Over Population Essay, Research Paper
Over Population
There are several problems that affect the world today: war, crime, pollution, and several others. Overpopulation is a serious dilemma that is growing every year, every minute, and every second. It is the root of most, if not all, of the world?s problems1. It is the greatest global crisis facing humanity in the twenty-first century.
Overpopulation is the major global problem because of several reasons. Most of the problems we have today, such as ocean depletion, food shortages, water shortages, air pollution, water pollution, and global warming are the effects of overpopulation2. The more people there are, the more resources consumed and the more waste created. A child born today in the United States for instance will produce fifty-two tons of garbage and consume 11 million gallons of water by the age of seventy-five3. Freshwater, drinkable water, is the most critical natural resource to humans. As time goes by, the world?s population expands more rapidly, but there is no more freshwater on the Earth than there was two thousand years ago, when the population was three percent of its current size4. Overpopulation has also increased industrial development, which contributes to massive urbanization and rising of living standards5. The increase in industry shrinks the amount of freshwater available because they are constantly being polluted. The rising in living standards causes people to consume more which creates more waste and raises life expectancy, which causes more people to live at the same time6. Another problem that arises from overpopulation is the changing of the climate. Mankind is increasing the greenhouse gas levels by burning fossil fuels and deforesting the earth7. As the population increases, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases rise rapidly which affect the ability of the outgoing energy to pass through the atmosphere, [which] effectively heats the Earth8. Another predicament is the acid rain created by air pollution, which in turn, is created by the increasing population. Acid rain?s spread and damage involves weather, soil, and the life cycles of plants and animals on the land9. Air pollution is created from the burning of fossil fuels in cars, trucks, planes, and homes. The smoke and fumes rise into the atmosphere and combine with the moisture in the air to form acid rain10. As it rains, it eats away on things they settle on and contaminates lakes, drinkable water, which affect plants and animals11. Overpopulation also causes conflict. If many people live very closely together, there is a greater chance of conflict, which results in higher crime and even sometimes war12
There are several things that cause this problem to come about. A major cause is the rise of living standards as the world approaches the twenty-first century, which resulted from the industrial revolution. With the help of medicine, better doctors, better housing, and a better way of life than before, the living standards are raised, which increases life expectancy of almost every human on earth. Everyday newer medicines and vaccines are created to cure many diseases, which keep people from dying. Many of the diseases that killed many people before are almost no longer a threat to society. Better doctors are now available to deliver babies alive at a higher rate. People get better jobs with better pays than people did in the past, which allows them to buy things that improve their lives even more. This also causes more families to have more children because they have money to support a larger family. Another cause of overpopulation is the better food processing methods that came out of the agricultural revolution. With newer technological advances in farming methods, crops are grown in larger amounts and are better stored now than it was the past, which creates a huge surplus. This allows people to live healthier and longer and procreate more than before. This is how the global problem of overpopulation came about.
There are several solutions to the major global problem. First is to make everyone aware of the problem. Show the people the seriousness of the problem because they are the only ones that can solve it. After this is done, there must be a control on the number of children a family is allowed to have based on the income of the family and the area in which they live in. Help to underdeveloped nations would not be satisfied. If a country with all the food and supplies keeps on helping another country, the third world country would depend on the other?s help. Families of the third world take advantage of the unlimited supply of resources to keep their family alive, which then leads them to think they can have a larger family. These are several solutions to the global crisis of overpopulation.
Overpopulation is the number one problem confronting the human race. Most of the other global problems are created from overpopulation, such as violence, war, global warming, and pollution. Overpopulation was a result of the industrial and agricultural revolutions. New inventions and methods were found that made living easier. Solutions would be to cut off help to the third world countries and to limit the number of children a family can have with the help of educating the people of the problem.