overpopulation

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My topic in this paper will be the issue of overpopulation. It signifies a population that exceeds its sustainable size within a particular habitat or environment. This issue culminates from an increased birth rate, the immigration of individuals to a new ecological niche, decreased death rate, or the sudden decline in the available resource. It is an issue that has been in existence for some time now. The population increase first happened on a small scale and with relatively moderate intensity in America and Europe, more or less between 1750 and 1950 (Hendrixson et al., 250). It first became a problem at the beginning of the 19th century whereby the number of I billion was exceeded for the first time in history. Afterward, growth augmented, and the number of 2 billion individuals was already exceeded around 1920. A first, the issue was better in the past but become worse after some time, still in the past. It is an issue that affects people at large. When overpopulation occurs, it impacts poor individuals mostly in one way or another. An increase in the number of people brings about increased demand for housing, food, healthcare, energy, transportation, and more. As a result, it leads to increased conflicts, environmental degradation, and a high risk of large-scale pandemics and disasters. overpopulation is an issue that has both health and economic effects. Both the government and common individuals are obliged to ensure the sustainability of persons on the earth.

The population of the world had gone through continuous growth following the Great famine of 1315 and 1317 and the culmination of the Black Death in 1350 when it was approximately 370 million. Industrialization and other developments resulted in death rates falling, whereas birth rates remained high (Hendrixson et al., 253). The population grew rapidly, and the size exploded. Historically, several attempts have been made in an effort to fight overpopulation. Historically, the government has emphasized empowering women, promoting family planning, one child legislation, and many more in order to combat overpopulation. Historically, overpopulation has done more harm than advantages to us. Every year, 1.5 million individuals perish from tuberculosis, and another eight million are newly infected due to overpopulation. This issue has historically exacerbated a lot of environmental and social factors, including pollution, malnourishment, overcrowded living conditions, and inadequate health care. It has also historically silently aggravated the forces behind habitat loss, intensive farming practices, the sixth mass destruction, and the consumption of finite natural resources, such as arable land, freshwater, and fossil fuels. When pointed out, industrialization and other developments resulted in the failing of death rates (Uniyal, 20). As a result, the birth rates continued to be high. The beginning of overpopulation also resulted from ecological degradation, agricultural advancement, poor contraceptives use, and lack of family planning.

Overpopulation has been a concern that has brought several arguments all over the world. From the arguments, there have been attempts to deal with the issue of overpopulation. It is a rising concern, particularly in developing nations. Many people in power argue that we must attempt and look forward to the future and try to save the best for future generations. The issue now is that individuals are more concerned about the future consequences. Most scholars assert that we must attempt to create a more sustainable world to live in, one that will not have harm to the quality of life. Overpopulation needs immediate solutions as it has reached its alarming rates. This issue can be managed efficiently by the use of family planning. It is essential to educate individuals in society on the importance of family planning since many of them are not aware of the importance of family planning. It basically signifies efforts to create a balance between the resources left and the population. According to this argument, overpopulation is an immense problem that the universe faces. It is not a fictional thing, but it is real and occurring. It is a problem since it results in further issues such as poverty and shortage of resources.

Due to the problem of overpopulation, citizens in overpopulated developing countries go through hardships in order to survive. They struggle to acquire just the basic needs that include food and shelter. Such a nation barely gets any support funds on birth control. In many learning institutions, the girls leave school at an early age, and they try to make a family. Several research papers and studies have proven the lower the education, the higher the birth rate. Due to overpopulation, the argument asserts that the demand to meet the supply of food becomes a problem. The farmers fail to acquire enough land to grow their foodstuffs, which creates a lot of issues with the supply of food. Due to overpopulation, a lot of nations fail to develop and grow. It damages the economy as a result. It is associated with adverse economic outcomes ranging from impacts of deforestation, and water pollution, over-farming to global warming and eutrophication. The theoretical analysis argues that overpopulation reduces private and public capital formation, creates pressures on limited natural resources and diverts additions to capital assets to maintaining instead of increasing the stock of capital per worker.

There is also an opposing side of the overpopulation argument. Some people believe that overpopulation is not a problem and we as a human race can deal with it. The asset that we can adapt to our situations, whatever it might be, by letting it change us or we change it. A number of arguments say that there are some benefits of overpopulation in a way that more people means more work force. Overpopulation can produce more things, and more people will purchase more products. Availability of cheap labor and human resource help in economic growth. It is in a way that if the population is above the optimum size, the nation will be capable of making better use of its resources. The market size will increase hence enabling forms to take greater advantage of economies of scale. Logic indicates that s nation with overpopulation will ensure more of a demand in particular industries (Hendrixson et al., 255). For the reason that North America is a capitalist and consumerist society, many individuals would consider overpopulation as a positive effect.

The opposing side is incorrect about the issue of overpopulation. This issue has more negative impacts on society compared to the positive effects it has. Domestic and global overpopulation contributes to conflicts over energy, open space, food, water, school rooms, and numerous other problems. In developing nations, large family size is a leading cause of poor health and poverty. Overpopulation impacts the environment by producing waste and the use of natural resources—these results in increased pressure on land, loss of biodiversity, air, and water pollution (Uniyal, 29). Overgrazing and excessive deforestation by the growing population have resulted in land degradation.

In conclusion, overpopulation is an issue that negatively impacts individuals in several ways. Each person has the right to get the most basic needs, which include housing, healthcare, employment, education, food, and water. Overpopulation has been a hindrance to these basic needs. So, it is very vital that we take action today and ensure that we create awareness for the future. The government and non-governmental organizations should come together and establish initiatives on the issue of overpopulation. Overpopulation has led to several environmental and economic problems. It has led to issues like poverty, increased conflicts, environmental degradation, and a high risk of large-scale pandemics and disasters.

Works Cited

Hendrixson, Anne, and Betsy Hartmann. “Threats and burdens: Challenging scarcity-driven narratives of “overpopulation”.” Geoforum 101 (2019): 250-259.

Uniyal, Shivani, et al. “Human overpopulation: impact on environment.” Megacities and Rapid Urbanization: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice. IGI Global, 2020. 20-30.