No, I do not think that the nightmare scenarios of the demographers are exaggerated. The population of our world has almost quadrupled in the last century and it has been estimated that within twenty years it will increase by another billion. Another concern for the demographers is that while in certain developing nations the rate of population growth has been increasing, in the developed countries it has been found to be declining steadily. Demographers are worried that this variation in the fertility rates may lead to agitations, destabilization and poverty in certain areas, which further justifies their concern. They also feel that an increase in education, development in contraception and modernization will help to lower the present fertility rates so that population is stabilized. I also think that their concern is justified since even a small change in the fertility rates could affect our population in billions causing even more social and economic mayhem.
The scramble for available resources may lead to economic and social instability and conflicts. Our increasing population will certainly put a massive pressure over our global environment and will also affect our water, food and power supplies. This can result in economic and social instabilities causing conflicts over available resources. Our population has almost reached 7 billion. This is expected to grow over the next years. Thus, with so many people the availability of resources will be affected with everyone trying to obtain resources for themselves. This will result in mayhem causing social unrest. If the current economy is, unable to support such a huge population it will become unstable and collapse creating conflicts among all for resources.
It is my opinion that we can control and even reduce our growing population rate but have to do it in a natural and respectful manner promoting the human rights of the people. The best way to do this is to educate the people, especially the women and girls of developing countries so that they understand the effects of overpopulation. I also think that the media could help in educating the people by providing them with options and information that make them aware of ways to conduct family planning for their better future. The policy makers at various levels need to pay proper attention in order to stabilize our population, as their decision will affect the future generations well being and quality of life. Population needs to be controlled only to a certain level and we should to it that the rates do not fall below the replacement rate of fertility.
The Chinese opted for the One-Child policy to control its population explosion in the last century. However, over time it has been found that this policy created a number of financial problems and an imbalance in their population growth. Thus, it is my opinion that due to its long term side effects the policy may not have been totally right. When the policy was implemented, there were many infanticides and forced abortions since most people wanted a boy child who was more valued than the girls were. Although the birth rates were controlled, the male births outnumbered that of the females. Today there are more men and fewer women in China. Thus, they are facing a decline in their workforce and this is making the policy a threat for their society.
Globalization is a process when the integration of economies and societies increases worldwide. As a result, the world becomes more interconnected due to the exchange of goods and products, information, knowledge, and cultural values. On the one hand, globalization has many positive aspects: the mutual enrichment of the world community, the exchange of best practices, and the availability of goods. On the other hand, globalization has negative effects: a growing social and economic gap in the population, lack of climate justice, and overpopulation.
The Importance of the Issue
The problems of globalization can negatively affect everyones life, so it is important to identify and stop them. Growing social and economic inequality contributes to the growth of poverty and the concentration of wealth in a small part of the population. Without climate justice, it is impossible to achieve understanding in the global community, without which the fight against climate change is impossible. The overpopulation problem leads to a deterioration in the quality of life of both people in overpopulated areas and less populated areas.
The Research Question
The main research question is how to overcome the negative aspects of globalization and take only the sides of this process that are beneficial for all humanity. Despite the positive aspects and the need for globalization, the negative aspects cannot be overlooked. The world community should consider reducing the negative aspects of the globalization process as its main agenda. The process of globalization cannot be stopped, so it is important to pay attention to the growing negative issues.
The Possible Answer
The process of globalization needs to be made more inclusive and gentle, focused on improving peoples lives. First of all, it is necessary to provide people with the opportunity to take advantage of rapid digitalization and technological changes, regardless of social status. Government involvement is required to develop a wide range of structural policies to achieve this goal. They should include social protection of the population, increased investment in education, and infrastructure development. For the struggle for climate justice to be successful, it is necessary to raise awareness of radical climate change among all global community members. This includes educational lectures, posters, dissemination of information on the network. Increasing personal awareness and responsibility will lead to the cooperation of people and states in the fight against climate change.
Strategies to combat overpopulation may include womens empowerment, government promotion of family planning, and enhancing the prestige and quality of educational programs. Increasing access to education and work for women will help prevent early pregnancies. Informing about the need for competent family planning at the state level contributes to a more conscious approach of the population to the issue of childbearing. Finally, increasing the prestige, accessibility, and quality of education will improve the general level of awareness of the population, which will be able to plan the creation of a family.
The Target Audience
This study will be important for both sociologists and ordinary people. Since the negative consequences of globalization affect the entire world community, they also affect every individual. The search for a solution to the problem of the negative impact of globalization will be interesting, including at the state level, since it can offer possible solutions that have not been taken into account. Finally, the study will serve as an important part of raising public awareness of global issues. This is especially important because only collectively people can find and apply suitable solutions.
Overpopulation is a highly unfavorable condition characterized by the total number of people on Earth exceeding its carrying capacity. Overpopulation is caused by positive changes in peoples welfare: better health care, higher life expectancy, reduced rates of mortality, etc. Technological advances improving the quality of life and increasing lifespan lead to the unceasing population growth. As a result, even wars, natural disasters, and man-made threats are unable to balance birth rates (Pimentel, 2006).
The essay at hand is going to analyze the existing problem investigating its causes and effects. The primary objective is to highlight the deplorable consequences of overpopulation and thereby persuade people not to overpopulate. Possible solutions will also be suggested.
Causes of Overpopulation
Reduced death rates. Overpopulation appears when births outnumber deaths. Currently, there are many factors that may increase death rates for a short period of time such as wars or natural calamities. However, the above-mentioned positive factors increasing the number of births are more influential and sustainable (Pimentel, 2006).
Better health care. Discoveries in medicine help people struggle successfully against a whole range of diseases that were previously considered terminal (Jargin, 2009).
Need for bigger families to overcome poverty. In the past, poor people gave birth to a lot of children to make up for high mortality rates among babies. Besides, such families always needed working hands. Nowadays, most children survive creating overpopulation (Pimentel, 2006).
Fertility treatment. It is now possible for partners who are unable to conceive to have a baby after they undergo fertility treatment. Besides, the course of pregnancy is much safer due to technological advances in the field (Pimentel, 2006).
Immigration. People from developing countries often opt to move to areas more comfortable for living. Although the overall population of the planet remains unchanged with immigration, it creates overcrowded areas and causes resource shortages (Jargin, 2009).
Neglect of family planning. The population of developing countries is mostly illiterate and is completely unaware of family planning. Besides, people there usually get married at an early age to increase the chances of having more children (Jargin, 2009).
Effects of Overpopulation
Very few people understand how severe the consequences of overpopulation can be. It is not regarded as a big issue even by the world governments, which do not take measures to prevent it (e.g. China has recently abolished the policy restricting the number of children in a family). However, there exist weighty arguments about why people should stop overpopulation. Some of them are (Kuo, 2012):
Depletion of natural resources. The current needs for food and water already go far beyond Earths capacity. People not only consume more than the planet can offer but also do irreparable damage to the environment (which increases proportionally with the population growth). If we do not stop overpopulation, the planet will run a huge risk of total resource depletion. At present, the lack of resources causes acts of violence at the national scale and provokes global conflicts.
Destruction of the environment. Overpopulation implies a greater number of vehicles. Their emissions coupled with industrial wastes pollute the air and kill wildlife. Moreover, they create a greenhouse effect and change climatic patterns. Therefore, continuing overpopulation will lead to another global climatic catastrophe, which may result in the extinction of our species.
