Overpopulation Essay, Research Paper

It s a dark, cold, rainy night. The wind chill can be compared to that of Arctic wastelands, only the rain won t freeze and disappear upon contact to your skin, instead the freezing cold ice-rain pierces your flesh like a million needles. The cold doesn t subdue. A dark, small, shadowy object can be seen scurrying across the unlit streets. This dreary atmosphere does Hell s Kitchen in the New York ghetto no justice. Just the sight of steam rising from sewer grills, the sound of gunshots in the distance, and the smell of rotten fish makes this an unsavory environment to be exposed to. The shadowy object seems to be on a mission. Looking back and forth as though being hunted by a beast of great stature, the shadowy object makes its way through alleyways, dank streets, and eerie overpasses. Shivering with each step it takes, the shadowy figure looks worn and used out from a night of wear and tear, and appears to be running out of gas. The spectacle of shadow finds a vacant, long deserted, decrepit wooden box, and immediately finds it as a place of seclusion.

So tired, how can I get home? I wish those gangstas never stole my bike Thought Little Billy to himself, Maybe Ill just sleep here for the night.

Just then, at that very moment in time, A dark looking man, wearing a black trench coat and boots, comes dashing down that back alley, running as fast as he could until he reached that wooden box, he suddenly came to a perfect stop about ten feet from Little Billy. Almost, as though paralyzed by fear, Little Billy just stares at the bizarre man with a petrified gaze. In return, the man simply stares back at the Belittled Billy, and hesitates before he speak, which seems like an eternity to one Little Billy.

Hiya! , said the man, in a friendly tone of voice. Little Billy opened his mouth as though to speak, but only to get interrupted by a prudent mystery man. Lemme introduce myself, I m Jim Sinepson, and I m a fellow street bum. What brings a nice little boy to these mean streets where homicide and illegal activity is prevalent? Again, Little Billy began to open his mouth, hesitating and stuttering through sheer intimidation. Well, I see that you ve moved into this box here? Well, I m not sure if this is the best box to spend your night in Yeah, my friend Bob was picked off here last week

Little Billy, finally able to break through his inability to speak, breaks his silence and says,

P-P-P-Picked off?

Yeah man, and the week before that, it was Jason but they didn t actually get him IN the box, he tried to escape, they didn t catch him until he got Points with his finger, Right there!

Who . does this?

Ahh, my little na ve friend, the assailants vary from crazy, maniacal murders to fellow street bums just looking for a better place to stay, the last particular attendant was picked off , but don t let that discourage you, I d say they wont find you for a few days or so.

A very frightened Little Billy looks Jim up and down, Uhhhh how can I get away from them? I m lost and I need to find my way

Ahh, you re a little boy that decided to run away from home due to a petty offense in the home of some sort, I m guessing you either forgot to take out the garbage or got a bad report card. I ve seen thousands of people like you in my day, and they always end up around here Ya know, there s only a 5% survival rate among little children who run away from their parents in this ghetto. Luckily I found you, so I can lead you home and make sure your not just another statistic.

F-F-F-Five percent? Please take me home! cried Little Billy, showing nothing but frustration and regret.

Ahh . the way home, first before we begin our travels let me ask you a question have you seen any people in your little visit here to my neck of the woods? Jim sees Little Billy s vacant look. Didn t think so do you know why? Before Little Billy is able to answer, Jim does the honors for him. Well, little one, the reason is a large part due to the economy, overpopulation, and overall, the way things work in our strange, anarchist s society. Out here, in the boondocks as I d like to call it, the is a very small population of people due to the striking of mass murderers, overcoming of people with diseases, and the low life expectancy of the habitants of this great village.

Little Billy continues to stares at Jim in fear as Jim pauses between thoughts. I just wanna go ho ..

