Running head: Human overpopulation 1

Human Overpopulation: A Review of Literature

Ruben Ramirez

University of Texas at El Paso

Rws 1302
Human overpopulation 2

Human Overpopulation: A review of literature

Overpopulation for most of the history of mankind has not been a concern to people all

over the world. Today the worlds population cant seem to stop growing and people are starting

to become concerned about overpopulation. But for most of history, mankind has been more

concerned with increasing its numbers. War, plagues and high infant mortality ensured that

populations grew slowly, despite high birth rates (James 1994). This since the turn of the 21st

century has changed drastically due to the rapid population growth. The problem now is that

there are too many people, that the planet may soon not be able to support so many people. The

main causes for the concern of overpopulation where not available before the industrial

revolution where the link broke between land and population (James 1994). These causes are

declines in death rates, birth control, lack of family planning, and better medical facilities. These

causes were not a factor before the industrial revolution because they did not have advancements

in technology or medicine as the world does now. But The idea that mankind would outgrow its

resources originated with the physiocrats, a French-led intellectual movement in the 18th century

that maintained that wealth was defined by land (James 1994). These French men had the idea

first that at some point man would have occupied all the land and that it would not be able to

support the endless number of increasing people on earth. Overpopulation is not really known by

a lot of people, but it is important that people are educated on the subject and it deserves serious

consideration through the review of these four questions:

1. What are the biggest effects of overpopulation?

2. What are the biggest problems that overpopulation causes?

3. How is overpopulation being addressed through government agencies and in schools?

4. How can overpopulation be stopped?

What are the biggest effects of overpopulation?

To understand how overpopulation really is concerning the effects are very serious and could

lead to a variety of problems for the planets natural resources and environment. Starting off with

the depletion of natural resources this is the biggest effect of overpopulation. The reason that the

depletion of natural resources is the biggest effect of overpopulation is because it has an effect on

everybody in the world. The effects of overpopulation are quite severe. The first of these is the

depletion of resources. The Earth can only produce a limited amount of water and food, which is

falling short of the current needs (Rinkesh 2017). This like I said is the most severe effect of

overpopulation because not everybody will have water and food once we reach to many people

on the planet. Over the last fifty years the number of trees being cut down and pollution is

causing several problems especially with the rapid population growth.

With overpopulation, there is a high usage of all types of bad chemicals that are bad for the

environment. Degradation of the environment is such a serious issue with all the man-made

pollution. The overuse of coal, oil, and natural gas, it has started producing some serious effects

on our environment (Rinkesh 2017). More people are using vehicles every year which badly

affects the quality of the air and industries have badly affected the air. Rise in amount of CO2

emissions leads to global warming. Melting of polar ice caps, changing climate patterns, rise in

sea level are few of the consequences that we might we have to face due to environment

pollution (Rinkesh 2017). This shows how overpopulation is bigger than just running out of

recourses and not having enough room to fit humans in this world. It goes farther and causes

many more problems as stated. The biggest effect that human overpopulation has other than on

the environment would be on animal species. Humans are currently causing the greatest amount

of extinction of species since the extinction of the dinosaurs over 65 million years ago.
Human overpopulation 4

If present trends continue, scientists warn that within a few decades, at least half of all

plant and animal species on Earth will be extinct, as a result of climate change, habitat loss,

pollution, acidifying oceans, invasive species, over-exploitation of natural resources, overfishing,

poaching and human overpopulation (Everything Connects 2013).

This is a graph above shoes the human population growth over the span of 2000 years and the

number of extinctions of animal species. As one can see as the population of humans is

increasing the number of animal extinctions is also increasing. All these effects of human

overpopulation are causing as we can see depletion of natural resources and also the extinction of

animal species.

What are the biggest problems that overpopulation causes?

Human overpopulation is considered by many as the worlds biggest problem not climate

change. According to writer of the article named Worlds top problem is overpopulation, not

climate Paul B. Pharrell, calls humans the new dinosaurs and that humans are slowly written
Human overpopulation 7

their own death warrant. Today humans are the new dinosaurs, the next species slated for

extinction, warn 2,000 United Nations scientists. Soon. Were also causing the extinction, even

accelerating a new timetable. Signing our own death warrant. Not millions of years in the future,

but this century. Thanks to our secret love of climate change (Pharrell 2013). Later in the news

article Pharrell states that earths real problem is that there are too many babies being born. To

many babies being born each year at a rate of 75 million. Other main problems that human

overpopulation causes are climate change, depreciation of fresh water, intensive farming

practices, and lower life expectancy and diminished quality of life. Overpopulation translates to

the increase in use of energy sources like coal and firewood which increases greenhouse

emissions. The effects of climate change and global warming result in extreme hunger, droughts,

and of course habitat loss. The nature of overpopulation has destroyed most of the earths

freshwater systems. Humans have polluted so many lakes, rivers, streams that they become

unusable for their freshwater. According to the global outlook of water resources, these

activities influenced by overpopulation have only left less than 1% of the planets freshwater

readily accessible for human utilization (earth eclipse 2017). Intensive farming practices where

populations are high, people need food and they turn to more farming which is bad for the farm

land. All these problems are caused by overpopulation and they are the leading reasons of so

many issues that is going on with the world like climate change and world hunger.

