Overpopulation and the Environment

Overpopulation and the Environment

Introduction

The development and growth of human beings have witnessed growing exponentially over the years. This is attributable to the cultural, social, anthropological, political, and economic aspects that impact the course of action and perception of human beings. In addition, in a bid to provide that the survival of human beings as well as fulfilling the procreation needs, the population of humans has seen an ever-increasing trend at an alarming rate. As a result, the growth of the human population has also attracted advantages and disadvantages based on the current condition. Among the issues associated with population growth if it goes unchecked is the overpopulation factor. Over the years, overpopulation has been identified as causing more harm compared to the associated good to the majority of countries.

The paper will explore the overpopulation concept and its impact on the environment. The associated causes and impacts will be discussed and the possible solutions provided. The primary focus on the solutions is China’s one-child policy and its effects on controlling the damages to the environment.

Overpopulation

Overpopulation is described as an undesirable circumstance where the current human population is established as exceeding the Earth’s carrying capacity (Obaisi, 2017). There are numerous factors associated with the overpopulation of human races, including but not limited to better medical facilities, reduced rates of mortality, and depletion of precious resources. There is a possibility that a sparsely populated region could become densely populated in the case it is not in a position of sustaining life.

The current growth of technological advances has impacted humanity in several ways. Among these ways is the lifesaving ability as well as the creation of better medical therapy for the human population. Booming of population growth has been witnessed over the past decades, turning into overpopulation. Based on the history of our species, the population growth rate is usually balanced through the birth and death rates to attain a sustainable population.

During the 21^st century, there have been disastrous occurrences that affected the population, including natural calamities, wars, and also human-made hazards. Nevertheless, all the occurrences have not made a dent in the human population. The developing nations are considered as experiencing to a greater extent the overpopulation issue more compared to the developed nations, although it impacts the entire globe. When discussing the concept of overpopulation and the environment, it is important to understand its causes.

Causes of Overpopulation

Better medical facilities: The industrial revolution was characterized by the emergence of technology advances contributing to the balancing problem of the human population. Through science, better ways of food production have been established, allowing households to have the capacity to feed more mouths. Medical science has also, over the years, made numerous discoveries that have attained the defeat of numerous diseases across the world. Disorders that had in the past claimed the lives of thousands of human populations were cured thanks to the vaccine invention. The combination of food supply escalation with the fewer mortality tipped the balance, contributing to the start of overpopulation across the globe.

The decline in the death rate: Overpopulation usually occurs as a result of the difference in the rate of birth and death in the human population (Kobsa et al., 2018). population stabilization occurs where the birth rate is equivalent to the rate of death each year. If overpopulation exists, it demonstrates that the number of births exceed the death rate and that life expectancy is high in the majority of countries. Our ancestors discovered the practice of agriculture that resulted in the sustainability of nutrition. As a result, an imbalance between birth rate and the death rate was created.

Technology advances in fertility treatment: The current advances in technology and the increased discoveries in the field of medical science have contributed to the treatment of couples unable to conceive. In contemporary, there are medicines with the capability of increasing conception chances and result in a rise in the rate of birth. Besides, modern technologies have also increased the safety of pregnancies.

Lack of family planning: the majority of developing counties have several individuals classified as illiterate, with little or no understanding regarding family planning and, in most cases, live below the poverty line (Kobsa et al., 2018). These human populations get their children married during their early ages, increasing the chances of giving birth to many kids. The populations fail to comprehend the harmful impacts of the overpopulation, and also the lack of attaining quality education compels these populations to ignore or avoid measures of family planning.

Poverty: Poverty is one of the factors dictating the current overpopulation across the world. The absence of educational resources makes the impoverished areas witness increased population boom. The poorest countries across the world are identified as contributing to the increased population as the majority of the countries’ population does not have education on managing their family sizes. The populace experienced poor use of contraceptives, leading to unwanted pregnancies. The issues is more pronounced in underdeveloped regions.

Immigration: The majority of individuals prefer moving to developed nations such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada as they perceive these countries as having the best facilities based on education, medical, employment, and security. These individuals ultimately settle over the places they move to, resulting in overcrowding of the areas. The difference established between the number of individuals leaving the nation and the number of persons entering narrows down, leading to extra food demand, energy, clothes, and homes (Toth & Szigeti, 2016). As a result, there is a stretch on the available resources and their shortage. Even though the overall population will remain the same through immigration, it will impact the population density that makes the place overcrowded.

