OVERPOPULATION 0

OVERPOPULATION

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Overpopulation

As of November 2018, the population of the world stands at 7.7 billion people. This

population is estimated to be 9.5 to 10 billion people by 20501. The rapid increase in the number

of people is outpacing the earth’s ability to support it, putting a strain on the environment and

essential aspects like adequacy of water and food security. This paper will analyze the causes and

implication of increase in human population, and potential ways to solve the problem. This paper

will argue on the use of better farm practices, blue revolution, and importance of education and

awareness to counter the effects of increase of human population.

Causes

For one to understand the gravity of increase in human population- overpopulation, one

has to be able to identify the root causes of the menace. Simply defined, overpopulation is a

rapid increase in the number of people, without an increase in the resources that can meet their

demands. The increase in the population on earth has put a strain on the available resources that

earth can provide to sufficiently meet demands on it. Increase in number of human population

has been caused by several factors. These include improvement in scientific research,

advancement in technology, immigration, and lack of family planning2.

The improvement in scientific research has brought about a reduction in death rates. A

difference in birth and death rates has resulted into an imbalance that favors the birth rates. The

documentary, The Food of the Future, reveals that the population doubles after every 25 years3.

The moderator argues that the earth is struggling to produce enough food for the current

1
"World population projection." UN DESA. July 29. Accessed November 5, 2018.
www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/
2
Singh, R.L., and P.K. Singh. "Global Environmental Problems ." Principles and Applications of Environmental
Biotechnology for a Sustainable Future (2017): 22
3
“The Food of the Future.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpCgzk_
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population, meaning that the future might be more challenging. Therefore, children who are born

in a year are more than those who die to stabilize the population, leading to an increase in

population. Also, scientific research has resulted in decrease in mortality rates, in that, children

are able to live longer lives than they were decades ago, but people still give birth to a lot of

children to counter from possible child mortalities that they may occur. Advancement in

technology has caused the improvement in medical facilities, better and stronger species of crops

for food production, and progressed how human beings procreate such as through artificial

insemination.

Immigration has come about due to people moving to other places in search of better

paying jobs, medication, and security. The destination ends up having more people than it can

handle due to the increase in demand for food, accommodation, and energy. This has had a ripple

effect on the environment in linked ways that are discussed later in this paper. Lack of family

planning is an issue in developing nations that have a large population of semi-literate and

illiterate people who live below the poverty line. These part of the population have no knowledge

of family planning practices and thus are most likely to produce more kids than they can take

care of.

Impacts

The increase in population has had very severe effects on the environment. These effects

range from environmental, to social, and economic impacts. The environmental impacts

depletion of natural resources, environmental degradation, global warming, and food insecurity.

The social impacts include conflicts and wars, poverty, and unemployment. Economic effects

include increase in cost of living.

Depletion of natural resources

The earth can only produce enough resource to sufficiently meet the demands of a given

number of people. Most depletion of natural resources have been witnessed in the past seventy

years. Water sources and catchment areas have been affected due to the need to satisfy the large

number of people. The loss of water as a natural resource has been due to water pollution,

eutrophication, and rise in water stressed regions. Water stressed regions are areas with the

demand of water exceeding the supply of available usable water. It is estimated that by 2030,

over two thirds of world’s population will be living in conditions of water shortages due to water

stressed regions.

Environmental degradation

The rise in number of people increases the need for energy to be used. There is thus need

to find the sources of energy exploit them fully. This has resulted in increase in use of oil, natural

gas, and coal. Extraction of the afore mentioned ingredients of energy have resulted in

environmental degradation in the form of threat of habitat, such as oil spills in oceans that

threaten marine life, loss of habitat due to the craters that have been left from coal mining, and

decrease in coral reefs due to the oil wells dug up in the oceans. Environmental degradation has

also been witnessed in terms of deforestation-whereby trees have been fell to create space for

agriculture and settlement of the ever increasing population. Also, deforestation has resulted in

the loss of habitat in the environments where it has occurred.