Armed conflicts. As has already been mentioned, countries confront one another fighting for resources. Conflicts over water and food lead to starvation.
Poverty. Overpopulation accounts for aggravation of poverty. A lot of people who survive due to the advancement of medicine live in societies that cannot provide enough resources for a large population. It means that the majority of citizens have to stay below the poverty line. Unless the measures against overpopulation are taken, developing countries will have to deal with the enormous gap between the rich and the poor.
Increasing unemployment. A growing population needs jobs to earn a living. Unfortunately, the number of vacancies is limited. Staying without any occupation makes people engage in criminal activities such as stealing or even murder.
High costs of living. Overpopulation exerts a negative influence on the world economy. With more and more babies born every day, the difference between supply and demand becomes huger. Besides, the goods and services produced are not distributed equally: generally, areas that are the most densely populated suffer from the lack of food, clothing, health care, shelter, and basic modern conveniences (leaving alone luxury goods) whereas developed countries encounter the problem of oversaturation. Despite such differences, prices continue to grow everywhere. which means that people are forced to pay more and more to survive. In the long run, unless the problem is solved, huge regions will not be able to afford even basic elements of living.
As it is evident from the analysis, overpopulation deals not only with dissatisfaction caused by having to tolerate more neighbors but rather presents a threat to the whole humanity that will have to encounter wars, poverty, and famine if it fails to find the way out.
Possible Solutions to Overpopulation
No matter how grave the problem might be, there are still measures that can be taken to stop overpopulation. These are (Pencheon, 2012):
Better awareness. Social changes must begin with attempts to increase awareness of the problem. Governments can impose various policies and laws but their effectiveness will directly depend on the attitude of the mass population. People must understand the necessity to have no more than two children.
The right to make a reproductive choice. Women must be able to have an abortion if they decide that they cannot afford to raise a child. Voluntary sterilization should also be allowed as an option.
Promotion of family planning. Since many families simply do not know anything about family planning, it is important to teach them various methods of contraception that make it possible to prevent an undesired pregnancy.
Introduction of family policies, tax benefits, or concessions. Governments may choose between positive and negative reinforcements: they can introduce policies punishing families that have more children than it is allowed with additional taxes or, on the contrary, they can lower the income tax for those who do not have children or have only one child. Financial motivation is usually very strong and makes people reconsider their decisions.
Sex education for children. A lot of parents feel embarrassed to discuss sex-related issues with children, which results in dangerous, unprotected sexual activities and unwanted pregnancies. This can be avoided with proper education in the subject.
Conclusion
Human overpopulation now ranges among the most pressing world problems. Without our awareness, it exacerbates the hidden forces that trigger global warming, deterioration of the environment, extinction of species, air pollution, depletion of natural resources, and other damages happening at speeds that are much faster than our planets capacity for regeneration. It means that if we continue ignoring the problem, sooner or later we may be left without a place to populate.
References
Jargin, S. V. (2009). Overpopulation and modern ethics. SAMJ: South African Medical Journal, 99(8), 572-573.
Kuo, G. (2012). MegaCrisis? Overpopulation Is the Problem. World Future Review, 4(3), 23-32.
Pencheon, D. (2012). People and planet: from vicious cycle to virtuous circle: Overpopulation, poverty, and environmental degradation share common solutions. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 345(7864), 9-23.
Pimentel, D. (2006). Overpopulation and sustainability. Petroleum Review, 59(1), 34-36.
Based on the data presented in Chapters 2 and 3 of the book a grim future for humanity is seen wherein farmlands have turned into deserts, freshwater is nonexistent, the climate is hellish and natural disasters abound as a result of the ill-advised nature of the voracious human exploitation of the planets resources.
Insights gained from the chapters reveal that the main reason behind the problem of resource overconsumption which threatens the very future of the planet is the rampant overpopulation of humanity which threatens to drain the resources of the planet. It is revealed that as the population of humanity grows so to does the strain the human species places on the planet.
This strain can be seen in the increased consumption of water which has drained underground water reservoirs; formerly lush plains turned into arid deserts and the very sky itself filled with CO2 gases as a result of humanitys rampant consumption of fossil fuel-based products and resources.
The impression I got from the book itself is that humanity can be compared to a swarm of locusts, consuming everything indiscriminately in its path and leaving nothing but ruin in its wake.
I say this because if current trends are not changed what will be left will be nothing more than a dry empty shell of a planet with few exploitable resources and nothing more than a hellish environmental scenario for future generations.
As such in order to prevent this future from coming to pass one of first initiatives that should be undertaken is population control since with fewer people utilizing resources the more time humanity has in fixing the problems it started.
The Problem of Overpopulation
The inherent problem with the concept of overpopulation is the fact that the finite resources available on Earth cannot hope to support the potentially infinite expansion of humanity. The Earth itself is a closed-off ecosystem with no resources entering into it, as such its surface can only support a certain population of species, both human and animal alike before the ecosystem inevitably collapses in on itself as a result of a severe strain on the planets natural and ecological resources.
Nature itself has a specific system of prevention in place that prevents populations from growing beyond their means due to the predator and prey dynamic. Humanity, which long ago evolved to be the dominant species on the planet, does not have an imposed system of control placed upon it by natural forces and as a result can expand exponentially due to this apparent freedom. It is this exponential expansion that I believe is at the heart of todays problems involving land, water, and climate change.
While there are initiatives towards conservation and the use of renewable energy resources through energy transition the fact remains that such initiatives will become totally useless in the face of a growing human population that has already exceeded the means by which the Earth can support it.
An Examination of an Inconvenient Truth
In the movie, An Inconvenient Truth , Al Gore presents viewers with the results of human activity on the planet. He shows how storms are getting stronger, droughts are getting longer and dryer and as a result of humanitys unmitigated use of fossil fuel resources the Earth is getting hotter resulting in global climate change which has severe ramifications for the future of humanity.
He explains that it is within the past 70 years that humanitys expansion and consumption has reached a critical point resulting in the slow decline of the planets natural ability to replenish resources. ).
The rapid expansion of the global population following the period of the 1960s resulted in humanity consuming more resources than the planet could replenish resulting in the present-day conditions wherein 6.8 billion people are consuming the equivalent of 1.4 Earths.
This phenomenon described as an ecological overshoot can be seen in the rapid degree of deforestation in various countries around the world, the rampant overpopulation in developing and Third World countries as well as the sheer amount of pollution currently in the planets ecological system.
This has affected weather and climate patterns to such a degree that it has actually caused artificial climate changed resulting in an increasingly warm atmosphere due to the accumulation of pollutants such as C02 in the air as a result of cars and fossil fuel burning power plants. Based on the information presented it can be seen that the current growth of the human population is unsustainable in the long run due to the finite resources on the planet.
As a result, the problems currently facing humanity will only get worse if nothing is done to prevent human overconsumption and ecological abuse from permanently disrupting Earths natural ecosystem. Based on the movie and the earlier statements involving chapter 2 and 3 it can once again be seen that main problem is not really humanitys overconsumption but rather the size of the population that has lead to overconsumption.
The problems that Gore states can never be truly overcome so long as overpopulation persists, If true change is to be established what is needed is to reduce the problem of humanitys burgeoning population which would result in the other problems taking care of themselves over time.
