Overpopulation: A condition where the total population of a particular region far exceeds the carrying capacity of that region.
Over the past few months my blog has been centered around changes in the environment and what causes these changes. I have discussed everything from rising water levels to how our pets effect the planet, now I'm going to conclude by talking about how the planets growing population is impacting the environment around us.
There is no doubt that one of the leading causes of climate change is distributing harmful greenhouse gasses into the air. We do this on a daily basis by driving cars and heating our homes (as well as many other things). Although many people have realized that their daily activities are harming the atmosphere and have begun to reduce their carbon footprint, it doesn't really help when there are constantly more feet being brought into the world! Every child born in the U.S. will add about 9,441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the carbon legacy of the average parent. That's a lot when families now have and average of three children per household.
Earth is becoming overpopulated because of many reasons: a drop in death rates, a rise in birth rates, migration and a lack of education on this subject. Modern medicine and a higher standard of living are the main reasons for the drop in death rates and the rise in birth rates. Over the years we have been able to find ways to keep people alive longer (which is a good thing) by finding ways to treat many diseases. Medicine can not only prevent death, it can aid in conception as well. The migration of people from one area to another also effects the population growth as well; when certain areas become overpopulated, their resources are depleted faster. Many places are unaware of the quickly rising population because they are not educated about it. People in less developed areas are not taught about birth control and family planning so they continue to bring children into the world that they can't even take care of.
Overpopulation begins to take place when families have more than two children (their replacements). Having more people than the world can handle creates an environmental issue because there will soon be a scarcity of living space and resources that the human race needs in order to survive.
Resources:
1) Water. Right now only 3% of the water on Earth is available for drinking, and with a population increase of 1.2%, we will run out of this valuable resource very quickly!
2) Land mass. Our available land will also begin to disappear with more people being added to the world. More people means the will need more homes to raise their families. This not only means that we will have closer neighbors but it means a, increase in pollution, deforestation, and a loss of animal habitats.
We need to stabilize the amount of people that there are in this world; but how do we tell someone that they can't have more then two kids? Sure, we can educated them about the impact that it has on the planet but chances are that won't stop them. I think that all we can do is educate the upcoming generations about this problem through health and ecology classes but we shouldn't deny someone the right to have a third child. What do you guys think?
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campagins/overpopulation
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/causes-of-overpopulation.html
The industrial revolution was probably a major contributing factor to this problem because there was a ton of urbanization during that time. As medicine became more advanced and there was plumbing and more sanitation there were less deaths in the slums and in general and I assume this is when over population of the world really took place. Education really is the best way to fight back in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWow I didn't know that a baby adds 9,441 metric tons of carbon. We need to really do something about this issue.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an issue and as my posts says Earth could hold up to 147 billion people, but only if we were living very, very consciously of our environment. Education is extremely important and hopefully we can fix this issue before it's to late.
ReplyDeletePeople really need to consider the amount of children they have. Two replaces the parents, but more then that just adds to the amount of people over the carrying capacity of earth. Adoption is a great alternative if somebody wants more children. It also gives them a family they may never have had.
ReplyDeleteWell if the population is such a big issue there should be more done to control it. I don't see Obama and his friends coming out with how many children you can have. Maybe it needs to be addressed in Washington.
ReplyDeleteI agree with matt. More people need to consider the effects of having so many kids. We need to educate everyone on this and hopefully they will choose to have only two kids or adoption.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny how something so small as even a can substantially impact the environment. In Gabby's post it says that our world can populate 147 billion people but after reading your blog it seems that would be disastrous. Especially because it doesn't seem like the world will ever reach a time where population growth is balanced with death rate or even less than the deaths.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Annie. Birth control and education on birth control needs to become more widely available. Even our sex ed. class hardly covers anything about sex, let alone birth control and condoms. If people understood the impact of their kids, maybe they will think more about reducing their family size.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more, the population is getting out of control but how do we stop it? I think Matt put it best, people need to realize what they're doing. The only way we can do this is to educate and hope they're listening. Unfortunately that might not be enough and our planet could be destroyed from our own stupidity.
ReplyDeletePopulation is a really BIG issue that needs a change. Were are overpopulating, there are may orphans in the world that need adoption. I think adoption needs to be promoted and more convenient for people so that they know its really is an option for them, and that these children need them. Today there are over 143 million orphans in the world. This number needs to be decreased.
ReplyDeleteI like what Matt said about the adoption thing and how if you want kids you should think about and think about how you could help make a young one have a better life. There are people like the ones on tv how have that show with like 20 kids. They don't really help the fact that there is a population problem.
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