Will The World Starve? Essay, Research Paper

Will the World Starve?

Looking out a window upon a barren desert, a dry wasteland unfolds as a carpet to

nowhere. Abandoned cities dot the horizon, as the ruins speak volumes to the once

populated extravagance of a country which lived on wealth and opportunity. The vision

just described is not one out of a Hollywood movie script, but one that is not only possible

but probable. Currently, the world population numbers over six billion, with China alone

cradling over one-sixth of the world?s total population. With the world population

increasing at a rate of one hundred million a year, the numbers are expected to hit ten

billion by the end of 2040. Most scientists agree that the maximum number of people that

the earth can sustain is fifteen billion, leaving the earth in a quandary before the end of the

twenty-first century when the total world population is expected to reach a staggering

sixteen to eighteen billion. The consumption of the world?s natural resources due to this

exponential growth could result in worldwide famine, a complete breakdown in the world

market, uncontrollable outbreaks of disease, and widespread crime and disorder.

Currently, the ratio of land which can be used for agricultural endeavors is

estimated to be one in nine acres. The world?s produce producer is only a small sliver of a

total land mass apple pie sliced into nine equal, yet tiny slices and as the amount of soil

suitable for agriculture dwindles, the slice with which the world relies on continues to

shrink. Considering the little amount of available farmland, it should be expected that there

would be more of an effort to conserve this vital resource, but unfortunately the issue has

not yet risen to a level of global importance. The amount of fertile topsoil is becoming

more and more unusable for agriculture. Water, used for the irrigation of the world?s life

giving crops, contains naturally dissolved minerals and over time the minerals from the

irrigated water supply collect in the topsoil. After many years of constantly farming a

particular region, the soil begins to become less and less fertile. This process, known as

salinization, has affected many of the farms around the world. Once this process is

complete, the soil becomes totally useless for any kind of farming. Over long periods of

time, salinization, combined with the erosion of the topsoil due to wind and rain, starts to

cause the world?s farmlands to exponentially dissipate. Ethiopia is a prime example of

how salinization, combined with overgrazing and erosion, has affected every aspect of the

economy. Food shortages, lack of domestic trade products, and low incomes for farmers

and agricultural workers are all bi-products of a land ravaged by overuse and abuse. With

the people scrambling to find a quick fix solution to this problem that has been building for

decades, the economy along with the people?s only domestic food source, is slipping

further and further into a seemingly unrecoverable disaster.

The earth?s industry is expected to produce enough manufactured materials to

support the world?s current six billion people. The list of finished products includes food

(from agriculture), clothes and all other luxuries which most of the world has become

accustomed. If most scientists are correct, the maximum capacity of which the world can

sustain is estimated to be fifteen billion people. Maximum capacity is described as the

amount of people that can be sustained without causing a complete breakdown in society.

Numerous scientists have speculated that many of the world?s natural resources used to

support current life such as clean water and air, gasoline, oil, and even coal will almost be

completely depleted up by the end of the century. With decimated natural resources, a

lack of topsoil, and a completely over-populated planet, anthropologists have agreed that

the end of the century, if not before, will culminate in a complete breakdown of industry in

the world market. With this extinction of resources looming, it is obvious that new

methods of energy and topsoil conservation need to be discovered. Speculation has been

made that it is too late to turn back the dependence which humans have developed for

natural resources. How can anyone be expected to turn away from their gas-powered cars

and their electric houses? If, however, the current rate of consumption continues, then

there is no doubt what the future will hold.

Since 1950 half of the world?s trees have been cut down and every day six square

acres of rain forest are lost to the hum of a loggers chainsaw. With the complete

destruction of the world?s forests due to over-population and over-consumption, a

complete lack of the world?s naturally made medicine will also be prevalent. Nearly all of

the currently prescribed medicines are, in fact, naturally made from plants. Antivirus

medicines are produced from animals and even fish. If the world?s ways of making

medicinal products for many of the most extreme diseases such as AIDS are completely

eradicated, disease will spread rampantly into most major societies. Almost all of the

world?s industrialized countries are very dependent on the treatment of many deadly

diseases. In Africa, one in every five persons is infected with HIV, with fifteen hundred

new cases discovered daily. Without medicines, diseases like tuberculosis and malaria will

become plagues across society, infecting all who come in contact.

With the complete breakdown of civilization, which could occur based on the basic

overpopulation of the world; crime and disorder would surely follow. Famine and poverty

stricken economies have been known to cause the people to revolt, resulting in a coup

d?etat. Looting and robbery just to survive and feed one?s family have been shown to

become the most prevailing crimes, followed by a tremendous spike in the amount of

murders that would occur due to internal strife and frustration of a hopeless situation.

With society in such a breakdown, no resources for the military or food for it?s people

there is no way in which a government could control the revolting population. A prime

example of this occurred this summer in Mozambique. The rains, which flooded the land,

left the country at a standstill. There was no way for people to obtain food. Many were

trapped in their household due to the floods. Farm animals, washed away by the rains, lay

rotting in the now barren, stripped fields. The results were ones of violence in the streets

and mass emigration to Mozambique?s bordering countries, thus putting a strain on the

boarder patrols of South Africa as they tried to control the influx of refugees. Now the

water has receded, but the problem of too many people, too little food and way too much

frustration plague Mozambique. Could one small African country provide the real life

example for what could happen if the people are left without hope and a complete

breakdown of the civilization occurs? Maybe the more prevalent question should be; will

the world learn from Mozambique?s tragedy?

A bleak, desolate world where the inhabitants live on substance pills instead of

natural food? A military struggling to maintain the order within it?s own boarders? The

land laying fallow for decades upon decades? Plagues without hope of a cure? Is this the

vision that the future holds for this great, blue planet? If steps are not taken by the time the

world reaches maximum capacity, society as a whole could come crashing down before

the populace?s eyes. Many scientists need to ask and answer the question of how the

exponentially increasing population will be handled. The end of the century may seem a far

way off, but from the chair which sees the big picture, the closeness of the new age is only

around the corner. Hopefully, with scientific and social awareness, the problems which

overpopulation creates will be at the best solved and at the very least resolved. The world

in which the children should grow and develop should be one of hope, joy and light, not a

place of barren, dry wastelands, plagues riveting the society and abandoned cities.

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