IS OVERPOPULATION A REAL PROBLEM?

Nylah Coleman

Algebra 1- Gomez

2ND Period

May 23, 201

Is Overpopulation A Real Problem?

While most of the human race is fearful that one day the world will be too small to hold

our whole race, others say that overpopulation is just a myth. Overpopulation occurs when there

are more people than the resources in a closed environment where nothing is allowed in or out

and the resources can no longer support that population. Some, like Anne Roback Morse argue

that the world is not a closed environment and neither are crowded cities or poor countries. They

are simply that, crowded. So I ask, is overpopulation really a problem?

History of Overpopulation

According to James Hopkins, the author of ‘Human Population Crisis’, overpopulation isn’t just

about population density, or amount of people per landmass, overpopulation also applies to the

number of people in the area that exceeds the resources and the carrying capacity of the

environment necessary to sustain human life. This is what scientists mean when they talk about

overpopulation. In science terms, ‘the maximum number of animals that a specific habitat or area

can support without causing deterioration or degradation of that habitat’.

Exponential growth also applies to human population. Like a snowball effect it will start to grow

slowly but the rate of growth will continues to increase rapidly over generations. It took

thousands of years for the population to reach 1 billion in 1804, but it only took 123 years for us

to hit 2 billion in 1927. In 1974, 47 years later, the population was already 4 billion.

Studies show that if we continue to grow at this rate by the time we reach 2028 the human

population will probably be 8 billion. But if we double from the 7 billion that we are today to 14

billion would have a much greater impact than our last few doublings combined.

Americans only take up 5% of the world’s total population. That means that the focus of

overpopulation is on Third World or developing countries. A Third World country is a country

whose view are not aligned with NATO or the Soviet Union and communism. Third World

countries are the main focus of overpopulation because they are the places with the most

population, and the least amount of resources to supply the people there with.

In 8000 B.C. the population was 5 million, about the same size as the population of today’s

Papua New Guinea. Most countries have done their fair share of polluting in the past but today

most of those same polluting problems, for example poor farming practices, overfishing, and

unsustainable logging, is occurring in developing and Third World countries, the countries with

the highest population.

Two hundred years ago Thomas Malthus warned people what would happen if the world

population went unchecked. In 1738, when the population was already 1 billion, Malthus

published his ‘Essay on the Principle of Population’. In this essay he argued that the population

multiplies geometrically and the food arithmetically, so the growing population will transcend

the food supply.

Michael E. Arth, a leading voice on population matters states that the number of people living in

moderate and extreme poverty is equal to the number of people born since 1985, 3 billion. He

says that if we had stopped population growth at that moment, especially in developing

countries, we could have stopped world hunger along with a lot of other problems that have to do

with overpopulation, like water shortages.

Overpopulation Today

Today our population has reached approximately 7,235,044,176 and counting. So far there have

been about 54 million births and 22 million deaths. The population has grown by around 31

million people, all in the first half of the year. Just today, May 22, 2014 there has been 328,000

births and 135,000 deaths along with a population growth of 193,000.

Today we have to feed, house, and cloth way over 6 billion people. Until modern times, the

population was steady and slow. In some places in Europe the population has slowed or even

stopped. Along with North America and Japan according to the United Nations. Global

population continues to grow in mostly sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South and Westerns Asia

at a rate of 78 million people per year.

The average woman currently ears 2.5 offspring worldwide. The fertility rate still exceeds 7

births per female in several African nations. The offspring lever varies with the locale. The

average human life span grew from 30 to 40 ears in the pre-industrial times to about 70 years

today, although it is still 50 years in Angola. In Northern Europe and Japan the average life span

exceeds 80 years. Life span has been affected by different variables such as diseases like HIV-

AIDS. Is the long life span one of the main causes of overpopulation?

Although the country with the biggest population is China (1,355,692,544), Africa has the

world’s biggest population growth, the world’s highest life span average, and the world’s highest

fertility rate. Is Africa to blame for overpopulation?

Today the human population is growing like you would never believe. We are adding one billion

people each year to the planet. That averages out to about 222,000 people each day. The list of

problems that overpopulation causes seems endless. It includes shortages of all of our resources,

limits on personal freedom, overcrowding, war and social conflict, and health and survival of

other species.

Some of the resources that are in trouble are food, air quality, water shortages, oil, gas, other

fuels, the ozone layer forests, oceans, and even the Earth’s topsoil. Social problems mainly

include war issues and health problems, but the biggest overpopulation social problem is

overcrowding.

Overcrowding is one of the biggest problems because with it comes many other smaller but

serious problems. If you are living in an area with a growing metropolitan you will notice that

the cost of housing will rise significantly, the length of your commute will be longer, parking

will be a drag, and new buildings will block our light and air.

