overpopulation

The population is growing and at an alarming rate, but this rate only became

exponential in the 20th century due to the industrial boom. In this passage

the effects of overpopulation will be discussed, some of which are already

being observed today. And lastly, some possible solutions to counter act

overpopulation will be explored as well.

The Effects & Causes

of Overpopulation

Introduction

Is it just me or is it awfully crowed in here? Well not really… especially if you look at other places like

India, Iraq, or China. Let me ask you another question; who hates traffic. Let’s not kid ourselves,

everyone hates traffic. At one point in America people could drive for miles without seeing another car.

Fun fact, the state of Montana for the longest time didn’t have an official speed limit for its highways,

there wasn’t a need for speed limits, especially if you were the only one on the road. Of course they

have a speed limit now (it’s 80mph), that was only put into place about a decade ago. Only instated

when a driver was pulled over after going a whopping 135mph! Before I go on to discuss the causes &

effects of overpopulation I think it’s imperative that I state why this issue is the biggest issue facing

modern mankind. If you still feel it’s not important to you, by all means don’t listen to me. If you drive a

petrol powered car this speech is significant to you. If you are antiwar, care about the rainforests, are

against GMOs, are for GMOs, if you enjoy not living in a crowed city, eating, or even breathing. If you fall

under any of those categories I promise you this speech more relevant to you than you’d ever imagine.

Thesis

Dan Brown once famously said, “Futurists don’t consider overpopulation one of the issues of the future.

They consider it thee issue of the future.” I personally believe that all of the major world issues such as:

world hunger, poverty, pollution, deforestation, war over resources, and many more can all be wiped

out if we can overcome overpopulation.

Credibility

Believe me for when I say overpopulation is connected to more world issues than you’d believe. Allow

me to give you a brief background on my relevant studies. Growing up in the city of Philadelphia for the

first nine years of my life, I know what an overcrowded situation is, to say the least. Once my dad got a

job near the state’s capitol (Harrisburg) in a small rural county known as Lebanon County, I was

introduced to an entire new environment. I grew up surrounded by mountains, farms, and forests on all

sides of me; for the first time I got to experience the beauty of nature and I fell in love with it. I would go

on hikes, go fishing, and I even went hunting once; I loved the outdoors but I didn’t really know or

understand the science behind it. My first year of high school I was an amateur environmentalist, I

participated in my first peaceful protest, and I joined an ecology club. The club was perfect for me; I was

surrounded by people that I shared a passion with. In high school my grades for math & reading were

good but my grades for the sciences were always great. My senior year I was privileged to compete in

the Environthon and our squad got 1st place in the county! By my junior year I had already start putting

the pieces together and by the first semester I completed my first two-page essay on overpopulation.

And ever since I have been keeping up to date in scientific journals for issues related to overpopulation. I

knew that I wanted to study Environmental Science in College since I was fourteen. But after seeing for

the first time how interconnected overpopulation is to every issue, I realized that this issue isn’t going

solve itself. But if I or anyone were to solve this there would need to be a deep understanding of the

causes and effects. In March of 2014 I focused my studies on overpopulation, studying every aspect of it.

At Lake Erie College not only am I majoring in Environmental Science, but also in Biology. I chose that

route to give myself a broader perspective of what’s truly going on. Population science involves many

fields of study, such as environmental science, ecology, biology, and even political science. If I could give

any advice for studying this topic I would suggest to broaden your domain before you get into the

specifics. This topic is very extensive and is not simple, to effectively comprehend overpopulation, you

have to be a jack of all trades.

Preview

But enough about me let’s discuss the real issue. By the end of this speech my goal is for all of you to

have a better understanding of “why overpopulation is occurring”, the scientific & social factors, the

effects, and lastly… Possible solutions. First, we’ll address where it all begins.

Transition

Modern man first appeared in the fossil records 200,000 years ago, in 1850 the world

population reached one billion. That means it took the entire existence of mankind up until 1850 to

reach its first one billion. Less than one hundred years later the world population reached two billion in

1930, and it reached three billion in 1960, now the population adds a billion every 10 (± 1) years and as

of 2011 the population reached seven billion. Humans are a biological success, Humans are multiplying

and have colonized the globe. The world’s population adds another 220,000 people to it every day, the

world’s population increases annually by 1%. One percent of seven billion is quite significant, to put

things into perspective Bangladesh once suffered from one of the world’s most devastating hurricane

ever, and it wiped out 139,000 people. In only two weeks Bangladesh’s population had already

multiplied & replaced the casualties. The growth rate humans are experiencing is exponential and the

world can obviously not support an infinite population.

