development of nations. The Malthusian theories links how as global population increases exponentially and food production remains linear, a critical point comes whereby shortages of food will result in large scale famine and death until population values

Have you ever thought of a world without trash? If so, it may take a while to find out. It may seem harmless and innocent, but littering is an unhealthy habit people of all ages in each country do every day. Littering is a second nature to some people; after doing it for so long and often, they do not realize they do it. As more and more people continue to litter, environments, animals, and humans are being harmed by people’s carless actions. Most people don’t think that by throwing a piece of trash on the ground could be very harmful, but when that trash finds other trash it starts to build up and turn into junk. This pile of junk starts to become a nuisance to everybody around it. Not only does it stink, it looks bad as well. All this trash also affects out local drinking water, if the trash was to contaminate our local water treatment plant it would force the facility to throw away all that treated water costing us lots of money. The trash also plays a dangerous role within the local wildlife community, animals are becoming injured while in search for food some even dying from getting entangled or caught within the trash. All this trash is also playing a huge role in global warming, when trash sits in the sun methane gas gets released. When high amounts of methane get into the atmosphere it starts to damage the ozone layer which is there to protect life on earth from harmful rays of light coming from the sun. Believe it or not, but that gum wrapper or cigarette butt that

Humans, along with any other living life form, need water and air to survive. “Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans,” said Jacques Cousteau. ("Effects of Overpopulation: Water and Air Pollution") Fresh water and air supplies have recently become “garbage cans” as Cousteau explained in that people throw waste into rivers and lakes which are fresh water and carbon dioxide along with other pollutants that are harming our air supply. ("Effects of Overpopulation: Water and Air Pollution") For example, people in China throw their garbage in nearby rivers because the rivers are not used for anything. In these rivers one could find anything from rotten food to dirt to chemicals. Approximately 39% of our rivers, 46% of our lakes, and 51% of our estuaries are still too polluted for safe fishing or swimming. (America’s Troubled Waters) Another example would be the use of cars. When a car is on the road it releases toxic fumes such as carbon dioxide that are harmful to the Earth’s ozone and some would even say to the green house. As these fumes increase, the thicker the layer in the ozone becomes which pollutes the air quality on this planet. World Watch Institute has pointed out that water will once again be at the center of new conflicts because of the increasing demand and the depleting supply. (Negative Population Growth)