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The Major Causes And Effects Of Overpopulation

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Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of an existing organism exceeds the carrying capacity of the earth. It is simply when the world has more than the number of an organism it can support. Human overpopulation is one of the most pressing environmental issue, and still, our population is growing at an alarming rate. “About twenty years ago, Population Reference Bureau (PRB) estimated the world’s human population to be 5.84 billion.” Today, the population of the world has risen to about 7.6 billion and according to the United Nations predictions, it is expected to reach 9.7 billion people in the next 33years.

A senior member of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, David Satterthwaite …show more content…

The number of children born every day has doubled the number of individuals that die on a daily bases. In the history of humans, the birth rate has always balanced with the death rate in other to maintain a sustainable population growth rate, but not anymore. According to Ecology Global Network, there are 131.4 million births and only 55.3 million deaths per year. The discovery of agriculture by our ancestors was one of the factors that made it possible for them to sustain themselves without having to hunt. Therefore, less number of them were killed by their predators, creating the first imbalance to the two rates.

Immigration: Many people prefer to move to more developed countries where they would have better medical treatments, education, employment and security. This movement affects the density of the population in the countries making them overcrowded. And because there are more people than normal, more food, clothing, homes, and other necessities are demanded, thereby leading to shortage of resources. Even though immigration does not necessarily affect the population of the locals of these areas, it makes them overly

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