A higher birth rate than the death rate of a species will lead to an increase in the population size of the species. Secondly, immigration into a given habitat at a faster rate than the emigration will also result to an increase in the population of the area.
Immigration is the movement of new species into the habitat from another habitat and this may be influenced by the presence of food and other resources in the new habitat that are unavailable from where the species are emigrating. Another factor that leads to the increase of the population is a reduction in the mortality rate.
When the mortality rate reduces for a particular population, the number of newly born surviving to grow into adulthood rises thus increases the population size (Zavaleta, Hobbs, & Mooney, 2001). Lastly, the total fertility rate of the population influences the rate of change in the population size.
The fertility rate of a given species will depend on the life history characteristics of the species such as the number of reproductive periods in the lifetime of the species and the number of offspring produced at each reproductive period (Berg & Hager, 2009).
In the nutria case, the high fertility rate and life history characteristic of the animal affect its population. The nutria reach the reproductive age when they are six months old and a mature female is capable of forty births in three years. Another factor affecting their population is the lack of a predator, which leads to a low infant mortality and death rate of the adult population. The absence of a predator causes the replacement rate of the nutria population to be much higher than its depletion rate (Messing & Wright, 2006).
When the land is depleted of the nutrias food source, the population of the nutria will rapidly decline because of starvation. The nutria has a high daily food demand of about a quarter of their body mass. It would be difficult for the population to find a replacement food source within the same habitat that can sustain their population (Messing & Wright, 2006). Therefore, the nutria population will decrease significantly or wipe out entirely.
Environmental Challenges and Benefits of Urbanization
The term Urbanization refers to the transformation of a rural area into an urban area. An area that previously had the characteristics of a rural area gradually transforms into an urban area as its population increases and the dominant economic and social activities of the area change.
Contrasting urban areas and rural areas adequately offer the description of urbanization. While rural area populations work in occupations that directly extract natural resources such as fishing, logging and farming, their urban counterparts, as a result of industrial specialization, engage in occupations that relate to the transformation of the already harvested natural resources or the provision of services not directly related to the harvest of natural resources (Berg & Hager, 2009).
Cities represent urban areas that have fully passed the transition from being rural area and have the characteristic of diversity in race, ethnicity, religion and the social economic status of residents.
Challenges of Urbanization
As areas transform into urban areas they become more populated because they attract immigrants looking for better economic opportunities. The growth in population and the subsequent development of facilities to support the large population creates environmental problems in the urban areas.
One direct environmental impact is the encroachment of forests, wetlands, agricultural land and wildlife habitats. This encroachment changes the primary use of the given land and disrupts the environmental balance, which has consequences on the life of the urban residents and that of the biodiversity around them.
Encroachment into agricultural land leads to an immediate decrease in the food supply capacity of the adjacent rural area that supplies food to the urban area. Therefore, urban residents have to look further for food supplies and seek ways to make the dwindling agricultural land to produce more food per unit land size.
Another challenge of urbanization is the increased commuting distance necessitated by the large urban area. As cities grow geographically, residents have to commute longer distances to their work places, schools, hospitals and to access other social amenities or meet other people.
The increase in the commuting distance comes with an increase in the reliance on motorized transport with comes at a cost to the environment. Vehicles use fuels and emit airborne gases as their byproducts. The larger the number of vehicles used in a city, the greater the emission of the airborne gases to the atmosphere.
These airborne gases are pollutants to the environment because they affect the supply of clean gases such as oxygen beneficial to human and animal life. Vehicles also emit smoke that pollutes the environment by making visibility difficult. Moreover, the sound of vehicles especially in traffic jams as drivers hoot is disturbing to the listeners and is a form of noise pollution.
Another environmental challenge of urbanization is pollution of water. A characteristic of urban areas is the paving of roads, paths and parking lots. In addition, buildings cover any open grounds such that rain and wastewater has to be channeled over the surface through drainage systems into outlets or treatment facilities before it leaves the cities to join the natural river system.
The problem of artificial overflow of water is that it lacks the ability to sift toxic materials from the water before it joins the waterways. As water overflows on roads and other paved surfaces and roofs, it collects a lot of toxic materials that are later transferred into water ways and are consumed by aquatic life, animals and humans who are using the water.
When the rate of population increase in urban areas is much higher than the development of economic opportunities to sustain the population an imbalance arises. Additionally, developments of systems that adequately control the social character of the population have to match the population growth to prevent the social imbalance that arises.
Unprecedented growth of the urban population results to a strain on resources that can support such a high population, otherwise referred to as the carrying capacities of the urban area. An ideal population growth should be at a rate that matches the development of the necessary social amenities and economic capacities such as employment opportunities to support the growing population. Population problems blamed on urbanization lay squarely on the insufficiencies of the urban area to support its large population.
Urbanization becomes undesirable when it results to urban problems of matching facilities and the population that it supports. These challenges occur as sewage treatment, pollution, congestion, inadequate supply of clean water, limited availability of medical facilities, and few transport systems to match population growth among other challenges.
Benefits of Urbanization
Cities and other urban areas have more job opportunities than rural areas and can therefore support large number of people seeking opportunities for social and economic development. The concentration of diverse occupations and cultures in urban areas makes them the center for economic, education and cultural development.
Residents of urban areas have a faster and easier access to the available opportunities for interaction and personal growth that would otherwise require travelling long distance for the rural area resident. Urban areas also make it easy for authorities to conduct their administration duties.
In most cultures of the world, women, the disabled and the minority have limited access to economic opportunities; however, in urban areas the same marginalized people get employment in a variety of industries (Berg & Hager, 2009). In the following section we discuss two winning projects and how they overcame the challenges of urbanization discussed earlier.
Community-Based Projects
The Bronx Center Project Dont Move, Improve USA
This is a collaboration of the communities around the South Bronx area, which aims to revitalize 300 deteriorated blocks. In the revitalization plan, the project intended to create job opportunities for the community and avail job-training programs that would expand the economic opportunities for South Bronx workers, entrepreneurs and investors.
In coming up with the project, its managers realized that the urban area had been neglected and offered very little social and economic support to its residents making most of them to emigrate to look for better opportunities (UNESCO, n.d. b).
Project on Sites and Services for Low-Income Family Groups Argentina
This project aims to address the challenges of providing a good quality residence to urban residents lacking the necessary economic ability to obtain their own land for development of houses. The project identified that despite the availability of land, the poor could not afford the high selling prices.
After the realization that speculators were responsible for the high price of land, the project acquired land that was later subdivided and allocated to poor residents who would afterwards pay for the land in installments without having to suffer the rising cost arising out of the speculation.
In addition, to ensure that the quality of life within the new residents was desirable, the project included the development of physical infrastructure for the low-income residents. The project included the development of roads, drainage facilities, light pillars and street lighting.
The project also addressed the supply of key services like electricity and clean water. To make the project sustainable, the development of the low-income site used the concept of a land bank where land is set aside for future allocation to low-income earners who would otherwise be unable to afford the speculative prices (UNESCO, n.d. a).
Overcoming Project Challenges
The Bronx Center Project Dont Move, Improve USA
In the Bronx center project, the managers focused on the redevelopment of dilapidated and abandoned buildings and using them as economic centers or administrative centers.
For example, an old courthouse was rehabilitated and designated as a community labor exchange building for residents seeking all types of employment. Throughout the implementation period of the project, the project managers engaged the community through different participating avenues so that the final development plans and designs benefited all community members.
