OVERPOPULATION

Overpopulation

Overpopulation

Introduction

The world is becoming an overly crowded place. The population of the world has doubled in the last 40 years; in 1999, we welcomed the six billionth resident of Earth. In 1960, there were only 3 billion living human beings and prior to that the first time the human population eclipsed 1 billion people was in 1804. Even still, the largest youth population the world has ever seen is just entering its reproductive years.

Momentum is the gathering speed behind population growth. Momentum is propelled by the number of females in a population at child-bearing age combined with the number of females who have yet to reach child-bearing age, because both female groups have the potential to increase population growth for another generation. Momentum fosters economic growth and technological advancements, intensifying production of natural resources; this exerts more pressure upon resources.

Overpopulation and It Effect

The growth in population has put even greater stress on the already strained earthly resources needed to sustain life. As it is now, nearly 1/3 of the population does not have fresh water at all. If the population continues to grow as it has, conservation of the most precious resource we have will not be enough. Another resource imperative to our survival is soil, which can be eroded from farms at nearly 7 ½ tons per second. Currently there is "only 11% of the world's soil that can be farmed without being irrigated, drained, or otherwise improved." Without fertile topsoil, our food supply will diminish drastically leaving an even greater part of the earth population starving (Wright, 67-90).

Each month, five million people abandon their land and go to town. Since 1960 it has doubled the population of the world. Quality of life and the environment suffer for these drastic changes.

United Nations has released a report on World Population ...