Mercedes Zuniga Essays (1873 words) - Demography, Population

Mercedes Zuniga Professor Norton English 1C March 23, 2017 Overpopula tion Is overpopulation a serious problem? This question seems to be asked quite frequently lately. O ut of all the issues that effects our world on a daily basis, it is shown that overpopulation is one , if not, is our biggest issue in our environment that is only getting worse due time, e specially due to the rapid growth of the human population and the limited resources that are left on earth. In the last two centuries, population has skyrocketed. In 1800 the world population was only at one billion, and today it's estimated that the world population ex ceeds six billion people. It is made clear that w ith overpopulation, many problems have arisen. Some believe that overpopulation is the reason for world hunger, global population will reach crisis proportions by 2050, and some believe that overpopulation will bring the extincti on of the human race. Overpopulation is a real significant reason why today's current environmental status is in such critical condition. Even Dr. Charles A. Hall, who is a systems ecologist, states that, "Overpopulation is the only problem, if we had 100 million people on Earth or better yet 10 million, no others would be a problem." Which helps prove that overpopulation is a major issue that we must act upon if we want to save our world. More people on earth equals to fewer resources to be left which is a contributor to creating waste in our environment. For example, to breakdown some statistics, a child that is born right now in the United States will at least create about 52 tons of garbage and will consume about 11 million gallons of water by the time the baby wil l reach the age of 75 years old ("World Overpopulation Awareness", 1998) . Though think that is only taking into consideration of only garbage and water, and not even going into depth about other aspect such as food or energy this baby will eat or use in its life time. One can only imagine just how much more resources will be consumed and needed to be used by just a single individual, within an average life span. Because of this, a lot of the natural resources that the world population is using up at this moment, will eventually run out from the earth and will never return if we continue to use them at the rapid rate that we are current ly using the worlds natural resources at now. Many of these resources are key components to survival, though if we do not pace ourselves and choose to continue to rapidly use up all the resources, then we are not going to see positive results and might have to take extreme precautions since we would be hurting ourselves more than we would be benefiting ourselves. Conserving, and using our resources little by little is one out of a few ways that would hopefully benefit our futures greatly and for the better. There are a few solutions to this overpopulation issue, though they seem a tad bleak due to the fact that our population is growing at a ridiculous rate, and the odds to slowing down the growth rate do not seem probable. Currently, our world population is said to be estimated to about 6.765 billion people and due to the many causes of overpopulation, that number is expected to increase to 8.9 billion people living on earth by 2050. Also, statistics from (http://www.overpopulation.org/faq.html) state that "if the number of births per year continues to be constant, the current population would eventually peak a population of 296 billion human beings on earth in the matter of just 150 years." Dr. Susan Seneca h , who teaches the history of the American environmental movement, states, "But, whether developed or developing, everyone is encouraged to want' and perceive that they need' to consume beyond the planet's ability to provide." Which a very true statement basically sa ying that no matter if our world is good on a certain recourse or low on a certain resource, everyone on earth has the free will to obtain as much of that resource as they desire. Even