Limited economic opportunities of the area led to an inadequate supply of affordable housing as residents earned low incomes. As a remedy, the project included the identification and addressing of the constraints that affect the low-income earners quest for housing.
This included provision of grant and loans for purchase of houses. The project also included the development of a new senior citizens residency. Finally the project, addressed the supply of social amenities be redesigning open spaces and streets in addition to development of transport facilities (UNESCO, n.d. b).
Project on Sites and Services for Low-Income Family Groups Argentina
The project was able to provide a land bank for the low-income earners to shield them from the high land prices caused by speculation. It also made the land more affordable to low income earners by giving them an opportunity to pay in monthly installments in addition to letting them construct semi-permanent houses as they seek funds to develop their planned houses.
To make the project sustainable, beneficiaries were allowed to construct houses using their own resources so that there would be no dependencies associated with the success of the project.
To ensure the new residency remained desirable in providing a good quality of living, the project put in place measures limiting the number of houses that can be constructed on a single piece of land; and provided social services like roads, electricity and clean water to the site (UNESCO, n.d. a).
References
Berg, L. R., & Hager, M. C. (2009). Visualizing environmental science (2nd ed.). John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Messing, R. H., & Wright, M. G. (2006). Biological control of invasive species: solution or pollution. Frontier Ecological Environment, 4(3), 132-140.
UNESCO. (n.d. a). Project on sites and services for low-income family groups Argentina. Retrieved from Most Clearing House Best Practices: https://en.unesco.org/
UNESCO. (n.d. b). The Bronx Center Project Dont Move, Improve USA. Retrieved from Most Clearing House Best Practices: https://en.unesco.org/
Zavaleta, E., Hobbs, R. J., & Mooney, H. A. (2001). Viewing invasive species removal in a whole-ecosystem context. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 16(8), 454-459.
Sitting in your class right now may only be 30 people, and when you get home there might be 4 other people in the house. Your community or school many seem small, but the world population is growing at an alarming rate. In twelve years from 1999-2011, one billion people were born in this world. Just alone in the 20th century, the U.S population tripled (“10 key facts and statistics about overpopulation”). These numbers might not seem astonishing but with 7.7 billion people in this world, there is bound to be a crisis. A global crisis would have to effect a majority of the population, the environment, and cause harm or disruption to something. Overpopulation is an undesirable situation in which the number of people in an area exceeds the capacity in which the environment can sustain. The depletion of natural resources, limited food available, and the increasing emergence of epidemics are crucial reasons that overpopulation has affected this planet and its people, and should be considered a global crisis.
Throughout the world us humans have limited natural resources, and the little resources we have left are being depleted as we speak due to too many people needing them. The world’s population is greatly affecting our amount of freshwater. We all need water to survive and currently our freshwater supply is running out. According to the article “Human population” from the website Gale in Context , “Only 1 percent of the world’s freshwater supply is currently accessible. Should the human population continue to use water at current rates, the demand for fresh water will require the use of 70 percent of the world’s available supply by 20205.” With a small amount of the world’s water supply available and it being used at alarming rates, water is going to become a scarce element. However, humans, plants, and animals need water to survive for everyday functions, and without that our population will be in trouble. With more and more and more people on this earth using fresh water, the less there will be per person to sustain our overpopulated earth.
Furthermore, the limited amount of food to feed the population is a big factor of why overpopulation is a concern. Although in some countries people are overweight and consume too much food, 89.4 percent of the population is healthily nourished, leaving 10.6 percent of the world population undernourished (Roser and Ritchie). That is roughly 700,400,00 people without proper nutrients and possibly starving due to lack of food from not enough food. It is difficult enough to feed a small country, let alone an entire populated planet. With more people being born, the more mouths there are to feed. However, not enough crops and production of food are produced to properly feed billions of people to have them nourished and not hungry. The limited food produced is simply not able to sustain a overpopulated planet.
Also, the most amount of hunger is found in developing countries. According to an article written by the Population Reference Bureau Combining Malnutrition with more than income growth, “Poorer populations often lack access to the right variety of foods and the right amount of foods, leading to inadequate nutrition.” In poorer countries the average household income is far less than a developed country, which leaves little room for expenses. Wealthier populations have access to buy more diverse foods that are richer in essential nutrients as to where poorer countries often lack access to a wider variety of foods, and the right amount of nutrients, leading to inadequate nutrition. An inadequate nutrition is a clear effect of lack of proper food.
Additionally, overpopulation is becoming a global crisis because of the increasing emergence of epidemics. The increasing emergence of epidemics is made in part by poor environmental conditions mainly found in developing countries with high populations. “A WHO report shows that environmental degradation, combined with the growth in world population, is a major cause of the rapid increase in human diseases, which contributes to the malnutrition of 3.7 billion people worldwide, making them more susceptible to disease.” With more people being born into undesirable living conditions, the higher poverty they are living in. The more impoverished someone is the more malnourished they are likely to become. Therefore the more malnourished someone is, the more susceptible to disease they are. This resembles a domino effect that shows when there is overpopulation, people are becoming sick and dying.
Not only has overpopulation caused people to become more susceptible to disease, but there has also been a rise in HIV and unwanted pregnancies from the lack of medical assistance and non-existent healthcare. For example, “In Africa, extreme poverty has forced many women into the “sex for fish” trade, in which they are intimate with local fisherman in exchange
for a portion of the daily catch.” This practice enlarges the spread of HIV and makes undesirable pregnancies more probable. Because most women in less- developed countries and regions like Africa has limited or no access to a doctor, healthcare, or contraceptives, the more likely they are to have an unwanted pregnancy, in the end likely having a malnourished child.
On the other hand, some people could argue that overpopulation is not a global crisis because of rapidly growing information utility and more smarter people working. “With twice as many people doing jobs like these, we could all get roughly twice the benefits (more art, culture, science, technology), or they could work roughly half as many hours. A larger population thus has the potential to make life much better.” However, we will not have the people to do more specialized work and get the benefits if we cannot feed them. “The earth’s population is expected to grow 9.7 billion over the next 33 years. That’s a lot of mouths to feed, especially when you consider the vast hunger issues the world faces today.” With the population growing at an increasing rate every day, it will be difficult for an environment to sustain that many people keep them properly nourished. Overall, some could argue that with the more people we have, the smarter we will be and the more information we will have, the downside to this is the fact that we have to still be fed and live in a sustainable environment.
In conclusion, overpopulation has been and will continue to be a global crisis in our world today due to the depletion of natural resources, limited food available for everyone, and the increasing emergence of epidemics. Our planet’s health and wellness along with the people and animals living in it are being affected by the overpopulation of people on Earth. Thomas Malthus has been commenting on overpopulation since the 1800’s and today it is still a problem that effects our entire planet. Overpopulation will continue to be a global crisis until we do something about it.
Across the years we have been inhabiting this earth, the human society has been changing the local ecological system and prompted the change of regional climate. In our present day, mankind has just begun to see their effect on the planet’s climate. One of these conflicts is overpopulation. Not only on a local scale, but on a global scale our population is rapidly growing causing resources to diminish among other negative effects on our planet. To resolve this growing problem, we must resort to using sustainability, on an individual and community level, to ensure the health of our earth and our home.