Global warming

The increase in number of human beings on earth has a direct bearing on global warming.

Through the exploded use of fossil fuel, cutting down of tress to create space to practice
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agriculture and settle, and high demand of mineral fuels, the human beings have directly

contributed to climate change. These fuels, when burnt, produce enough Carbon (IV) Oxide gas

that is able to trap warm air from the earth under a blanket in the atmosphere- a phenomenon

called greenhouse effect. Industrialization in developed countries and the desire of developing

countries to be like developed countries intensifies the increase in the greenhouse effect4. The

effects of global warming are evident as it has caused rise in sea levels, temperature spikes and

heat waves, and melting of the global glacial deposits in the North Pole.

Food insecurity

A large population requires a constant and reliable supply of food to sustain them. An

increase in population increases food demand, which increases land needed for agriculture,

which has a ripple effect on the environmental effect due to the stress that the environment will

incur to produce food. The yield of existing farmlands in highly populated areas can’t adequately

meet the demand of food by the population and thus, leads to an increase in prices of the

commodities. Food insecurity is thus realized5. Food insecurity is serious in developing countries

that are witnessing an increase in population without an equal increase in their agricultural

capacities. By 2030, over 2 billion people will food insecure and the number is set to increase by

double digits in 2050. Food insecurity and consequent security is coupled with global warming

and loss of fresh water sources. Food insecurity is also a factor of linked aspects such as a high

number of semi-literate and illiterate people in the developing countries with an increase in

population. The lack of education and learning has made some of the individuals rely on

4
Pearce, Fred. "It's Not Overpopulation That Causes Climate Change, it's Overconsumption." Climate Change
(2014): 308.
5
Hendrixson, Anne, and Betsy Hartmann. "Threats and burdens: Challenging scarcity-driven
narratives of “overpopulation”." Geoforum (2018).
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outdated farming methods that do not rep maximum yields and thus further the menace of food

insecurity.

Conflicts and wars

In developing countries, overpopulation has accelerated the stress put on the available

resources to ensure unbiased development. The need for basic utilities that are scarce like water

and energy has caused tensions between regions and nations alike. These tensions may lead to

conflicts and wars. The increase in population has also led to spread of diseases and mutation of

the pathogens that are becoming harder manage. Wars that sprout in regions of political

instability have made it difficult for them to develop since everyone wants a piece and no one

wants to share from the little that exists in their midst.

Poverty and unemployment

Poverty is the brand of increase in human population. In its trail, exist unemployment. A

country or region that exhibits an increase in the number of people in it without an increase in

resources or work to keep the ever growing population busy is bound to experience serious levels

of unemployment and below the line poverty. There are high chances of this becoming worse

than it is if proper measures to control the situation are not put in place and factors that lead to

increase in population are not set. The rise in unemployment has a chain effect on the society by

giving rise to crime and use of drugs so as to find ways of meeting basic needs for life and

escaping the harsh truth about reality.

High cost of living

This is caused due to the high disparity between demands for and supply of required

goods and services. The very factors of production required to come up with satisfactory goods
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and services to meet the demands of a growing population are scarce. This scarcity, coupled with

over population, leads to an increase in the price of basic needs such as food, shelter, and

clothing. Similarly, the scarcity of the resources leads to higher prices of auxiliary services like

education, healthcare, transport etc. This cycle results to people having to spend more money in

finding means of survival than thriving in the societies they live in.

Solutions

There are several possible solutions to counter overpopulation and its social, economic,

and environmental effects. These mitigation measures have been tailored to address each of the

aforementioned impacts of increased number of human beings on earth. Education, training,

awareness, and putting up of policies are mitigation measures that cut across the board.

