There Are Too Many People? Will We Survive? Essay, Research Paper

There are too many people? will we survive?

Do you feel that we have the right to enjoy natural beauty? The right to decent, uncrowned shelter? The right to eat healthy food and drink pure water? To breathe clean air and avoid pesticide poisoning? Most people would say everyone has a right to all of these things, but in some areas of the world these rights are not being met.

Overpopulation is becoming a bigger concern as the growth rate continues to skyrocket. Overpopulation is sometimes misunderstood or mistaken with other issues. Overpopulation does not deal with crowding, but in fact, density is irrelevant to questions of. What is relevant is carrying capacity. Carrying capacity refers to how much an area can hold having all things at equilibrium, including all plants and animals. An area is overpopulated when its long-term carrying capacity is being degraded by its current occupants. Some people say the earth is not overpopulated since the United States can produce more food and products than are used. That is true in the U.S. Now if you look at it worldwide the products we have are often from other countries. These other countries are often not as well off. These other countries are either in severe poverty or their cities are becoming overcrowded. Although the U.S. is not in trouble at this time, when you look at the whole world you may see a different picture. Eventually the rest of the world will also have an effect on us.

The impact we have on the environment has to do with three factors. The first is the number of people. The more people there are the more resources are used. If too many resources begin to be used they will run out before they get a chance to be replaced. Leaving all plant and animal life with nothing and everything will eventually die off. The rainforests are a good example of this. The second is the amount of resources consumed by the average person. If people become wasteful and don’t conserve resources now, the resources that were wasted will not be able to be used in the future. The United States is one of the most wasteful countries there is; I know this because of how much unnecessary stuff I use and throw away. We are more wasteful than necessary. Recycling has helped quite a bit, but the problem has not yet been fixed. The third is the environmental damage caused in the manufacturing of the goods consumed. Manufacturing grows as people demand more manufactured goods. If too much manufacturing takes place many plants and animals begin to suffer. It may not have an impact on us for a while, but after many years pass, the availability of food, water, and shelter will begin to decrease.

Overpopulation does not only affect the environment, but also in turn hurts humans. By overpopulating the world it can lead wide spread poverty. As more and more people are on this planet the resources become more and more exhausted. As the human race continues to grow, other plant life and animal life begin to disappear. And the fact is we can’t live without the other plant life and animal life. By keeping the population of the world at reasonable numbers; pollution levels, diseases, and resources will be able to be maintained at reasonable levels.

All governments can make an effort to help this along by, first of all educating people world wide what problems are caused by overpopulation. Educating the public is a major step toward controlling population. By educating the public they can then make better decisions on how to go about having and raising children and can set there own limitations. To educate the public the U.S. government can get the support of other organizations and set up places worldwide to help slow the growth rate by educating people.

Most of all, the people of the world, including you, are the ones who have to sit back and think about the consequences of overpopulating our world and realize that something has to be done. If the government and the people work together at this issue, we could reach a state of equilibrium. Where the birth and death rate are equal. If this happens disease will be less likely and other issues like pollution will be more easily controlled. With the governments and your help overpopulation could become a problem of the past and the human race can continue on along with all of the other plant and animal life around us.