But don t fear little guy , Jim continues, Its not like that in every part in our great society as a whole these rules only apply to places like this, filled with detriment and depravity . Lemme tell you a little something about our little overpopulation problem kiddo. Its cities like New York, Miami, and Los Angeles that most contributes to our society s plight. People out in the world are using up the world s natural resources every day without any consideration for the consequences at stake, they reproduce like rabbits in the middle of spring, and are overall killing the earth as you see it! I know you probably come from a little nice suburban town with low crime rates, good police patrolling, and a seemingly controlled environment. But you have to look deeper my friend as you should know, every little town just like yours runs off an economy thrives off taxes and spendings if you will. After a while these factors and others take their toll on society, like the depleting of resources, uncaring use of goods, pollution, and unnecessary reproduction, which causes people to expand the city, form unnecessary amounts of government spending, and that all contributed to the town s downfall. You think I m lying I ve got proof my little friend I m living in it! This place is the perfect example of what happens to a town when overpopulation and poor upkeep takes its toll. I have actual facts to back this up too!

At this point in Little Billy s life, he realizes that he might not actually want this guy to take him home, and starts to sneak off in mid-ramble.

Hey, hey now! Don t you want to find your way home little tyke? You don t need to go without me! says Jim, as he grabs Little Billy by the shoulder and pulls him close. Just sit and let me share with you some fascinating information about our world, and the problems it faces. Jim sits, and forces a fear-stricken Little Billy to sit down with him. As he settles in, he puts his arm around the helpless Little Billy and continues his tale.

Ya know, little friend, there are a lot of people out there with really pessimistic ideals about the topic of overpopulation. I, myself, am not one of them however, lets get this straight right here, right now. Yes, I know, I said that people are killing the earth with their use of natural resources and reproduction up the wazoo . But the fact of the matter is, there s always a way to counter most of these problems. This city here as sorry as I am to say this, but its beyond help, certain poor economic decisions made this place what you see it as today. Anyways, as I was saying, there are many pessimists that believe that a world with over 1 billion people is overpopulated that would mean our world has been suffering the effect of overpopulation for a good two centuries now! And look at our world now, its at one of its all time highest peaks as far as economic activity and living conditions are what do you think about that?

Little Billy is completely petrified with fear, the only sounds he s making are some barely audible whimpering sounds, unfortunately, Jim is too busy rambling on about overpopulation to notice Little Billy s lack of interest and proximity to overwhelming disdain.

Well, when I first heard that I, too, was at a loss for words! Despite what those naysayers think, there are documented FACTS that state that the economy is actually more successful where there is higher population and less successful economy where the population is less. Ya know, maybe overpopulation occurs when population growth outstrips available resources . Some cultures in the past DID apparently outgrow their resource bases, but the past few centuries have been marked by enormous economic growth, which exceeded the increase in population. Yes, world population increased dramatically during this century, but the world s standard of living increased even faster. Overpopulation is, in fact, a subjective evaluation. There is no optimal population level encoded in the DNA structure of human beings. It is my theory that overpopulation should be defined as a situation where it is impossible to provide everyone on Earth a living standard at the subsistence level. If that is indeed a good measure, then not only is the world

not overpopulated now, but it is extremely unlikely, based on long-term trends, that it will ever be overpopulated in the future. But why should anyone accept this definition of overpopulation? Because it contains several features other attempts at defining overpopulation fail to provide.

It is easy enough to take world supplies of water, food and other goods and divide them by the current

world population. Vague definitions, heard occasionally, that overpopulation occurs whenever a person or group of people feel the world is too populated simply don t belong in serious discussions of the problem.

More importantly, it avoids the politically charged and confusing debate about optimal lifestyles. Some who believe the world is currently overpopulated end up on both sides of this debate. On the one hand, some advocates claim having enough food and water is not enough, since many of the commodities the Western world believes makes life tolerable are not strictly necessities. From access to “adequate” health care to air conditioning, there s a case to be made that the basic level of human consumption long ago left behind the minimums I propose behind. On the other hand, that consumption itself has critics who point to Western developments in technology and especially consumer culture as the worst turn of events in the thousands of years of our species existence. I prefer to completely avoid this debate and set survival as the standard. The effects of a world where only a few can afford a color television set are debatable. The effects of a world where only a few can afford minimum supplies of food and water are immediate and obvious — that deprivation leads quickly to death. This definition does not require that everyone have immediate access to minimum food and water requirements. Although much progress has been made in preventing famine, people still do starve to death in our world. But as will become clear, they don t do so because there is a lack of food and water. Starvation today has almost nothing to do with crop failure and everything to do with failure of political will to end hunger. And futhermore .. Hey! Hey! Wake up! What are you doing! Im trying to teach you some important life lessons!