With our population on the rise in our local community, we must act now to prevent the overbearing effects of overpopulation. The impact of a large population on climate is immense. Overpopulation can cause overcrowding conditions, the worsening of our land, pollution, lack of water and food, and inadequate or non-existent health care. To avert this, thankfully we have a thing called sustainability. Sustainability in our climate-vulnerable state can be a habit that we easily pick up; taking shorter showers, or recycling. In an overpopulation sense, sustainability is more widespread and extensive. Taking small steps toward our community living in full sustainability will help achieve the ultimate goal: preserving our environment.
Overpopulation affects our communities in various ways, which means there is no universal fix. Though, the first thing to think about for our local community is being innovative and transforming into a smart city to increase our efficiency. As communities become overcrowded, traffic levels increase, making it more difficult to get around. Accommodating overpopulation in a smart city means offering people sustainable options for getting where they need to go, such as biking paths, electric scooters, or free public transportation. For example, more than 50 percent of San Francisco’s residents commute by walking or biking. (Interesting Engineering, 2018). In a lower technology strategy, having access to and education about birth control, contraceptives, and natural family planning without the social taboo can help minimize overpopulation effects instead of worsening them.
As the population increases, so will the demand for energy and common resources. Fossil fuels supplied about 80 percent of the energy consumed in the United States in 2017, while Renewable energy supplied about 11 percent. (Yale, 2018) At the rate we are using our natural resources such as biofuel, coal, and oil, we will soon run out leaving us with no other choice: renewable energy. Instead of waiting until our natural resources decrease, we should implement green energy in our local communities to not only help the preserve amount of our natural resources, but the quality of our air. Renewable energy will reduce the amount of biofuel (wood) being used and cut down, which as well causes the soil to degrade and become infertile, lessening farming production in certain areas.
To conclude, overpopulation is a rising problem for our world, and our local community. The overpopulation of people on the planet affects the health and well-being of our planet. While food scarcity increases, pollution increases and global warming becomes even more of a concern, overpopulation affects all of us. Joining environmental groups to spread awareness, reducing your personal consumption, and educating yourself on this issue can help minimize the effects of overpopulation or even help save our environment and improve the quality of life.
In the beginning of twenty 1st century, overall the world population was spreading around 6 billion and increasing with the increasing ratio in last few years. In every new year about seventy of million of people were enhanced in the world, population; while in the overall population there is an 8o percent share of underdeveloped nations and a major part of developing countries. In developing and developed countries, the population situation is entirely dissimilar and in the developed countries population is quite well managed, as there is a better utilization of the working class. China is one of the best examples, that is utilizing her working force greatly. While, developing economies, are trying to achieve the essential wants and not giving any attention on the population growing side, so in developing countries, there is a huge problem of overpopulation economic development. Population and economy always reflect a close relationship with each other because rapid population growth makes an effect on the economy of the country. There are normally two general views about the impact of population growth on economic growth. 1st is population is a real problem. According to this view population growth is one of the important public, economic and governmental actual problems. The developing world is bearing this problem. 2nd is the population are needed not a problem. High population growth means high supply of labor. A high labor supply gives a boost to economic development. That enhances to the labor supply can be used for increasing the production of goods and services.
In the case of Pakistan, the rapid population growing rate is a major problem that is affecting its economic, social and political sectors. In the previous century many countries tried to manage the population growth rate and its impacts; But not succeed because of less awareness and a weak political system. According to an economic survey of (2013-2014), the population growth rate in Pakistan was 1.95 percent, the highest in Asia. So due to this Pakistan is lagging; when compared to the other developing world. The population in Pakistan went a terrifying position. Now the population has become the major hurdle in its economic and welfare path. It is projected that the population of Pakistan will be reached around 210.16 million by 2020. According to a world report; Pakistan will remain at six positions in 2050, with about 363 million of population. Pakistani population has been increasing more than 4 times since 1947. From the time of freedom, Pakistan added only one million in a year and now on every three months, about one million population has been adding in Pakistan on every 3 months. In this critical situation none of the development plan, can tolerate such a huge population growth rate. A rapidly growing population is not only puts a country’s economic assets under pressure but also increases its dependency ratio of young people and thus limit the production of economic development in the economy. (Ahmed, 2016)
Introduction
Since 1947 when the sate of Pakistan became a sovereign state, the population of Pakistan, has enhanced significantly, as compared to the other countries in the region. The growth rate of the population of Pakistan; is about two-point one percent higher than other states. Population growth is the difference between the birth rate and death rate at a particular time and a year. When the birth rate increases and the death rate decreases population growth increases. As according to Thomas Malthus population growth increases exponentially and food production increases arithmetically so if there is no control of population growth then there will be a huge problem of food and hunger. In 1984 the life expectancy rate of a Pakistani citizen was at fifty-six point nine years of age. In 2002, the life expectancy rate had jumped up to sixty-three years of age. The improvement was a result of better medical facilities and the availability of educated health professionals in the state of Pakistan. On average the population of Pakistan were spreading at a rate of three percent per year from 1951 to the middle of the 1980s. From the mid-1980s to the year 2000, the growth of the population slowed down to around 2.6 percent per year, and from 2000 to 2012, to about two percent per year.
According to world population prospects 2019, The population is predicted, to be near 210 million by 2020 and get to 245 million by 2030. Components are as one birth in every 5 seconds and One death in every 21 seconds. One net migrant in every 2 minutes and Net gain of one person within every 7 seconds. The population of Pakistan according to the Last united nation survey estimate (July 1, 2019) is about 216,565,318, Births per day are 16,433, Deaths per day are 4,069, net migrations per day is (-622), and net change per day is 11,742.
Economic development is the process; in which production increased of a country at a particular time period. Growth increases because of the latest technology and innovation. It is a quite crucial concern for the economic growth, of any country. In Pakistan, the economic growth rate; is quite low as compared to developed countries that are due to mainly not properly use of resources and old methods of production; as well as lack of technology and political instability.
The population is an essential variable; that influences the growth rate of the country. The relationship; between economic development and the growth rate of the population is positive and negative. But in the case of Pakistan, population and economic growth occur a negative relationship. The situation of population in Pakistan reached a terrifying position; that is increasing day by day rapidly. The different survey reports predicted; that population of Pakistan more increase and doubled in the coming years. According to the economic survey report; the Population of Pakistan is estimated at 210.14 million, in the year 2020.
Hypothesis
Relation between population and economy.
Impact of ‘population growth’; on ‘economic development in Pakistan.
What is the relationship; between population, and economy? in the case of Pakistan.
Significance
This study will help policymakers and the government to understand the relationship between population and economic growth, especially in the case of Pakistan. This paper aim to convince policymaker and student of economics to understand the importance of a controlled population for the economic growth and development of the country in a proper way. As in the case of Pakistan, the relationship between population growth and economic development is negative so it is easy for readers and policymakers to control the population in a positive way without any delay.
Methodology
The method that we used for our research proposal is a systematic literature review we examined different research paper and collect secondary data from them. Authentic websites and published papers are used to analyze the literature reviews. Empirical data has been collected from authentic sources and the nature of the research is both qualitative and quantitative in nature. Data analysis to compare the relationship between; population and economic growth in Pakistan. The result is according to our assumptions and prediction. Research is unbiased and free of any type of fund from any type of organization.