Blue revolution

Like green revolution is aimed at managing of the green environment such as forests and

forest habitat, the blue revolution the other side of the ‘environment coin’ that focuses on

management of the available water resources in order to ensure that people have access to a

reliable supply of suitable water for use. Due to the looming fact that more than a third of the

global population will not have access to suitable water in the next two decades, the blue

revolution seeks measures to protect the current fresh water bodies from degradation,

exploitation, and polluting of the water sources so as to ensure that everyone has access to the

water, and preserving the habitat and environment at the same time6. Through methods such as

water harvesting, blue revolution has been able to redirect the purpose of rainfall as an agent of

growing crops to a source of reliable water if properly stored.

6
Islam, Md Saidul. Confronting the blue revolution: industrial aquaculture and sustainability in the global south.
University of Toronto Press, 2014.
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The moderator in the documentary also claims that the use of genetic engineering could help in

producing food products with desirable characteristics. This could be beneficial in improving

food security. The only challenge is having people appreciating the foods produced through

genetic engineering.

Environmental education

This involves teaching programs to inform the population about ways of taking care of

the environment. Environmental education will involve the design of environmental education

programs which can be sufficiently be assessed before and after administering controls,

education on preservation of consumable products, and teaching from a world’s point of view-

that every decision made and action taken on the environment has a resulting reaction on the

environment, somewhere else. Also, proper education on the nonlinear orientation of nature such

as its tipping point features, conservation-orientated legislation, and use of critical thinking skills

are possible measures to be fused into most of the education curriculums around the world.

Environmental education can also be taught through awareness programs such as new

ways of farming that would support food security and promote good environmental use at the

same time. Measures such as agroforestry- planting trees and growing of crops to ensure a

creation of a microclimate that protects the crops against extreme weather conditions are useful.

Agroforestry improves the quality of soil, maintains flow of CO2 in the atmosphere, and curbs

soil erosion. Other measures include crop rotation aids to conserve a soil’s productivity ability,

reduce chances of pests and diseases spreading, and produce sufficient and different types of

crop produce from the land. It also controls the crop needs for nutrients by sharing of nutrients

amongst crops as they grow7. Intercropping and polyculture ensure food security for an ever
7
Hendrixson, Anne, and Betsy Hartmann. "Threats and burdens: Challenging scarcity-driven narratives of
“overpopulation”." Geoforum (2018).
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growing population through growth of more than two types of crops at the same time and growth

of different species of the crops in the same piece of land. This ensures food security by killing

two birds with one stone.

Policies

Policies can be put on social matters such as family planning in order to control the

population. Through education on family planning, methods, the policies put will be well

understood and accepted by the populations as they will be able to see the importance of the

measure. Also, policies on environmental use can be put to ensure that the corporations that are

engaged in activities that degrade the environment should conduct environmentally friendly

practices such as reclamation and rehabilitation of land after mining, and reforestation projects.

Some measures can also be put to ensure that the critical environmental aspects such as water

catchment areas re protected by law. Lastly, policies can be made to manage energy use and

come up with ways of using renewable energy such as solar, wind, and tidal sources are

preferred to non-renewable sources. All these mitigation measures, coupled with supervision and

improvement, will control population growth, ensure food security, and make the world a better

place to live in.

Bibliography

Hendrixson, Anne, and Betsy Hartmann. "Threats and burdens: Challenging scarcity-driven

narratives of “overpopulation”." Geoforum (2018).

Pearce, Fred. "It's Not Overpopulation That Causes Climate Change, it's Overconsumption."

Climate Change (2014): 306-310.

Islam, Md Saidul. Confronting the blue revolution: industrial aquaculture and sustainability in t
he global south. University of Toronto Press, 2014.
Singh, R.L., and P.K. Singh. "Global Environmental Problems ." Principles and Applications of

Environmental Biotechnology for a Sustainable Future (2017): 13-41.

“The Food of the Future.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpCgzk_4Yp8

"World population projection." UN DESA. July 29. Accessed November 5, 2018.

www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/