OVERPOPULATION

"what is overpopulation anyways? why do i even care?" 

This is often asked today. Overpopulation seems far fetch and boring. 

Well, it might be boring but it is no farce.

  

OVERPOPULATION

THE FACTS:

Our Earth today is the home of 7 billions inhabitants, comparing to 1967 which amounted only to 3 billions.

"Every year about 135 million people are born and 55 million people die, adding 80 million to our global population. That's about one United States every 4 years, or 1 billion more every 12 years." 




Overpopulation when put into perspective now sounds a little scary, doesn't it? So how did it come about?

THE CAUSES OF RAPID POPULATION GROWTH: 1. Improvement of Medical technology: in the last 150 years, medicine has brought down many causes of death for humans. In 1928, Alexander Fleming found penicillin which would eliminate bacteria infections. Smallpox was eradicated in 1980 in a worldwide campaign led by the World Health Organization.  The change in medical technology might be the biggest reason why the life-death balance disturbed. Add caption 2. Increase of food production: From 1950 to 1984, "the amount of grain harvested worldwide increased from 631 million tons to 1.65 billion tons". Yes, more food means more people can be born and not starve to death.  3. Terrible but also often ignored Family planning: many citizens of developing countries are illiterate. Meaning either they do not grasp the danger of overpopulation or they could not read the family planning handbook. Often, they marry as early as possible.  THE MAIN QUESTION: WHAT IS THE PROBLEM ANYWAY? 1. Lack of Space: To me, it would be fun to see people actually falling off the Earth like in the pretty picture above. However, it is true that we are running low on space. That is why people invented the skyscrapers. Still, people keep popping up all over the world. More and more skyscrapers are built and though we temporarily delay the process, humans just make another mess to deal with -  the greenhouse effect. 2. Resources exhaustion: thousands of years ago, the Romans dug up lead to create their famous aqueducts for water. Of course, that ended in disaster. Our generation today instead of lead is digging for oil. Petroleum allows us to drive to shopping malls to hang out with friends, to go to school and brag about how fast you are going. Our ozone layers punctured; our oceans acidified; and our ice melted, but who cares about boring environmental things.  Then consider this, if petroleum has become so involved in our lives, what would we do if it disappears? Oh, we have to walk instead or maybe drag out that old bike in the attic. Yes, it will run out one day and so will wood and water. Soon, there will be none to take.  SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?  In my opinion, educating people is the key method. Most of the Earth's population are oblivious to this dormant and vexing problem. As soon as we start to acknowledge the consequences, only then will any attempts to reduce overpopulation be significant. Bibliography:  http://yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1998/7/98.07.02.x.html http://www.howmany.org/big_picture.php http://howmany.org/environmental_and_social_ills.php http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-of-overpopulation.php *Justin's prior knowledge*