Literature review
(Tsangyao Chang, Hsiao-Ping Chu, Frederick W. Deale, Rangan Gupta, 2014) Discussed the relationship between, population and economic development in twenty-one countries. His study examined; that the population rate has a negative impact on the economy of the state. The study applied the “Bootstrap Panel Granger Causality Test” to analyze the result. He used; the time series data from 1871, to 2013. Technological development is a cause of population growth; which leads to an increase of labor productivity, per capita income and progress in living standards. The study suggests, that this research provided a solution that helps between population and economic development for demographers and economists and policymakers to manage the rapid growth of the population rate. (Tsangyao Chang, Hsiao-Ping Chu, Frederick W. Deale, Rangan Gupta, 2014)
(Ahmed, 2016) examined relationship between population and economic situation in Mexico. Study applied the time series data, from 1960 to 2014 and the final result was performed in the short run. It resulted; that economic development has a negative effect on rapid population growth. In the long run, however, it was founded that population has a positive effect; on per capita GDP and that per capita GDP positively affects the population. (Ahmed, 2016).
(Sher Ali, Amjad Ali and Amjad Amin, 2013) analyzed the relationship between the impacts of population on economic development in Pakistan. The study argues; the rapid growth of the population has a negative impact on economic development. The study examined; a high number labor force is not founding any job. The study used the 34-year annual data, took real gross domestic product as a dependent, variable and the independent variables were population, unemployment rate, human resource development, and trade openness. At the end of the study, he analyzed that population growth is not a real concern, which leads to the problem of unemployment, and development policy is not effective. Studies suggested; the government of Pakistan should consider the problem of unemployment and the high population growth rate. (Sher Ali, Amjad Ali and Amjad Amin, 2013)
(Atanda, Akinwande A. and Aminu, Salaudeen B. and Alimi,, 2012) Examined the situation of the rapid growth of population versus economic development, of developed as well as developing countries. They found the population has a positive impact on economic development in developed nations and it has a negative impact in the developing world. Researchers analyzed, data of different developing countries as a sample, which starts from 1980 and ends at 2010. The study took economic development as the dependent variable and birth rate, crude death rate, mortality rate, fertility rate and life expectancy as the independent variables. They concluded that the impact of a high population on the economy is positive in developed countries and the impact of a high population on the economy of developing countries is negative. Paper also suggested; that developing nations, should increase the aggregate level of investment and provide education and health facilities to citizens to achieve, the required levels of growth rate. (Atanda, Akinwande A. and Aminu, Salaudeen B. and Alimi,, 2012)
Limitation
Limited experience resources, facilities, and time.
Bibliography
Afzal, M. (2009). Population Growth and Economic Development in Pakistan. The Open demographic journal.
Ahmed, R. N. (2016). Impact of Population on Economic Growth: A Case Study of Pakistan. 1 to 15. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5d15/9694c3199d07a4876bf53702baa69b04f7f1.pdf
Atanda, Akinwande A. and Aminu, Salaudeen B. and Alimi,. (2012, march). The role of the population on economic growth and development: evidence from developing countries. Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 1-20.
Sher Ali, Amjad Ali and Amjad Amin. (2013). The Impact of Population Growth on Economic Development in Pakistan. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 483-491. Retrieved from https://www.idosi.org/mejsr/mejsr18(4)13/11.pdf
Tsingtao Chang, Hsiao-Ping Chu, Frederick W. Deale, Rangan Gupta. (2014). The Relationship between Population Growth and Economic Growth Over 1870-2013:. University of Pretoria (p. 1 to 31). Taiwan: Department of Economics Working Paper Series.
Overpopulation is a global problem found in many countries such as China, India, Indonesia and even the United States of America. Officially, Singapore is the world’s most overpopulated state calculated by population to area, but the underdevelopment of large regional areas of main land China enhance the negative effects of overpopulation for the country.
Overpopulation effects all areas of a countries national and global identity. Problems that arise from overpopulation effect all areas of the country’s social, economic, environmental and political wellbeing.
Furthermore, overpopulation in china not only effects China itself, it also effects the neighboring countries and indeed the planet. China is the world’s largest exporter and second largest importer of goods and with a massive population of 1.43 billion people, everything China makes or consumes has an impact somewhere on the planet.
This report is going focus on the effects of over population in china and describe how this problem is affecting china socially, economically, politically and environmentally. We will also discuss on solutions and recommendations to help solve this problem.
Understanding Overpopulation China
Overpopulation occurs when the human population rises to an extent exceeding the carrying capacity of the sustainable structure and function of the occupied ecosystem. Simply put, overpopulation is when there are too many people for the environment to sustain the essentials such as food, drinkable water or even breathable air. Additionally, it is a long-term perspective that cannot be maintained to support the population, given the depletion of non-renewable resources and or the environment.
Overpopulation can result in an increase of berths decline of mortality increase of immigration which is the last thing china needs. In highly overpopulated nations and or cities there is not enough food so there is a big demand for resources which is what china needs.
China’s Overpopulation
As of September 2019, China’s estimated population via United Nations projections is 1.43 billion. This number excludes the regions and provinces Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The graphic below shows the rapid increase of China’s population from the 1950’s and projects population group to decrease after 2030. The declining projection considers many factors related to China’s future labor force, demographic issues and marriage rates, which are all variably unpredictable.
Although China is a considered a large county geographically, it still has an estimated population density of 145 people per square kilometer. It ranks 81st on the list of the 195 countries in the world. For comparison, Australia currently ranks as one of the lowest density populated countries, with a population density of 3 people per square kilometer.
China’s population density changes significantly around the largest urban areas, for example the City of Shanghai has an estimated population density of 3800 people per square kilometer.
The map below shows the population density of the main largest urban areas across China, as can be seen, a large majority of built up urban areas are located on the eastern side of China and most are highly populated.
Root Causes and Impacts of China’s Overpopulation
Historical and Cultural Factors
China has become overpopulated due to many reasons, but the most plausible explanations are mostly because of food and water. Given that China has large areas of fertile land and good access to fresh water, it has the capacity to produce vast quantities of food to nourish large numbers of its people.
On the other hand, countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh are more density populated than china and they also have good farmland and access to water, but they are much smaller geographical so they simply can’t hold as many people. Another cause of China’s overpopulation is china had more resilience to start with once global modernization began contributing to a massive population growth several centuries ago. Back then people were encouraged to have lots of babies after a great loss after the wars, and the leader believed a large population means more labors for agriculture. China also has large land boundaries to protect the country some of these include the Siberian, the East china sea, the Gobi Desert and many more.
Social, Economic, Environmental, and Political Consequences
Social
Chinas high population can affect the social infrastructure the unemployment rate and crime rate. In heavily populated nations like china the jobs available are much less than the number of people who are seeking jobs. This led to high levels of unemployment witch in turn makes the unemployed must steel food water and other essentials so they can survive. Violence and other conflicts arise because the unemployed must compete to get the limited resources, so this rises the overall crime rate.
The Chinese government must spend a lot of money to provide the basic social infrastructure like education housing and medical equipment but with the rapid increase of population they find this very challenging, so not everyone has these things.
As well as the decline of social infrastructure LEDC’S (less economically developed countries) can put pressure on the land as more and more people move in. Cultures from migrants can cause civil wars witch in turns puts pressure on the medical system and or schools.