The Why

Why is the population experiencing exponential growth? What caused the population to explode in the

20th century? The population of the planet is predicted to reach either nine or ten billion people in 2050

at the rate at which it’s growing, but the question is will the population even make it that far before

dropping? Many population scientists believe we already reached the tipping point and we will face the

consequences in years to come. It’s odd to think this, but the population is currently seven and a half

billion but eighty years ago the population was only 2 billion.

Biological Factors

Every animal abides by the laws of population, humans are no exception and the human population is a

great example. There are two types of growth curves any given population will exercise, the first growth

curve is when a population has minor fluctuations between being over the carrying capacity and being

under the carrying capacity. The carrying capacity is the population any given habitat can sustain; the

limiting factors are the amount of recourses in that habitat, disease, and predators. This is known as the

S – curve. The second curve is the J curve; any population with this trend is doomed to fail. A J – Curve is

represented by exponential growth. Unlike S – Curves they don’t have limiting factors such as predators

& disease, nevertheless the resources are still limited. Invasive species usually follow this trend and can

cause problems for the native species; when there aren’t any predators to keep the populations in

balance the populations will exponentially grow until they deplete their habitat of its resources, which in

return will result in that population to quickly die off and ultimately lead to extinction in that particular

region. Humans are following a J – Curve growth rate and scientists can do nothing but watch and fear

the inevitable. Without limiting factors; disease and resource depletion become more likely. Every

population is hardwired to divide and multiply, from a biological perspective every organism’s main

purpose is to reproduce and to pass on their DNA.

Environmental & Social Factors

Why did the world population begin to explode in the 19th century? Every nation goes through what

population statisticians call the five stages to becoming developed. Prior to the 19th century it was ideal

for mothers to have many children, this practice was even incorporated into many religions and cultures

such as Catholicism and Hinduism. This is because there was a high mortality rate, in fact many women

often died during contraception and most infants died before they reached the age of two, the magic

number was five because if a baby would make it to the age of five its chances of survival went up

dramatically. People also didn’t live as long back then, back then being forty is like being eighty today.

Families had to have high birth rates just to maintain the population. Infant mortality was so high that in

places like India it was seen as a sign from the deities, if a family had many children that made it to

adolescences. Here’s where the problem begins; the problem is actually an easy math problem. Every

developed nation has gone through the stages so their history would be a great example to refer to.

When medicine and safer practices such as removing led from drinking water, boiling drinking water,

cleaning cuts, and etc. are practiced and technology allows farmers to become more productive and

create more food (resources) the mortality rate will drop significantly. This represents the second and

third stage; essentially whenever factors cause the death rate to drop. The problem however is that due

to custom, tradition, and culture families are still having high birth rates. This is why every developed

nation that went through this stage experienced an exponential growth rate. During this time period

they had low mortality rates and yet they still had high birth rates. Developing nations are currently

suffering from this phenomenon. It’s not until the fourth and fifth stage that nations stabilize their

population through education; it’s proven that the best way to control a population is not to pass one

child laws but to give women equal rights, opportunities, and an education. With more education

families are living longer, and on average have two child families, one child families, and even no child

families. Japan is an example of the extreme. Most of Japan’s population is above the age of 45 this is

because the current generations aren’t having as many kids and most families are waiting until the age

of 30. Women in Japan on average are more empowered than women of other countries, especially the

countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia where the women are forced to conceive even if

bearing a child is potentially fatal to that individual. Developing nations that are going through the third

stage are the main reason the world population is exploding. They may not appear to be as

technologically advanced as developed nations of the west like Sweden and the United States, but they

do have enough technology to be more efficient in farming than the best farmers 50 years ago and they

have the same “basic” medical access as the rest of the world. The only thing lacking is the education

and sometimes it’s not even the lack of education it’s the ancient customs that many generations before

them have been practicing. Many scholars feel that these ancient customs and religions are the anchor

holding them back from achieving progress. One practice is having many children, in India it is seen as

good fortune to have many children, some educated women in India are breaking the trend and seeing

that in reality it’s good fortune not to have many kids. For that having many kids will almost

undoubtedly force the family into poverty. Most women in India and other developing nations do not

have the privilege to choose how many kids they are to have, because they are treated like second class

citizens. The amount of children a family will have is almost always decided by the husband. For families

in central Africa, custom and tradition plays a key role for their populations exploding, and lack of

contraception. The population is growing the most rapid in Asia not Africa, this is because Africa

currently has a high death rate due to constant child war, genocide, and diseases like HIV and malaria.