Impacts of overpopulation

Depletion of natural resources: Natural resource depletion happens when the resources experience a faster rate of consumption compared to the rate of replacement (Hedberg, 2020). The natural resources include those that exist in the absence of the actions of human beings and can either be non-renewable or renewable. Depletion is natural resources that focus on the usage of water, consumption of fossil fuel, farming, mining, and fishing. As a result of the escalating worldwide population, the degradation level of natural resources is also escalating. Overpopulation effects are quite serious and the depletion of the available natural resources. The earth is established as having the capacity of only generating a restricted amount of food and water, which is found not to match the prevailing needs across the human population. The majority of the damages to the environment witnessed in the past years is attributable to the escalating human population on the planet. Humans have resorted to clearing forests, reckless hunting of wildlife, pollution activities as well as developing a host of issues. The worldwide population is established as over seven billion individuals, and there still is a constant escalation in the overall populace of the Earth (Population Reference Bureau, 2019). This is a key aspect that accelerates the level of natural resource depletion. Ecological contamination is also increased to the overpopulation of humans.

Degradation of Environment: Due to the overutilization of oil, coal, and natural gas, the result has been witnesses as severe impacts on our environment. The world has, over the years, witnessed an increase in the number of industries and vehicles that have adversely impacted air quality. These vehicles and industries result in the rise of the emissions of carbon dioxide, leading to the global warming effect. The associated repercussions from global warming include change of climate patterns, melting of polar ice caps as well as rising of the sea level.

Deforestation has also considerably contributed to greenhouse gas emissions. Across the globe, forests usually store over twice the carbon dioxide amount compared to what is stored in the atmosphere. The clearing and burning of forests lead to the release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Farming effects: The growth of agriculture with the purpose of feeding the ever-expanding population of the world is associated with various complications. As the world’s population escalates, there is more demand for food to feed the people. The demand may be fulfilled through employing intensive farming, or via deforestation activities to develop new lands for farming (Garg, 2020). These efforts ultimately have adverse results for the environment. The yield of the current farmland can be improved via intensive farming to provide that we feed our rapidly growing population. The method is characterized by heavy use of machines, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides that are linked to soil depletion or erosion.  Agricultural runoff of the excess fertilizers forms one among the primary causes of eutrophication, leading to depletion of waters from oxygen and contributes to considerable marine life impacts.  Eutrophication contributes to the dense growth of plant life that engages in the consumption of oxygen, leading to the loss of aquatic animals. Besides, there are other primary sources of eutrophication, including sewage and industry disposal, which are also related to overpopulation.

Loss of freshwater: The planet is endowed with plenty of water, although it is also a very scarce resource. The byproducts of overpopulation include stress on the freshwater supplies, where the demand for freshwater exceeds the supply.

Loss of biodiversity: Biodiversity loss describes the extinction of species such as animals and plants across the world. It may also refer to the loss or reduction o species in a given habitat (Uniyal et al., 2020). The latter phenomenon may happen temporarily or permanently based on whether degradation of the environment leading to the loss can be reversed via ecological resilience or ecological restoration. As a result of the destructive activities, human beings have over-extracted minerals from the Earth, plants have disappeared, and animals have been hunted, leading to the loss of biodiversity. The loss of biodiversity contributes to adverse effects on humans and the environment.

The considerably prevalent impact of a loss of biodiversity is witnessed in the case of rainforests. Ecosystems usually function best when the entire diverse species making up the ecosystems exist. The species normally impact environmental situations, including nutrient cycles, climates, transfer of energy, and the ecosystem’s overall productivity.

Solutions to Overpopulation

Due to the alarming increase in the world’s population, countries have taken measures to ensure that they control the rate of population growth. The issue has been in existence over the past years. One of the countries that witnessed massive growth in its population in china.

One-child policy

As a result, the government decided to adopt the famous one-child policy, which is a Chinese government that was introduced in the late 1970s, and also during the early 1980s (Baus, 2017). the aim of the one-child policy initiated by the central government of China was restricting the considerably great majority of household units in the state to one child per family unit. Primarily, the Chinese government adopted the program to curtail the rate of the population, which had reached high levels.

The population of china started to experience rapid growth by the late 1970s as it was approaching one billion mark. Under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, the country started giving serious consideration aimed at curtailing the rapid rate of population growth. In the year 1978, the government announced a voluntary program that required households to have a maximum of two children, although one child was highly preferred. During the year 1979, there was an intensified demand for limiting the number of children to one for every family. Nevertheless, the sterner requirement was ultimately applied unevenly throughout the nation, and it was not until the year 1980 when the central administration sought standardization of the one-child policy across the country.

The one-child policy was intended to be used across the country to all families, but there are exceptions, including parents from certain ethnic minority groups or the parents with handicapped firstborn, where they were permitted to have over one child. The policy was practically executed in the urban areas where the population particularly was made up of small nuclear families and demonstrated a willingness to comply with the one-child policy. In the rural setting, the application of the policy was challenging because of the traditional agrarian, and extended households declined, observing the one-child policy requirement.