Economical
China is the world’s largest manufacturing economy and exporter of goods. It is also the world’s fastest-growing consumer market and second largest importer of goods. It also is the highest ranked GDP (Gross Domestic Market) country with a GDP of $14.2 trillion dollars, compared to Australia which ranks 14th and has a GDP of $1.69 trillion. China’s economy is huge, and a large population can positively help it’s economic development, but this mostly depends on the countries geographic features such as natural resources. If the larger population puts pressure on those resources, it is not good for the economic development. Given that China is a developing country with limited natural resources, overpopulation will lead to decreased of per capital income over the long term.
There are many reasons why overpopulation in China is negatively contributing to the economy. Overpopulation is directly affecting China’s economy by higher unemployment rates, food shortages, increased environmental change, and reducing the standard of living.
A fast and growing population means that more people are joining the labor market, where there would not be enough jobs for everyone, leading to high levels of unemployment. In developing countries like china, the number of people trying to find jobs is increasing so fast that it has not been possible to get jobs for everyone. The rapidly growing population makes it impossible for the economy to solve their problem of unemployment.
Having a large population means more people to feed. This creates pressure on the on the stock of food and in turn reduces China’s economic development. Although China has large areas and fertile land for farming crops, there are still high levels of undernourishment in the population, especially in rural areas. This problem reduces the production capacity of the workers in these areas which negatively effects China’s economic development.
Population growth leads to environmental change. When many people are living and working in rural areas, it leads to excavation and deforestation which introduce environment changes. People who live in overpopulated and dense urban areas with industrialization contribute to air, noise and water pollution. As seen with global warming and higher CO2 levels in the atmosphere, overpopulation as a detrimental effect on both the country’s economy and environment wellbeing.
China’s growing population lowers the standard of living. The increase of the population leads to a higher demand for food and other very day essentials like clothes and accommodation. The cost of these items will rise because the supply will not be able to keep up with demand due to the lack raw materials. This makes it hard for the people in poverty or close to the poverty line to afford, so the standard of living will fall.
Environmental
There are many environmental issues to do with overpopulation some of these include depletion of natural resources, accelerated habitat loss, amplified climate change and deprecation of fresh water. As the Chinese population keeps growing natural resources such as fossil fuels, fresh water coral reefs and forests drop sharply due to the human race continually using these precious materials in everyday life. This creates competitive demands on these resources which contributes to a huge decline of life.
The massive loss of habitats such as coral reefs rainforests grasslands are massively influenced by overpopulation. According to Sonia Madaan from EarthEclipse.com ‘rainforests originally covered 14% of the earth’s surface whereas now hey only cover about 6% and it will become less in the next 4 decades’. More than 30% of the earths coral reefs have been destroyed just due to environmental pollution and acidifications.
Overpopulation means more people, which in turn means more cars and factories that contributes to mass amounts of greenhouse emissions. In 2015 China approximately generated 63% of their energy from coal which releases nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is highly linked to the increase the greenhouse effect. Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain when particles of sulfur dioxide compounds combined with nitrogen atoms to produce sulfuric acid and nitric acid strong acid that end up in waterways and damages forests. Since China is known as a ‘developing country’ or a poorer country that is seeking to become more advanced economically and socially, it is still using large amounts of cheap and dirty resources, such as low grade brown coal to generate its energy. This means that more bad gasses are being released into the earth atmosphere.
Political
China became a communist country under the Leader Mao Zedong in 1949. At this time the Communist Party of China took control of all the factories, businesses, land on behalf of the people, so there was no private ownership, unlike here in Australia were leadership is democratic. After Zedong’s death in 1976, the ruling Communist Party of China moved away from the strict communist views held by their old leader, but still today China’s leadership is heavily influenced by communist values.
There are many political issues that are affected by China’s overpopulation. To help ease the rapid growth of the population the Chinese government has implemented polities such as the one child policy and limited immigration laws to bring the growth under control.
The political effect of overpopulation to China adds strains to all areas of the Chinese government and increases pressure on all services such as, health care, schools and education, transportation, housing, welfare and environment. Given that China is relatively an developing country, many of these services are still not up to developed nations standards, so the increased pressure of a higher population on these services reduces the quality and quantity of services offed by the Chinese government. As China is run by the Communist Party of China and no democratic voting is allow, the whole public population of China do not have a say and cannot criticize the poor quality and quantity of these services offered by the government without fear of prosecution.
A current political issue facing the Chinese government is the large ageing population and a declining rate of mortality. This means that the low fertility rates which have dropped from 6 births per family in 1967 to the current birth rate of 1.5 today due to the one child policy, has left China with a larger older population. Additionally, this older population of people are now living longer due to China’s spread of wealth, but longer life expectancy means increasing demand for services and increased costs to China’s health care system.
Addressing the China Overpopulation Problem
Managing overpopulation is a very complicated and lengthily process. There are many ways to help reduce a countries population growth over the long term. China controversy introduced the one child policy in 1980 as a temporary measure to slow down china’s rapid population growth, but this had its own problems.
The biggest impact of China’s one child policy was to the gender ratio. China traditionally preferred boys rather than girls and this created the gender ratio to become extremely unbalanced. Boys are regarded in china to be financially and physically more capable than girls, so some women will abort their pregnancy if they find out they are having a girl. This concluded that 66 million girls who should have been born, where not. According to Radio Free Asia This means that 21% of the men over 50 in 2020 would never have married.
The gender imbalance caused by China’s one child policy is so unbalanced that bachelor villages have sprung up because men have lost all hope of getting married. Young women are being trafficked from nearby countries including Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, Thailand and Myanmar for forced marriage. This has caused a new problem, human trafficking.
China dumped the one child policy in 2016 and replaced it with the 2-child policy. This gave families a second chance to get a boy and deal with the aging issue.
China’s Policy Interventions: From One-Child to Two-Child
Although china is using the 1 and 2 child policy there are also other sustainable solutions that china could use to help reduce the overpopulation crisis. These include tax benefits, reduction of immigration and
Governments giving tax benefits to parents with one child could help slow the population growth. In china they could give tax benefits to the poorer parts of the country so they could help slow down the number of people being born by giving them money so they can afford equipment or hire workers to do the job for them. As humans we are more inclined to money so this could leave some positive results.
Reducing immigration can lower the population of a country. for example, the USA grew from a population of 79 million in 1900 to 282 million in 2000. 43% of this growth consisted of immigrants and descendants. It is also predicted that by 2100 there will be 492 million people living in the USA witch 90% will be immigrants. Because china already has such a large population controlling how many people come and leave the country will make a big difference.
Conclusion
Overpopulation is one of the biggest problems facing humanity now. It is affecting the planets wellbeing and effecting the scarcity of food. In china this problem is a huge and needs to be fixed soon otherwise the average global temperature will rise 4-5 degrees Celsius by 2100.
If overpopulation is not fixed soon it will lead to many social and environmental factors such as a high crime rate, mass amounts of acid rain, mass extinction of species and scarcity of natural resources. Not only is china having to deal with environmental issues but this problem has gotten so bad that they have a massive gender imbalance and abortion issues. According to radio free Asia 66 million girls who should have been born weren’t, the massive gender imbalance has also led to human trafficking which is another problem china has to deal with. Although china has all these issues there also plenty of solutions to this challenging yet fixable problem.
Population as a phenomena has different definitions in particular but the main one that is said everywhere is, population is the total number of people that occupy a specific geographical area. Population in a certain area affects the standard of living and amount of resources that will be provided to the habitants of the area.
