Overpopulation

Overpopulation. This issue effectively causes the majority of the issues that currently plague the earth, such as pollution and global warming/climate change. While it is commonly assumed upon contemplating this that the only solution would bring harm to society, this is not true, and solutions need to be formed by the world’s governments to solve said problem without harming anyone. “In the long term, we must begin a global conversation about how many people should live on planet Earth. This conversation will be difficult but it is necessary,” says Joel Levine, who received his PhD in Neural Sciences and studies in many other related fields.

“Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth”, wrote Rinkesh Kukreja, environmentalist and founder of Conserve Energy Future. When the birth rate exceeds the death rate, a given population will increase. Nature has many ways of regulating this as to ensure a population will not increase too drastically, because the existence of too many of one population causes problems. We, as humans, have broken this system.

Modern medicine, research into longevity, the exponentially growing birth rate, and the simple truth that we are the very top of the food chain makes nature's system of regulation irrelevant to our population, according to the information provided by MPHOnline in “The Effect Of Overpopulation On Public Health”. More humans are being born than are dying, and there are too many of us due to this. So many, arguably the entirety of issues that currently plague the earth and that will soon do so are caused by the sheer number of people on earth, and no one talks about it.

Issues that everyone talk about such as pollution, global warming/climate change, lack of food and water, lack of fossil fuels, poverty, and essentially any other issue you can think of have causes rooted in overpopulation. For example, it is easy to understand how pollution is caused by the drastic amount of people disposing of waste. How global warming/climate change is caused by so many people driving cars and being supplied from factories that emit mass amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. How a lacking of fossil fuels is caused by the fact that we use them up. How there isn't enough resources to go around. How when there are more people than there are jobs people fall into poverty. Any issue that comes to mind while you are reading this, I can say with almost certainty is directly connected to overpopulation.

Some places such as china and India have made strides in dealing with this issue, as they set restrictions on the number of children that are allowed to a family. While this is not a solution, it helps contain the impending growth of the population.

Overpopulation is seldom contemplated, due to the assumption made by people that a chosen decision to eradicate this problem would involve killing a majority of people, making this topic quite controversial. The world’s governments need to congregate and develop a solution to this problem, as if it is not dealt with impendingly, further destruction to the world and our population is inevitable.

Works Cited

“Overpopulation: Causes, Effects and Solutions.” Conserve Energy Future, 12 Apr. 2017, www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-of-overpopulation.php.

Levine, Joel. “Opinion: Overpopulation an Existential Threat.” Newsday, Newsday, 26 Oct. 2018, www.newsday.com/opinion/commentary/overpopulation-is-an-existential-threat-to-humanity-1.22481029.

“The Effect of Overpopulation on Public Health.” MPH Online, www.mphonline.org/overpopulation-public-health/.

Kinhal, Vijayalaxmi. “List of 30 Top Environmental Concerns.” LoveToKnow, LoveToKnow Corp.

https://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Top_30_Environmental_Concerns.

“Human Population: Lesson Plans.” Population Reference Bureau, www.prb.org/humanpopulation/.