The Environmental Issue of Overpopulation

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 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!

Overpopulation, pollution, global warming, climate change, genetic modification, ocean acidification, water/soil pollution, deforestation, acid rain, and ozone depletion are among some of the main factors that have a negative impact on the planet. Overpopulation is one the most concerning environmental issues currently. Overpopulation is defined as the human population of a specific area exceeding the carrying capacity. Overpopulation can occur from an increase in births mainly or a decline in deaths. Also, other factors that affect overpopulation can be an increase in immigration or a depletion of resources. It was stated by the United Nations that the worth has a total carrying capacity of somewhere between 4 and 16 billion. Currently we hold over 7 billion humans on Earth. As of 2017 the UN has increased their population predictions to 9.8 billion by 2050 and up to 15 billion by 2100. Pollution we hear about every day.

The current world's population is estimated at approximately six billion people in the world and even this number can be inaccurate. According to Sernau (2012), what is harder to estimate are the effects that this growth and change will have on our planet. When looking at overpopulation and the effects on the environment, we look at the overpopulation in cities and countries across the nation. Many economic problems in our society place an impact on our environment from overpopulation come from the overuse of resources, lack of resources, and pollution. There are many solutions to this problem but the common factor is humans have to put controls in place and take care of the environment, so the required resources do not become extinct.

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.

This article is about the U.S. overpopulation and its effects on the environment. Our population grows by 285 people per hour. With this increase of 2,500,000 people per year our renewable resources are limited. The need for urbanization is depleting the land needed for growing food and the U.S. consumption of energy is continually rising. As a result, the population growth will contribute to more pollution, overcrowding, loss of open land, and the death of many species. Some of our much needed lakes and rivers are slowly evaporating, which means a limited supply of water for our nation.

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.

Overpopulation, which is the increase of human population on Earth, is one of the most harmful environmental problems going on in today's society. As the rate of deaths has decreased, the rate of births has gone up drastically. As the human population grows more in quantity in little time, there are numerous effects that it is having on production for human necessities that later harm the Earth. This is truly a problem as studies show that by 2025, almost half of the world will be facing problems with access to freshwater and 70% of all freshwater on Earth will be going towards human demand. Later on, this can evolve into many other problems that can lead to, as shown by studies, the next mass extinction. The origin of this problem all started out during the Industrial Revolution. As said by many, the Industrial Revolution changed the face of the planet. As more buildings and jobs were made, more people worked and got paid better and had the opportunity to have children because they were finally able to sustain them. Greater food production, new medicines, and better sanitation are some of the many factors that led to higher birth rates and lower death rates. Overpopulation on Earth is a problem to humans because of the negative effects on human necessities leading to climate change.

Human culture now has the potential to inflict irreversible damage on the environment and on its life sustaining systems and resources. Already, critical stress suffered by our environment is clearly manifest in the air, water, and soil, our climate, and plant and animal species. Should this deterioration be allowed to continue, we can expect to alter the living world to the extent that it will be unable to sustain life as we know it. Though there isn’t only one main cause to the environment’s destruction, many scientists, economists, and people in general claim that overpopulation is our problem.

Research physicist for the American Center for International Policy Studies, Gioietta Kuo, in her article “Mega Crisis? Overpopulation is the Problem” describes the possibility of a global mega-crisis, a “perfect storm” of political, economic, and environmental instability resulting from overpopulation and leading to the extinction of mankind (Kuo, 23). The purpose of Kuo’s article is to stress the fact that overpopulation has been over looked as the source of many of the problems afflicting the world today, including climate change, food and water scarcity, environmental degradation, as well as other economic and social effects like unemployment. She adopts logos, ethos, and pathos as well as an urgent tone in order to persuade the United Nations, government officials, and the general public to acknowledge the fact the current high population is the main cause of the problems affecting the world today and also to stress that the unchecked population growth will lead to a mega-crisis.

Overpopulation is often Times argued as one of the most severe, if not the most severe, environmental problem. This past year world population exceeded 7.3 billion and continues to grow at an alarming rate. By the year 2050 it is projected that world population will exceed over nine billion. Overpopulation puts a serious strain on the world and its resources and is a root cause of many environmental issues. Issues such as, climate change, diminishing biodiversity, and pollution, are all just some of the problems caused by overpopulation. In order to control the rapid population growth it is imperative that countries begin to further educate their citizens in family planning and responsible resource consumption.

With the dramatic growth in human population, resources will be depleted quickly. According to Worldometers, a world statistic site, there is an annual increase of approximately 80 million in the human population. This number will grow in the future, as the nature of the growth of the human population is exponential. “On a finite planet sustainability is not an option, it’s just a matter of how

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

According to the United Nations Population Fund, the world population reached 7 billion on October 31, 2011. The previous milestone, the six billion mark, had been reached on October 12, 1999. This means that the number of inhabitants increased by one billion in only twelve years, that is, two million seven hundred thirty nine thousand seven hundred twenty six people per day. Although the growth rate has decreased from 2.08 percent in 1970 to 1.13 percent in 2016, by 2024 the population is expected to hit the eight billion mark. So, even with this deceleration in the growth rate, the increase of the human population poses a formidable challenge for the world 's natural resources.

This paper is conducted to investigate the consequences of overpopulation and the pressure it enforce on natural resources and ecosystems. This study emphasizes the outcomes of overpopulation which impose threatening problems for both humans and nature. The main question associated with issue will be: what are the procedures to mitigate the intensity of this social and environmental problem?