The methods adopted to enforce the one-child policy included the provision of multiple contraceptive techniques, provision of financial incentives as well as offering preferential payment chances for the families complying with the policy. The central government also imposed sanctions against the families that were identified as violating the one-child policy, and also invoked more robust measures such as forced sterilizations and abortions. The outcome of the one-child policy was that the fertility ad birth rate of china saw a reduction after 1980, where the rate of fertility declined and dropped below two children in every woman during the mid-1990s. The measure contributed to the decline in the rate of natural increase in the country. Generally, the single-family policy advocates for smaller families that will help in controlling the currently high population across the world. Countries can encourage families within their territories to practice having small families.

Sex education: Sex education is a key factor that can help to control the population by making people aware as early as their young age. Imparting sex education, especially to young kids during their elementary level, can be an important measure (Baus, 2017). The majority of parents usually feel shy when discussing sex matters with their kids. This compels the kids to look for information from other sources, including their peers or from the internet. In most cases, they find limited information from the identified sources, which contributes to the sexually active teenagers becoming unaware of contraceptives and also experience embarrassment when seeking such information. Therefore, it is essential for parents and teachers to avoid their initial restrictions and ensure that their students or skids are aware concerning robust sex education.

Better education: implementation of policies that reflect on social transformation forms one of the initial measures in this approach. Mass education is essential as they understand the necessity of having one or two children (Baus, 2017). In addition, education is key as it helps families and the general human population to understand the existence of contemporary technology. Families that are established as experiencing a hard life and still opt for many children need to be discouraged. In the case of women, they should be educated on efficient birth control and family planning to help them in making personal reproductive choices.

Making individuals aware of family planning techniques: since the world’s population is growing at a rapid rate, increasing the awareness among individuals concerning the family planning approach and making them understand regarding the severe after impacts of overpopulation is considered helpful in curbing the rapid growth of population (Baus, 2017). Among the family planning awareness includes allowing the people to understand the multiple safe sex approaches as well as the use of contraceptives to avoid pregnancies that they do not want.

Government incentives: Governments needs to have, especially senior government official whose role is tackling population-related problems. The country’s administration should foster responsible parenthood and also make use of subsidies to the families that limit their children’s size to two. Government across nations may also come up with multiple policies relating to tax exemptions in an effort to curtail the overpopulation problem. These could include lowering the income tax rates or waiving a particular part of income tax, especially for married individuals with single or a maximum of two children (Baus, 2017). The approach could potentially motivate people to keep small families to enjoy tax benefits.

The loss of biodiversity has several measures. First, the reduction of pollution is key as it puts animals and plants at risk endangering numerous species. The next step is raising awareness to make individuals understand the negative effects they have on biodiversity. Besides, reducing the loss of habitat is key since the majority of creatures lose their habitat through deforestation. People should be aware of the impacts they have on biodiversity due to their increasing population.

Conclusion

In conclusion, overpopulation has been described as an undesirable circumstance where the current human population is established as exceeding the Earth’s carrying capacity. The factors associated with the overpopulation of human races include better medical facilities, reduced rates of mortality, and depletion of precious resources and poverty. Overpopulation affects the environment negatively as it leads to depletion of natural resources, degradation of Environment, farming effects, loss of fresh water, and loss of biodiversity. There are numerous efforts that have been made, or that can be adopted to curb the increasing world’s population. The chines central government initiated a one-child policy to control its rapidly growing population. Other measures to control population growth include sex education, better education, making individuals aware of family planning techniques, and government incentives.

References

Baus, D. (2017). Overpopulation and the Impact on the Environment.

Garg, S. (2020). Impact of overpopulation on the land use patterns. In Environmental and Agricultural Informatics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1517-1534). IGI Global.

Hedberg, T. (2020). The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation: The Ethics of Procreation.

Kobsa, A., Bargman, N., Russell, B., Aubuchon, B., & Guzman, N. (2018). Human Overpopulation.

Population Reference Bureau (PRB). (2019). 2019 World Population Data Sheet. https://www.prb.org/worldpopdata/

Obaisi, A. I. (2017). OVERPOPULATION: A THREAT TO SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES? A Review.

Toth, G., & Szigeti, C. (2016). The historical ecological footprint: From over-population to over-consumption. Environmental Indicators, 60, 283-291.

Uniyal, S., Paliwal, R., Kaphaliya, B., & Sharma, R. K. (2020). Human overpopulation: impact on the environment. In Megacities and Rapid Urbanization: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 20-30). IGI Global.