Overpopulation

Overpopulation

There are many problems that effect that world today. I believe that over population is one, if not the biggest problem of the twenty-first century. Many people do not know that every second of the day an average of 4.3 babies are born in the world. (Population Reference Bureau [P.R.B.], 2001.) " The 20th century began with a world populate by 1.6 billion people and will end with 6 billion inhabitants-with most of the growth occurring in poor countries, demographers estimate." (Feinsilber, 1998. P. 1) Today entering the twenty-first century the population is about six billion. (P.R.B., 2001) Also, every year the world's population will grow over seventy-eight million. (Sullivan, 1999. P.3) Meaning the world may very well already be over populated. We as the people living on this earth need to do something about it for the future generations.

The human population is growing rapidly for various reasons. The rise in living standards plays a big role in the increase since the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution provided a lot more jobs that were available for the people in the community. The pay has even increased which allows people to have more children because they have

the money to support a larger family. Medicines, better doctors, better housing, and a better way of life than before all increase the life expectancy of humans on this earth. Everyday newer medicines and vaccines are created to help people fight disease and sicknesses that used to kill off humans in the past years. Mothers and their newborns because of highly educated doctors, have a much better chance of survival during birth. Which in earlier times would often be rare. (For both mother and child to survive) Even a lot of religions today in the world discourage the use of birth control. Keeping the control of how many children a family has up to "God" or whomever is being worshiped. Also in this world, the husband of the family feels the need to continue the family name. In order for this to happen the family must have a boy. While these families try for a boy they can never be certain, instead they might have four or more girls before the mother gives birth to a baby boy. Immigration, which is the movement of people into a country, plays another role in the growth of the population. As people move into other countries with more jobs and better medicinal services the desire to have children rises. Knowing that their children's future will benefit from the specific country they immigrated too. (Cunningham-Saigo, 2001. P. 151-152)

Overpopulation is a main cause for many of today's environmental problems for several reasons. Some of the problems that overpopulation contributes to are ocean depletion, food shortages, water shortages, air pollution, water pollution, and also global warming. The more people that are on this earth causes more resources to be used which results in more waste created. A child born today in the United States for instance will

produce fifty-two tons of garbage and consume eleven million gallons of water by the age of seventy-five. ("World Overpopulation Awareness", 1998) That's only taking into consideration garbage and water! One can just imagine how much more resources will be used up by just one human being, within an average life span. Many natural resources that we are using today, if continued to be used as quickly, will deplete from the earth and will never return. Many resources are vital for survival. By using them up quickly we are not benefiting ourselves, but we are ruining our future. Conserving the resources would benefit our futures greatly. The truth is we should only be using the worlds natural resources as fast as they can replenish themselves. Today that does not seem to be happening. Another problem that is caused by overpopulation is the changing of the climate. Burning fossil fuels and deforesting the earth increases the greenhouse gas levels. This eventually heats the earth, which could have various dangerous effects like the depletion of the ozone layer. ("World Overpopulation Awareness", 1998) "1998 was the hottest year ever recorded since keeping record began in 1886, and the 14 hottest years have occurred since 1980." (Sullivan, 1999.P.4) Another major effect of overpopulation is acid rain, which is caused by air pollution. Air pollution is caused by