Over Population Essay, Research Paper

Over Population

The world s population is approximately 5.9 billion,

and it is still growing. It has just about doubled in the

past forty years. We are now faced with the issue of over

population. The problem is very severe, and important. It

is controversial how many people this planet can hold. Some

are arguing that we have plenty of room, and we could fit

everyone on the state of Alaska, if we just put 10,000

people on each square mile. Alaska only makes up about one

percent of the earth s land mass. Other people argue that

we need land to grow and supply all the resources we need,

and we do not have enough for everybody. Either way the

issue is looked at though, many people are being deprived of

food, shelter and clothing because of the excess of people.

Many countries are reducing their population by

family planning. Family planning tries to promote the idea

of using some sort of birth control such as condoms, the

pill, sterilization, IUDs, or some other method. Over the

past three decades, the global percentage of couples using

some form of family planning has increased dramatically. It

has changed from less than 10, to more than 50 percent. The

amount of people who use family planning would increase if

everyone had easy accessibility to it. In some rural areas

of sub-Saharan Africa, it takes an average of two hours to

reach the nearest contraceptive provider. Often, people

cannot even afford some type of birth control. Also, many

governments ban or restrict important methods of

contraception. Japan, for instance, discourages the use of

birth control pills over the condom. Also, 60 countries

require a husband s consent for all forms of birth control.

Even though there are some conflicts with it, I think

family planning seems like the best to solve the world s

over population problem.

China s one child policy is generally denounced by a

majority of world nations. Many countries feel that it is

not right to restrict the number of children a person can

have. They believe it is a person s freedom to choose how

many kids they want. China hopes for their fertility rate

to be 1 child per woman instead of the 1.85 rate they

currently have. Even though China s policy is very

controversial, China thinks this is what they need to do in

order for their population growth to drop.

Also, China and many other countries are trying to

delay childbearing. They figure, to do this they must first

postpone the age of marriage. In Bangladesh, for example,

the average age of first marriage among woman went from

about 14.4 in 1951 to 18 in 1989. The age at first birth

followed the delay of the marriage. In developing

countries, according to the Population Council s Bongaarts,

an average 2.5 year delay in the age when a woman bears her

first child would reduce population growth by over 10

percent. This is also an effective way to slow population

rates down.

There is a great need for countries to attempt to

limit expanding populations. Many people are poor, and

starving because of severe over population problems.

Disease spreads through over populated areas, and

malnutrition is a major factor in these areas. With the

population so high, resources are running low, and there is

not enough for everyone to have everything they need.

Today, 1.3 billion of the world s people are living on the

equivalent of a dollar a day or less. Imagine how many more

would be living on that limited amount of food, and clothing

if the population expands too much more. Education would be

rare among the high population, and jobs scarce. Sooner or

later, there will be no more room on the earth for everybody

to live, and a major problem will have to be faced.

Expanding populations are dangerous things, and they need to

be dealt with as soon as possible.

In the past, technology was limited, and the large

majority of people were farmers and into agriculture. Large

families were desired to maintain the fields, and produce

more crop. Slaves and workers cost money, so women gave

birth to increase income, and productivity. The more

children families had, the more workers they owned, so

families made sure to have large households. Farmers gained

financially by having large families.

Today, most people have children to love, and

nurture. Children are usually now not a gain financially,

but a loss. Today, technology is very advanced, and office

work is more popular than agriculture. Education is very

important and parents usually provide children with money

for college, which is very expensive. There are also laws

restricting minors from working, so child labor is illegal

in most places. Parents loose lots of money in having kids,

but they do gain a sense of security, and happiness in their

lives.

In many modern countries, people don t find it

necessary, nor ideal to have children. Both parents in many

homes are often working, and children are not able to stay

home alone. Hiring a person for watching a child costs a

reasonable amount of money, and the more kids you have, the

more expensive child care is. Parents also have to pay for

a child s food, clothing, and shelter. Not to mention the

child s activities, hobbies, and education that are desired.

Single parents have an even harder time earning enough

money to care for their children. Single parents cannot

rely on another income, and have to worry about other human

beings beside themselves. Parents usually don t profit in

physical material from being parents.

Today, about 5.9 billion people live on Earth. In

the year 1950, about 2.56 people lived in the world. In

1959, approximately three billion people lived on this

planet. That is about half of what it is today. So, in

about 40 years, the population of this planet doubled. In

1970, close to 3.7 billion people lived on the earth. So,

from 1960-1970, 1.2 billion more people existed on Earth.

In 1990, about 5.3 billion people were alive on Earth. In

1993, the average annual population change dropped 1.5

million people in comparison to previous years. Even though

the number of people, or population is still rising, the

annual growth rate is starting to drop

The doubling rate or doubling time, is the time it

takes for a certain population to double. You can figure

out doubling time by using growth rate in a math equation.

The growth rate is the percentage of population gained

yearly, or any other amount of time. The doubling rate of

countries are usually expressed in years. For example,

Rwanda s population growth rate for 1997 was 8.24%, and if

Rwanda was to double at this rate, it would take 8 years to

do so. The world s growth rate for 1999 is predicted to be

1.27%. The doubling rate for the world, or any place is

figured out the same way as the countries.

Over population effects are very harmful. Over

crowding of people causes sicknesses, and diseases.

Resources and food will be scarce, and conditions will not

be healthy. If things continue how things are going

concerning population, we are going to encounter major

problems in the future. We are starting to feel the effects

of over population today, in the future it will be a whole

lot worse. The US is not too crowded compared to many other

countries, and the fertility rate of North America is just

a little below two. Although we haven t experienced too

much of the impact of over population compare to other

countries, we will eventually be hit hard by the

ever-growing problem of over population.