These factors are acting as population limiters but they’re still not significant enough to stabilize the

population. In developing countries all of their economic and environmental problems are linked to the

fact that most of their population is under 30 and uneducated, when a majority of the population is in

the reproductive age range the population will increase. Opposed to developed nations where most of

the population is past the child bearing age. Ideally the population would be at a perfect balance if

developing nations would have families of 2.1 children, the 0.1 to compensate for infant mortality.

Economic Factors

An economy by definition: is the quest to satisfy unlimited wants with limited resources, which is why

many nations including the economy of the United States requires a growing population to create more

jobs and to expand. However, the United States is a developed country. So shouldn’t the population be

declining or at least be stable? The answer is that the population essentially is stable, the growth rate of

the United States is miniscule and the only reason the population isn’t declining is due to immigration.

So the U.S. owes its growing economy essentially to immigrants. Capitalism is greed and greed is a part

of human nature, so this calls for the population to be growing. However in countries like Japan, Italy,

and Germany the populations are declining and in return so is the economy. This is because any

declining population is a population with a majority of the population over the child-bearing ages.

People from the ages 17-40 are prime for an economy’s growth because at that age they are most

productive and are producing goods for the market. People over the age 60 are generally drains on the

economy and are actually taking more from the economy than they are putting in it; countries that have

elderly care are good examples. Every senior citizen that requires elderly care is one more producer at

his prime providing services; internal services do not produce any value that can be sold on the global

market. Countries that are developing have growing economies, however most are constricted to

exporting natural resources such as precious metals, diamonds, and oil. Mining for these resources can

put stress on the people and the environment ultimately leading to shorter lives. Their agriculture is

usually lacking as well for that most of the farming is for cash crops. The local farmers cannot compete

with America’s cheap exported foods.

Germany took advantage of this situation; Syria has been through a drought for over two years

and has been plagued with war for even longer. As an effect, millions of Syrian refugees fled to Europe,

some countries were opposed to accepting any of them for political reasons. Not Germany, they saw an

economic opportunity, in fact not a single German political-party opposed accepting Syrian refuges.

Germany was suffering from a declining population and economy; they figured that accepting refugees

would aid their economy. The young men and children will add to the economy by getting trained in

jobs, work, and become producers. The elderly and women that are not accustomed to working will

contribute by becoming new consumers. Germany has accepted more refugees than any other country;

they have taken in over one million Syrian refugees.

The Disproportion

Some people when confronted with this overpopulation occurrence will suggest that people of

developing nations need to have fewer children, but they believe that American families should still

have just as many kids. But here’s the problem; every child born here in America is more consumptive

than the next 30 children in developing nations. Overpopulation isn’t always about how many people

there are it’s more or less about how much recourses there are and the rate that they’re being

consumed. An American will use thirty times the amount of water than a child in Africa. Americans use

more resources, energy, fossil fuels, and meat than any other country on the planet. America consists of

5% of the world’s population but uses over 20% of the world’s resources. Fifteen percent of the world

population are in developed nations yet Developed nations control anywhere from 90-95% of the

world’s economy. So yes most of the population growth is in developing nations but most of the

resources that are being used are in developed nations, this is a conundrum and quite a mess.

The Effects

Aside from booming economies, overpopulation does not present any benefits to the planet. Experts say

the more the population grows the more stress is being put on the planet and natural habitats to sustain

it. If everyone in the world were to purchase a new car every two years the way most Americans do, we

would run out of resources. Americans on average waste 40% of all food that is produced and if every

other country would do same there would have to be six more Earths to sustain the world population.

Americans also eat more meat than the rest of the world and the domesticated animals that they use

are not adapted to the food that they are grazing, instead of raising native animals like deer that are

adapted to the native plant species. Cows did not evolve in America so the grass and corn that they are

fed are not efficient and for every 10 kilograms of feed they’re given they will produce 9 kilograms of

waste. Highly inefficient farming practices are putting strains on the environment along with

overpopulation. The more people that are on this planet, the more resources will be needed to sustain

them this will cause for loss of natural habitats. Deforestation can occur and is occurring in Brazil; to

deal with the fast growing population, sections of the rainforest are clear cut to be farmed. But the

jungles have poor soil because most of the nutrients were locked away in the trees they just cut &

removed. The result is always the same; the farm will last for five years or until it’s depleted of all the

nutrients in the soil to grow anything and then they will move to the next section of forest and repeat.

