Overpopulation

A Growing World

Overpopulation is a serious, yet often ignored, problem increasing in severity with every birth. Though many of the effects of overpopulation cannot yet be seen, it is still a life threatening issue. Deadly, not to the individual, but to the Earth and the human race itself. Overpopulation results in the increasing scarcity of natural resources including agricultural goods, leading to malnutrition, economic decline, and occasionally mass violence. It is time to take action and educate others about reducing the population's rate of growth, in an attempt to save the Earth that is quite possibly too late.

In order to maintain the world's population at a constant number, many things have to be considered. When viewed simply, each person could have only one child to take his or her place in the population after his or her death. For instance, a married couple could have two children, one replacing the father and one replacing the mother.

World Biggest Spider of Huge Size with Big Legs

China had an extreme youth bulge until the 1960s, ...

Map of countries and territories by fertility rate...

This would only work, though, if the second generation was brought into the earth at the death of the first generation. The attempt to create a formula to maintain a constant population grows increasingly complicated when the rising life span and low fertility rates of those in third world countries are factored in.

Each year, the Earth's population "expands at a rate of 1.5%, [...] adding more than a quarter million people daily" (Pimentel 211). "As recently as 1972, a woman gave birth to an average of 5.6 children over her lifetime. Global population, as a result, was doubling every generation" (Longman 206). The World's population recently hit an astonishing 6 billion people. Although this number is remarkably high, it seems minute in comparison to the frightening 12 billion expected to occupy the world less than 50 years from now (Pimentel 211).