Although overpopulation is the sole cause of all those problems, it is definitely the root cause of

them. If we can solve the problem that is overpopulation then we can definitely solve the

problems caused by it.

Is There A Future with Overpopulation?

While the world may not feel it, the population is increasing rapidly and a lot of other countries

are losing resources and lack many basic needs.

A National Geographic’s website about overpopulation says that nearly three-fifths of the 4.8

billion people in developing countries lack basic sanitation, almost a third have no access to

clean water, a quarter lack adequate housing, and a fifth lack access to modern health services.

And World Population Awareness said that we are now using between 1.2 and 1.5 planets worth

of resources that can be sustainably supported. Before mid-century we will need the capacity of

two Earths to keep up with our level of demand.

With overpopulation comes a number of different, very serious problems. For example world

hunger, water shortages, and other environmental problems. We have managed to grow from a

little under 2 billion people in 1900 to over 300% in just over a hundred years. According to the

Population Reference Bureau or PRB, 6.5% of the 108 million people who were born are still

living today. That might seem like a small number when you first hear it, but that 6.5% is the

same number of people in 50,000 B.C.

If overpopulation continues to grow, our personal freedoms will be at risk. There will be more

and more restrictions will be put on our freedom. Of course there will be a lot of people who will

dislike these new restrictions but it will be necessary to accommodate the large population.

Some of the restrictions will include limits on our water consumptions; California has already

mandated that residents cut back 20% on their water intake. Cities will put limits on driving,

London charges people to drive on downtown and every year New York politicians propose to

do the same thing. There will be limits on traveling; traffic already puts limits on our freedom to

travel whenever we want. And also restrictions on what people can do on their land. If you live

in a rural area people will be free to build whatever they like on their land, but if you live in a

more packed place, then your actions will affect more directly your neighbors and these

restrictions must be made.

What Can We Do To Solve Overpopulation?

There is a long list of problems cause by overpopulation and if it continues to grow it will

become much longer. To reduce to size of the list there are a number of things that we can do.

We could consume less, we could use our resources more efficiently, and it wouldn’t hurt if we

distribute them in ways that we don’t deprive so many of access to human’s basic needs.

But there is no doubt that these problems could be solved with more ease if we don’t add another

3 or 5 billion people to our wonderful planet. The simplest question that we can ask is what is the

correct number of people to be living on the planet?

Math Page

This is a map of World Population Density or people per km(2). It shows not only countries but many subdivisions, regions, states and provinces.

2013 2030 2050 2075 21000

200000000

400000000

600000000

800000000

1000000000

1200000000

1400000000

1600000000

1800000000

ChinaIndiaUSAIndonesiaBrazilPakistanNigeriaEthiopiaCongoTanzaniaUgandaNiger

This chart shows the current and prediction of the countries with over 200 million people today.

Resource Page

Cotto, J. (n.d.). Forget Obamacare: Overpopulation is America’s greatest challenge.

<i>Communities Digital News</i>. Retrieved May 16, 2014, from

http://www.commdiginews.com/politics-2/forget-obamacare-overpopulation-is-americas-

greatest-challenge-17632/

From this source I learned about Thomas Malthus. Two hundred years ago he warned people

about what can happen if the population goes unchecked. In 1798 Malthus published his ‘Essay

on the Principle of Population’, by this time the population was already 1 billion. In his essay

Malthus argued that the population multiplies geometrically and food multiplies arithmetically,

so that the growing population will out transcend the food supply. Micheal E. Arth, a leading

voice on population matters states that the number of people living in moderate and extreme

poverty is equal to the number of people born since 1985, 3 billion. He says that if we had

stopped population growth at that moment, especially in developing countries, we could have

stopped world hunger along with a lot of other problems that have to do with overpopulation.

National Geographic: Eye in the Sky--Overpopulation. (n.d.). <i>National Geographic: Eye

in the Sky--Overpopulation</i>. Retrieved May 19, 2014, from

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/overpopulation/effect.html

In 8000 B.C. the population was only 5 million people, roughly the same as the population of

today’s Papua New Guinea. Today we have to feed, house and cloth over 6 billion people.

Unsustainable logging, poor farming practices, and overfishing are all things that threatened the

human race. In the past industrialized countries have done their fair share of polluting but today

most problems occur in developing countries or Third World countries. Third World countries

also happen to be the areas with the greatest population. Population increases have slowed or

stopped even in Europe, North America, and Japan according to the United Nations. Global

population continues to increase in mostly sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South and Western

Asia at a rate of 78 million people per year.

Human population explosion. (2014, February 26). <i>Human population explosion</i>.

Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/153596/

By 2013 7.2 billion people have inhabited the Earth. The large population has greatly affected

out environment. Until modern times the growth of our population was steady and slow. The

average woman currently bears 2.5 live offspring worldwide. In several African nations the

fertility rate still exceeds 7 births per female. The offspring rate varies with locale. The average

human life span grew from 30-40 years in the pre-industrial times to 70 years today. It’s still

about 50 years in Angola and in Northern Europe and Japan it exceeds 80 years. Life span has

been affected in parts of Africa due to infectious diseases such as HIV-AIDS.

Debunk the Overpopulation Myth. (n.d.). <i>Population Research Institute</i>. Retrieved

May 20, 2014, from http://www.pop.org/projects/debunk-overpopulation-myth

Some people believe that overpopulation is a myth. Some say that the Science behind

overpopulation is outdated and untrue. Although the vast majority of people fear that there are

too many of us, science says that the problem is a demographic collapse, which refers to the

disappearance of human societies along with their support systems.

Morse, A. R., & Mosher, S. W. (n.d.). Debunking the Myth of Overpopulation.

<i>Population Research Institute</i>. Retrieved May 20, 2014, from

http://www.pop.org/content/debunking-myth-overpopulation

According to Anne Roback Morse and Steven W. Mosher, overpopulation is where the number

of people exhausts the resources in a closed environment that can no longer support that

population. Morse uses her office as an example and says that if her office became a closed

environment, where nothing is allowed in or out, her colleagues and herself would obviously

exhaust their resources very quickly but she hasn’t started to eliminate her co-workers to ensure

her own survival. She knows that her office is not a closed environment and neither are crowded

cities or poor countries.

Hopkins, J. (n.d.). Overpopulation: The Human Population Crisis. <i>Overpopulation:

The Human Population Crisis</i>. Retrieved May 20, 2014, from

http://www.cosmosmith.com/human_population_crisis.htm

Exponential growth also applies to human population. It starts to grow slowly but the growth rate

will continue to increase rapidly over generations. Like a snowball affect. It took thousands of

years for the population to reach 1 billion in 1804. It took only 123 years for us to reach 2 billion

in 1927. Only 47 years later did the population hit 4 billion in 1974. If the population continues

to grow at this rate by 2028 the human race will probably be 8 billion. Doubling from 7 billion,

our current population, to 14 billion will have a much greater impact than our last few doublings

combined. Hopkins states that the focus of overpopulation is on third world countries. Americans

only occupy 5% of the world’s total population but use 26% of the world energy.

Katz, J. (2011, November 20). The problem of overpopulation and how we can work to

solve it. <i>Daily Sundial</i>. Retrieved May 20, 2014, from

http://sundial.csun.edu/2011/11/the-problem-of-overpopulation-and-how-we-can-work-to-

solve-it/

Although the world may not feel it, the population is increasing rapidly. Is the cause of world

hunger and water shortages over population or just the case of a poor nation? According to Nat

Geo the places with the highest population and fastest population growth have limited resources.

In 2011 the Nation Geographic’s website said that ‘Nearly three-fifths of the 4.8 billion people in

developing countries lack basic sanitation, almost a third have no access to clean water, a quarter

lack adequate housing, and a fifth lack access to modern health services’.

Hoffman, D. (2010, May 28). History. : Overpopulation in China and India. Retrieved May

25, 2014, from http://dillhoff8.blogspot.com/2010/05/overpopulation-in-china-and-

india.html

Overpopulation, a condition where and organism’s numbers exceeds the carrying capacity of that

habitat, just happened to be a huge problem not only in third world countries, but everywhere.

Overpopulation causes not only environmental problems but also problems for that country. Two

examples of countries that go through this are India and China. China homes nearly 1.25 billion

people and are adding about 12 to 13 million people each year. India is close behind with 1.15

billion people.

Article. (n.d.). <i>The 65 Years and Over Population: 2000</i>. Retrieved May 21, 2014,

from http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/people/a_age65pop.html

In 2000 people 65 years old and over were counted in the United States. It was a total of 35

million people. That’s a 12% percent increase from the 31.2 million elders were counted in 1990.

Although the population of elders increased from 1990 to 2000, their part of the total population

decreased from 12.6% in 1990 to 12.4% in 2000. The 65 years and older population grew much

slower than the world population and those among those 85 years of age and up showed the

highest percentage increase.

World Population Clock: 7 Billion People (2014) - Worldometers. (n.d.). <i>World

Population Clock: 7 Billion People (2014) - Worldometers</i>. Retrieved May 23, 2014,

from http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

From this source I got the statics of people dying, being born, the population growth yearly and

daily, and the current world population. The site also showed the highest ranking countries

population. They showed me a number of table and graph representations and world population

by region.