Little Billy, from a combination of fear and boredom, fell asleep on Jim s shoulder. Jim removes his arm from around Little Billy, and stares deep into his face. Thoughts whirlwind in Jim s mind about different possibilities one would be able to do in a situation like this. As he begins contemplating his options, he realizes how much fun he s having talking about his life passion, grabs Little Billy and shakes him until his eyes open. Little Billy sees Jim through groggy eyes as he rises from his deep sleep, his vision begins to focus, and the object of his focus just happens to be Jim, much to Little Billy s discontent. Upon realizing what s going on here, Little Billy attempts to writhe free from Jim s grasp, but Jim s grasp is steadfast, and Little Billy s attempts at escape are thwarted.

Hey now! That s no way to treat your host! Just relax and listen! Jim starts again, this time with a tighter hold on Little Billy. Anyways Did you know that there are currently 5.9 billion people living in our world with us? That s alotta people isn t it? The world is so large and vast, but we play such small insignificant roles in this game. And do you know that its projected that by the year 2040 in a mere 40 years that our population will pretty much double! Now THAT S something to think about! Fortunately for us though, we have enough food and water resources to last us infinitely many years. As long as people keep living, people will keep producing, so that s not really a factor. A commonly heard objection to predictions of increasing world food production is that water and wind erosion are carrying away prime topsoil around the world, seriously degrading it and threatening to lead to lower agricultural yields in the future. Although soil erosion is a serious problem, it is nowhere near the crisis some environmentalist groups claim and should not significantly reduce future crop yields. What about pollution? Is that a problem? Your probably wondering right now aren t you? Look up there in the sky my friend, what do you see? Yeah, big, dark, thick, putrid clouds of reigning death! Although, this problem isn t prevalent in most mainstream societies. The evidence is quite clear that pollution has declined both in the United States and the rest of the world despite the large increase in world gross domestic product. Many environmentalists have claimed that as economies grow in size they become more polluting, but the evidence clearly contradicts this claim. There are a variety of explanations for why this occurs, but an obvious partial explanation is that as the economy expands more resources become available for developing cleaner and more efficient production processes. Cleaning the environment turns out to be both good for the Earth and for business. But lets look at cases of pollution separate by type. It is very difficult to get accurate statistics about pollution levels outside of the industrialized Western countries. For this reason, the focus on pollution here looks at the United States and Great Britain. Both nations survived predic .

Little Billy, seeing a window of freedom through the incessant ramblings of what seems to be a man-possessed, slips through Jim s grasp, and immediately begins bolting out of the alleyway. Jim, very angry at this turn of events, stands up with purpose, and runs out of the alleyway. Upon contact with the open streets, Jim s eyes roam back and forth through the dimly lit road. Through a thorough scan of the vicinity, Jim sees a frightened Little Billy running down the streets in panic. Jim, almost as though holding on to final strands of what might have resembled a family to him, chases down Little Billy with all of his worth. Upon catching up to the much slower, much smaller, much younger Little Billy, Jim grabs him from behind and spins him around, almost as though ready to punish the defiant young adult. Maybe by possession, maybe by desperation, Little Billy delivers a sharp piercing blow with a swift kick to places where men don t want to be kicked. Jim clutches himself. Jim falls. Little Billy runs into the mist, never to be seen again. And with his last ounce of strength, Jim reaches one arm up, extends his hand, and screams, I NEVER GOT TO TELL YOU ABOUT CHINA S ONE CHILD POLICY!! ONE CHILD POLICY, I SAY!! ONE . CHILD . POLICY!!

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