Overpopulation - Global Issue (Free Essay Example)

We have too many people in the world today. We are reaching the world’s capacity and need to implement a number of counter measures to slow the process down and potentially stop it, however the world may be too far gone. There are a number of factors and society impacts on these factors that have a definitive impact on our global issue of overpopulation. Factors such as climate change denial, demographics, earth's ecosystems, the ecological footprint and population management.

Firstly, for our planet to even be able to sustain a reasonable growing population, it would have to adopt the best practices on all levels. The issue with this goal is that we would have to face the fact of what we are doing wrong and how we are fast-tracking climate change. The industries who are the most offensive, are the top one percent wealthiest, yet they all benefit from using oil that damages the atmosphere. As these industries are the most powerful in the world, they control a lot of what is put into the media, which is often twisted to benefit them even if it means lying. "The fossil fuel industry, political lobbyists, media moguls and individuals have spent the past 30 years sowing doubt about the reality of climate change - where none exists. The latest estimate is that the world's five largest publicly-owned oil and gas companies spend about US $200million a year lobbying to control, delay or block binding climate policy". The conflict of whether climate change is real or not is furthered by companies creating propaganda around the situation, which results in disbelief and distrust in our society. Climate change has affected people's way of living due to extreme weather conditions causing large amounts of immigrant displacement in countries. This has then caused an increase in poverty rates in countries, as they cannot sustain their population as they have done so in the past. This has a ripple effect as it leads to a lower survival rate in children due to the lack of medical care, hunger, and government conflict. Poorer countries see spikes in human population to combat the lower survival rate which pushes our population limit.

Secondly, since the 1800’s we have made medical discoveries that make a medical condition liveable and or cure diseases that were once cutting populations in half, thereby dramatically prolonging the lifespan of humans. The diseases that once killed so many have now become livable and a part of our daily life. Keeping the people alive no matter the condition, has become one of society's biggest concerns. With constant scientific discoveries, a child's likelihood of dying at birth is sufficiently lower than in the 1800’s in first world countries. A family then had over eight children hoping one of those eight would carry on the next generation. Today, people have smaller families due to the higher chance of them living longer, which is almost guaranteed. "This dramatic growth has been driven largely by increasing numbers of people surviving reproductive age and has been accompanied by major changes in fertility rates, increasing urbanization and accelerating migration. These trends will have far-reaching implications for generations to come". The issue with these medical discoveries is that although the number of children has decreased worldwide, the number of years that these children live has grown substantially. 

Thirdly, with the demand to increase living quality, for not just poor but also for rich countries, we are putting a tremendous strain on the earth and already depleted resources. This further exemplifies why we cannot support more population. Moreover, with the standard of living rising in first-world countries, we have pushed our global ecological footprint past the recommended number to provide for these countries' way of living.  “Human activities utilize resources and produce waste. As the human population increases, the global consumption and utilization of resources increases. This calls for the measure of nature's capacity to meet the increasing demand by people. Ecological Footprint is one of the leading measures of the unending human demand on nature. The Ecological Footprint therefore tries to take into account whether the planet has the capacity to keep up with the increasing demands of humanity”. Furthermore, with this increase in our ecological footprint, we also continue to produce mass amounts of waste to sustain it, using resources that we don't have and leaving third-world countries with less than half of a footprint and resources. As such we further expand the poverty gap. 

Fourth, with this demand for higher quality living, we have to figure out how we will meet the nutritional requirements. Throughout history, there has always been an imbalance with the quality of living and the gap we have created between the rich and the poor. World hunger is a real concern with the poor having the bare minimum to feed their families based on living conditions. These conditions are worse with climate change. It has caused a huge influx of immigrants coming to first world countries just because they cannot get food. “Though rising CO2 can stimulate plant growth, it also reduces the nutritional value of most food crops. Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide reduce the concentrations of protein and essential minerals in most plant species, including wheat, soybeans, and rice”. It is now harder to grow crops in certain countries despite attempts to flood areas to grow food to provide for new immigrants.  The overpopulation in these areas has caused stress on the food supply system. The food supply chain is already a very delicate system that can easily collapse if it's not built to supply the expanding population. Without addressing the constant stress on the earth's system by reducing the effects of climate change, it can collapse.

Finally, people are living to older ages yet require more medical care to keep them alive, which impacts the demographics of the world and over population. With older people living longer, the ever-changing fertility rate due to increasing urbanization and accelerating migration, keeping the population number under control is more difficult. "Increased life expectancy means that people live longer and affect the planet longer; each year is another year of carbon footprint, ecological footprint, use of natural resources, etc. The magnitude of this impact is increased as more people live longer." We are already stretching our resources thin with increased standards of living and the unequal distribution of those resources worldwide, which has increased the poverty gap. With poor demographics and our planet facing climate change challenges, we do not need more people on earth.

In conclusion, with the current state of climate change denial, population management, ecological footprint, the earth’s stressed ecosystem, and demographics, we are struggling to even provide for the people we have as of right now. We have stretched the earth past its limit, proving we have too many people for the planet to handle.