OVERPOPULATION: ARE WE BREEDING OURSELVES TO DEATH?

image source

Hello esteemed steemians, how is your day going? My post today is going to be centred around the disturbing problem of Human overpopulation this is a problem that has increased a great deal in the last 20 years and if not carefully checked it's effects might be catastrophic.

According to Wikipedia Human overpopulation occurs when the ecological footprint of a human population in a geographical location exceeds the carrying ability of the place occupied by that particular group. Overpopulation can further be explained , in a long term sense , as existing if a population cannot be under control given the increase in depletion of nonrenewable resources or given the deterioration of the capacity of the environment to give support to the population. Changes in lifestyle could help reduce the overpopulated status without a big population reduction.
Human population has been rising steadily since the end of the Black Death, around the year 1350, Though the most noticeable increase started in the 1950s, due to the advance in medical science and increases in agricultural products. The rate of population growth has been declining since the 1980s, while the total numbers kept increasing. Most Recently rate increases in several countries previously protesting declines are also contributing to continued growth in total numbers. Due to these factors there is an increasing fear that the earth might not be big enough to contain the increasing numbers, It is appraised that around 81 million people add to the world’s population every year.

Population
Year Billion
1804 1
1959 3
1974 4
1987 5
1999 6
2011 7
2020 7.7 (forecasts)

image sourceGraph of human population from 10000 BCE to 2000 CE. It shows exponential rise in world population that has taken place since the eighteenth century.

CAUSATIVE AGENTS
Taking a historical view point into perspective , technological advancements have coincidental with population increase. There have been three major technological advancements , the toolmaking , agricultural , and the industrial, all of these have allowed allowed humans more freedom to food, causing population explosions. For instance, the use of implements such as the we bow and arrow, allowed archaic hunters greater freedom to high energy foods (for example meats). Similarly, the process of change to farming about 10,000 years ago greatly increased the overall supply of food, which was used to assist more people. Food production gained further ground with the industrial revolution as machinery, fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides were used to increase land under cultivation as well as crop produce. This present day starvation is caused by economic and political issues instead of a lack of the means to produce food.

There is a huge connection between overpopulation and poverty. funny enough, the invention of the birth control pill and other modern methods of contraception has resulted in a serious decline in the number of children per household in all but the very poorest countries. Many African countries have not yet really adapted to the use of contraceptives because of the fact that most African cultures encourage the giving birth of as much children as possible.

Sudden increases in human population occurs when the birth rate of a geographical area exceeds the death rate for long periods of time. For instance, death rates fell drastically during the 19th and 20th century (as a result of improved sanitation, child immunizations, and other advancements in medicine science) making more babies to survive, the fertility rate did not adjust downwards, which resulted in increasing population growth. Until around the 1700s, seven out of ten children died before reaching adulthood. Today more than nine out of ten children born in industrialized nations reach reproductive age.

Issues Caused By Overpopulation

• Sever lack of fresh drinking water as well as for sewage treatment and effluents discharge. A few countries, for example Saudi Arabia, use energy expensive desalination processes to solve the problem of water shortages.

• Increased use of any natural resources, especially fossil fuels.

• increase in the amount of air pollution, surface water and ground water pollution, land contamination, unbearable levels of noise.

• Increase in desertification, deforestation, and land use.

• Increasing number of extinction due to reducing animal habitats

• Serious threat of global warming, and the green house effect

• High mortality rates amongst infants and children

• Increasing poverty in Third World countries, low life expectancy and increased crime rate

• Excessive starvation and malnutrition due to inflation corruption and higher standard of living

• Possibility of the creation of new epidemics and pandermics

According to the words of Paul R. Ehrlich "Rich western countries are now transferring the planet’s resources and destroying its ecosystems at an never heard of rate. We want to build highways across the Serengeti to get more rare earth minerals for our mobile Phones. We take all the fish from the sea, destroys the coral reefs and put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We have triggered a major extinction event . A world population of around a billion would have an overall prolife effect. This could be supported for many millennia and sustain many more human lives in the long term compared with our current uncontrolled growth and prospect of sudden collapse . If everyone consumed resources at the USA level (which is what the world aspires to) you will need another four or five Earths. We are wrecking our planet’s life support systems"

Ways Of Reducing Overpopulation

• Education of the occupants of Third World countries on the virtues of contraceptives.

• Easy access to contraceptives (condoms, birth control pills).

• Encouragement of family planning.

• Reduction of immigration into already overpopulated areas.

I hope everybody really enjoyed reading this educative post. Please upvote, resteem, and follow me God bless!!

Content reference: 1 2