Forests are also logged for their lumber, lumber acts as a raw material in constructing homes for people

to live in. Obviously a decreasing population will decrease the need to log for lumber for homes. Cars

and other technology require metals, to obtain these metals strip mines are often the answer. Mining

can be devastating to the environment because of its cruel nature. Strip mining is literally taking a

mountain top off a mountain. An immediate consequence is runoff from the rain often poisons the

nearby bodies of water. The rate of species that are becoming extinct directly correlates with human

population growth. Fossil fuels and precious metals are being consumed at a fast rate that is ever so

increasing, landfills are also becoming big problems. Some resources can be recycled and some food

waste can be composted but even then over 66% isn’t being recycled. This is just leading to the

inevitable and the planet’s downfall, eventually we will run out of resources; that is a fact… we cannot

continue at this rate. The question is what will reduce our population first; war over the dwindling

resources; lack of clean air due to pollution & deforestation, famine, disease, or all of the above? All of

those environmental issues are linked to overpopulation. So what’s our solution?

The Solution

I believe that the biggest issue facing the world today is overpopulation and all of the problems that

come with it. Scientists can individually battle the issues that come with it but it would simply be

delaying the inevitable. All of the world problems, at least from my perspective can be linked to

overpopulation.

Technology

It was technology that pushed the survival rate of infants up, ultimately lowering the death rate, and

increasing the average life expectancy. If people are living longer and infant mortality rates are

exponentially decreasing, then the population is going to go up unless either the death rate increases or

the birth rate decreases. A stable population is one with a high death rate and a high birth rate or one

with a low death rate and a low birth rate. Regardless it must be balanced, any other way and the

population will either decline or increase. But maybe the population can continue to grow; maybe

technology will continue to make farms more efficient? One problem with over population is lack of

living space for that the amount of space that is habitable for humans is limited. But there is still plenty

of space left and most of which is still untouched, perhaps this won’t be the answer if the population

reaches ten billion, then what? In dense cities like Shanghai there are huge skyscrapers that are fully

committed to housing people. Some can hold over 2,500 people, so technology can increase available

living, however there is a limit and with an exponential growth rate surely that limit will be reached.

Food

There are many in the world that are malnutritioned and malnourished, which means some people are

not getting their required daily supply of nutrients and others are simply not consuming enough calories.

It’s estimated that approximately 15% of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking

water. With numbers like that it’s hard to imagine how the planet could successfully sustain another

three billion people. Nonetheless some of the greatest inventions ever invented were came in a time of

need, adversity sparks innovation. The atomic bomb was created because it was needed (yeah the bomb

is a devastating world altering device, but from a scientific perspective it was a break through, for the

first time humans successfully split an atom; the simplest and smallest observable unit.). Some could

make the argument that the need for more efficient crops and domesticated animals could spark for just

that. And actually technological advances have been in place since the 1980s. Scientists have been

modifying crops to become pesticide resistant and for domesticated animals to become bigger, these

organisms are genetically modified and are abbreviated “GMOs” and to be quite honest, without them

there is no way we can sustain the Earth’s current population. They are so popular and efficient that

over 95% of all farmers use them because the farmers that aren’t using them simply cannot compete.

They’re so popular that the average grocery store is loaded with them and approximately 96% of its

foods are genetically modified or contain genetically modified substances. However this like before has a

limit and comes down to the fact that Earth and its resources are finite, meaning that they are limited.

All of these technological advances are merely giving off a false illusion of security, but eventually no

matter how advance the technology is the carrying capacity will be reached, resources will be scarce and

people will die. However, if a solution isn’t reached by then there would inevitably be a war over the

scarce resources, nationalism will kick in, “us against them” mentality will kick in, it’s human nature.

GMOs vs. World Hunger

In most cases picking sides isn’t so black and white, but for a choice such as GMOs and world hunger the

choice is so simple. The science has verified GMOs to be harmless for consumption and world hunger is

obviously a bad thing regardless. The only reason there’s any controversy with GMOs is because most of

the people that oppose it, don’t understand what they’re opposing. Most people do not know that

GMOs are genetically modified organisms, which is perfectly fine. But it’s not fine to then spread false

bashful rhetoric about GMOs. Some people do know what GMO stands for but they still do not

comprehend what a genetically modified organism is. When they hear GMO they immediately picture

meat made in a factory and that is simply not the case. In reality humans have been genetically altering

animals and plants for about 10,000 years. The very existence of domesticated animals such as the cow,

pig, chicken, horse, etc. prove the premise to be correct. Corn, wheat, oranges, potatoes, and bananas

do not occur in nature, these plants exist as alterations or hybrids of their wild ancestors. Our ancestors

were selectively breeding the plants with the most desirable traits for many generations until they had

an organism that can feed their village. They bred the tamest of animals until they were domesticated

and then they took it another step forward by breeding the biggest cows; breeding the chickens that laid

the most eggs; breeding the fastest and strongest horses. Nothing has changed, back then they saw