Factors Affecting Population
There are certain factors which affect the increase or decrease of the population of a particular geographical area.
Birth rate: The amount at which off springs or young ones are given birth daily has raised a hefty alarm on the world populous. This adds an increase to the population.
Death rate: The way that people die causes a decrease in the population, it is a factor that is seemingly increasing yearly.
Immigration: This is the movement of people from one geographical area to the other leading to the increase of population of one area and a decrease to the other.
Emigration: This is the movement of people out of their geographical area to the other leading to a decrease in the current area.
Available Resources: The amount of resources available can determine the population. If resources like food, water and energy are not available it will lead to a decrease in the population, while if there is abundance in resources then there will be increase in the population.
Education: This depends on the educational factor which is the cost of education, a low cost of education could bring people towards that area leading to a large increase in population in that area but an expensive education could lead to low population.
Stability of Society: Also a stable economic society can affect the population, this depends on the implementation of law which might affect the student rights and order governing the people.
Population Density
This is the number of people per square kilometer of land. This can be calculated for a county, city, and country. It is measured in per kilometer square (/km square). It is particularly used in census of populations instead of going from house to house gathering population census.
Types of Population
There are three types of population: overpopulation, under population and optimum population.
Overpopulation
This type of population occurs when the population of a particular area of people is higher than the available resource of the country. This can lead to low standard of living and low economic standard.
Example of overpopulated countries are:
China: Having a current population of over 1.4 billion
India: Having a current population of over 1.35 billion
United States of America: Having a current population of 330 million
Indonesia: Having a current population of 270 million.
Brazil: Having a current population of up to 220 million
Pakistan: Having a current population of up to 203 million.
Under population
This is the population that occurs when the population is too little to fully utilize the available resource leading to the underutilization of the economies resource.
Fiji: Having a current population of more than 918000
Iceland: Having a current population of up to 400000
Samoa: Having a current population of up to 200000
Seychelles: Having a current population of up to 100000
Montenegro: Having a current population of up to 630000
Optimum Population
This occurs when the population is able to fully utilize the available resource leading to a high standard of living.
Uruguay: population of up to 3.5 million
Albania: population of up to 3 million
Norway: population of up to 5.5 million
Croatia: population of up to 4.2 million
Costa Rica: population of up to 5 million
Moldova: population of up to 4.1 million
Effects of Over Population
There are several effects of over population and they are caused by the full pressure on the resource and they include:
Limited Space
It’s very difficult to think the world would become more crowded than it is right now. Especially in India, in the streets of Tokyo or sharing of space with people in a tight space of transportation. It is easy to product that the world will become a more crowded place than it already is our current 7.3 billion will have increase to 8.4 million by 2030 in 2100 the population would become a mind blowing 11.2 billion by 2100. Driving in the roads of India you would always meet the crowded people clogging pathways. Arches National park in Utah had to shut down May 2018 due to a traffic jam of people and park. We people have started to the even more isolated places including the Bahamas, Iceland, turning the underpopulated areas to massively crowded areas. In the future we will see that all the people will occupy all the cities not moving to the cities for jobs but for agriculture. Places like Dhaka, Lagos and Mumbai already face lare problems of space, our human footprint is everywhere and is spreading fast as we move we damage the standard of living of other occupants of the city. Knowing that cities are the one place that will undergo great innovations in the future.
Engineering Solutions
Creating better means of transportation to support the movement of people away from the road side like creating an airbus, a high speed train and also creating parking lots at the front of markets all this are the works of an engineer especially a civil engineer and an Automobiles engineer.
Larger roads: Designing larger roads can help in benefiting pedestrians that are without transportations and money to afford transportations. A civil engineer can help in designing the road plan by creating pavements and walk paths for people.
Larger Buildings and Structure: The adaptations of larger building would be able to contend with the over populated populous and able to withstand the pressure constantly put on it by the population especially in rural areas in the country and that is due to the facts of them needing food and going to markets and stall located in the cities.
Food
Food related to populations has led to a shortage in food supply. Concern that the population can lead to the pure in agricultural produce and this is because of the availability of human labor and more than the machines. In North Korea we see that they depend more on their agricultural needs due to the fact that most of the populous are more interested in desk jobs. Particularly that most of the populous are mostly occupying houses on the mountains and this has led to a poor climate for agricultural products on the farm and this has led to food shortage.
Engineering Solutions
Siting of buildings in areas of favorable climate that will support the growth of the agricultural product.
Also the designing of perfect and minimum agricultural machines can help the fast production of food in the country.
Establishing of factories that help in the processing of food into finished product.
Water
Countries like Yemen are the ones not benefiting from water but instead are suffering from water shortage, the city could run dry in ten years. With little being done to make use of the constant rainfall in that area, farmers are drilling for water without any law guiding them from the government. Leading to the people not having access to pure and clean water but instead have access to safety hazard water supply, this led to the high death rate due to the fact they have access to poor water. This factor is currently causing under population in the area and the movement of refuges to the borders. Yemen could be the first country to run out of water and their high poverty rate cannot make them to recover the cost of their labor provision for them to get water back. There is also the lack of access to water sanitation which is lower than other countries around the border, the ability of them to be unable to maintain structures like the dam and other water producing factories that can contribute to the fast production of water.
Engineering Solutions
Maintaining the structures responsible for the development and production of water by using proper materials in construction of the building and make sure it is a long lasting material that does not need constant maintenance.
Building a device that is able to sanitize water it will act as a form of a filter to fully make water safe for drinking.
Energy
This is a continuous problem in Nigeria as energy supply reaches a critical stop hold, it is due to the fact that there are a lot of people that are occupying the area and energy cannot be fully distributed with about forty percent connected to the power grid while sixty percent not benefiting from it. Power supply leads to the constant downgrade of mining, industrial and agricultural sectors and stop the ongoing development in the economy. Most households that cannot afford the power use fueled power or diesel power generators, which can lead to population in that area. Since 2005, Nigerian society has been trying to reuse the power of the generator in the power sector, but there has been a good progress in the sector. Minor increase in daily power supply.
Engineering Solutions
Industrialization method should be adapted in the power sector to boost the distribution of power to the other sixty percent, this can be acquired by a proper industrial manager.
Disposal of materials should be promoted in order to use other ways of harnessing power things like garbage, sun, water, wind etc.
A great design of generators able to distribute power to wide spread areas, this generator will not be powered by fuel or diesel but electric.
Pollution
This problem has served as a factor of land degradation and mass food poisoning leading to the decrease in the population. For example India has been subject to those form of pollutions, one of the main form including air pollution, this is caused by the action of sulfur dioxide in the air which is released by the burning of fossil fuels like petroleum, coal, coke and other factory products. The city of Kanpur which is highly polluted in India due to the fact of high gases released from vehicles those gases are Pm10 and Pm2.5 rating of sulfur oxide. The greenhouse effect plays a large part in the pollution of the air. Finally other forms of pollution that India undergo is Environmental, Water and also soil contamination.
Engineering Solutions:
The engineering solution to this that vehicles that are on the road should contain filters in order to neutralize the escaping carbon monoxide in the air, the water pipes should be well constructed by the Civil Engineer for proper water transfer.
The roles of engineers paly a big part in the population as they are creative problem solvers in building machinery, tools, buildings for shelter and also helped in food production. So the engineers have helped in providing useful solutions that make life possible.