traits in individuals that they liked and they would breed to capitalize that trait. But often that trait was

associated with many other traits that weren’t always desirable, so perfect breeds would take many

generations to acquire. In modern times we understand how traits are linked to genes and the genes are

decided by the alleles. Now instead of breeding for tens of generations we can isolate certain traits and

behaviors on an allele and insert it into a gene of a zygote. What’s a zygote; a diploid cell resulting from

the fusion of two haploid gametes. Basically, a fertilized egg. Scientists estimate that without use of

modern GMOs the world couldn’t sustain a human population over 4.5 billion. The existence of GMOs

isn’t even optional; world hunger and starvation is a crisis now imagine how bad it would be if three

billion people didn’t have any food to eat… If every square inch of forest, savannah, and grassland would

be converted to farmland to try to feed everyone it still wouldn’t be enough without GMOs. So next

time you hear someone call GMOs bad remind them that three billion people shouldn’t have to starve to

death just because that person is ignorant. (Qui Gon Jinn) once said, “The ability to speak does not make

one intelligent”

And if they’re eating seedless grapes while disliking GMOs, you have permission to laugh at them. The

term fruit by definition is any structure produced from a plant that contains, acorns are fruits, the fluffy

structures dandelions produce are fruits, so yes natural grapes have seeds in them!

Politics & Education

For some countries it’s imperative for people to have smaller families, however this often collides with

culture. Even in America overpopulation isn’t discussed as much as it needs to be, relatively speaking,

it’s in the closet because people do not want to think of a controlling government. A world where the

government mandates how many children a family can have. However, this practice is already being

implemented in China, many people are initially frightened when they hear of this and commonly use

this as criticism towards China. Population experts have different views they feel that it was the right

move in order to combat China’s fast growing population. When China first implemented this law they

knew that if they didn’t the country would face huge challenges such as famine, disease, and even now

they have trouble dealing with all of the waste that is generated. The people of China are content and

instead of fighting the issue they accepted the truth for what it is.

Other experts disagree and do not believe government policies will fix the issue. They look at

countries like Japan as a prime example. Japan went through a revolution in the 1980s as they became

extremely western, some say they became more western than some of the western countries at the

time. One key effect of becoming western was the empowerment of women, women were no longer

content to be stay at home moms and depend on their husband for income. And in the 1990s Japan

went through a minor recession, not because of a Godzilla attack but because of a NATO trade deal.

Most households had to have two sources of income to meet ends meet, this in return started an

empowerment trend that’s been waging strong ever since. Women in Japan became more competitive

in the work force and with a shrinking economy many felt that if they would slow down to carry a baby;

they would be taken out of the race to be at the top of the career ladder. The exact opposite holds true

in countries like India, Bangladesh, and plenty of third world countries that have oppressive practices

towards women. In countries like India women are forced to have children even if giving birth to a child

is fatal, husbands are depicted by being rather selfish and irrational by asking for many children even if

their family cannot sustain a family of such size. Women are often beaten and even burned if they are

unable to conceive a child or give birth to a boy. Women essentially have no say on how many kids they

want to have if they want any. These third world countries are trapped in the past by their cultures and

religions. They ask for large families in order to spread and multiply their religion’s base and also to

ensure the family name will live on. These ancient practices were designed in a time of high death rates

so naturally their culture asks for a high birth rate. Times have changed yet their cultures have not, and

as a result our planet is facing a constant threat of overpopulation. Developed nations by definition are

better educated, and because of their education they have smaller families, the only way to fix this

problem is to spread knowledge and educate future generations.

Conclusion

Ancient practices called for large scale procreation in order to ensure the survival of the human race.

Now the only way to save our species is to drastically reduce procreation. The higher the world

population is the higher amounts of stress people will be putting on the natural environments, and the

more people will die due to lack of resources. The people that are dying due to lack of nutrition and

clean drinking water are not dying because there is not enough food. They’re dying because the

distribution is terrible. About the same number of people die every year due to an eating condition. On

one side it’s obesity and on the other side it’s starvation; there shouldn’t be people dying of too much

food and people dying of not enough food. Most experts & myself agree a good world population is two

billion. Two billion would be the perfect number for everyone to live comfortable lives. When

confronted with this number many would think “you’re crazy”. The current population is 7.5 billion. This

isn’t too crazy when you think about it, the world population was only two – billion 80 years ago.

Reducing and maintaining the world population is the only ethical thing our race can do. Needless to say

that it would take multiple generations to successfully reduce the world population, through means such

as; contraception & education with the goal of reducing the average family size.

“Futurists don’t consider overpopulation one of the issues of the future. They consider

it the issue of the future.” – (Dan Brown)