How is overpopulation being addressed through government agencies and in schools?

Most people that believe overpopulation is a problem believe that kids are not aware of

what it is. Education on overpopulation is lacking and is not even considered an issue by so

many universities and public schools. population education can help people to improve the lives
Human overpopulation 8

of many families and communities, and it can have an especially important impact on women in

society. Woman on this subject are especially looked at because of the crazy amount of birth

rates. Sex education is a part of helping out with overpopulation and many countries around the

world do not offer sex education courses. David Burleson says that While it is evident that

education has a vital role to play in addressing the population issue, we cannot escape the fact

that initially there was resistance on the part of governments and educational systems to accept

population education in the curriculum schools and universities and we cannot sidestep the

obstacles to its development (Burleson 2010). In each part of the world overpopulation

education is different because each country has different problems causes by over population.

For example, in third world countries no sex education is the main reason why the population is

growing.

In a developed country, such as china the main problem with overpopulation is that they have so

much people already that the environment is the main issue due to so much co2 being emitted

into the atmosphere. A number of evaluation studies have shown in general, the introduction of

population education leads to a greater awareness among students and teachers and a positive

change in their attitudes toward population issues (Burleson 2010). Overpopulation education as

shows by the numerous evaluation studies is effective in spreading awareness of the issues that

are occurring around them and the world.

Effective overpopulation programs have increased over the years due to them being

allowed more around the world. The introduction of population education has valuable lessons

but the problem is that it is often hard to get them into education systems. Population education

has faced many obstacles including financial difficulties; inadequately trained personnel;
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limited supply of materials; shortage of staff, sensitive nature of some of its content (Burleson

2010).

The United States Department of state has acknowledged the issue of overpopulation and

has a page on their website that states the major issues and also has the departments goals on the

overpopulation problem. Starting off with the issues that the U.S department of state says needs

to be addressed throughout the country. The worlds population surpassed seven billion in 2011

and, according to UN projections, the next milestone of eight billion will occur in 2025 and then

reach 9.7 billion by 2050 (U.S department of state N/A). The department of state then says that

these statistics are very underlying because most of the population growth is occurring as

previous stated in third world countries and not as much as in the United States.

Today there are nearly 2.5 billion people under the age of 19 making up one third of the

worlds population. Now the department has goals in the issue of overpopulation and they

include to promote healthy and educated populations by giving the right education programs in

the education system. The department of state says that they dont want to tell families how

much kids they can or cant have because they believe that the countrys population is stable and

they just need to become more aware of the issues and be more educated. The departments Min

Goal is to help other countries struggling with overpopulation and maybe even other those

countries education on population issues.

How can overpopulation be stopped?

Overpopulation cannot be stopped but it can be slowed down by numerous reasons.

According to the author of the book called Overpopulation by Robert Green hits on one global

issue that in his eyes is causing population growth in some countries. That issue is migration,
Human overpopulation 10

the movement of people from one place to another. As he said, people often move to find work

(Green 2008 pg. 18). Green later states that one approach to decreasing the problems of

overpopulation is to help developing countries with their economy. The number of children per

family decreases when a countries economy changes for the better. Other popular solutions for

overpopulation like previously stated is better education in over population and also having

better family planning in these third world countries.

The overpopulation class survey that was conveyed on march 10th 2017 and it was

intended to see how the students feel about the world population. This survey was only 2

questions and they were as following: is the world population too high? And do you believe

that world population is an issue?

Overpopulation Surve y
Column2

8
7

4 4
Answers
3 3
2 2
1 1 1

A gr e e So m e wh a t A g r e e D o N o t A gr e e St r o n0g l y D i s a g r e e

is the world population too high?

As you can see from the results of the student survey there were 16 students that

participated and 15 of them agreed or somewhat agreed that there is an overpopulation issue.

Only 1 person did not agree that overpopulation was an issue. This survey is means that the
Human overpopulation 11

students and probably more than just them around the campus feel the same way. In over surveys

conducted by scientists and they typically get the same results.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this literacy review has analyzed and taken different information

from a lot of well know websites and authors. This literacy review has answered many questions

about the overpopulation of the human species all around the world. There where first questions

answered were about the effects that human overpopulation has on planet earth. The main effects

where degradation of the environment, depletion of natural resources, and a rise of

unemployment. After that question the next issue would be the cause of overpopulation and what

to do to stop them. The next question that was asked what if educational system have human

population and what can happen if the governments of countries with high population get

involved. The U.S department of service has noticed that there are issues about overpopulation

and have plans to work on it. The last question asked in this literature review was how can

human overpopulation be stopped. The answer was with involvement from everybody in

educational systems and also governmental help would be very useful in the population problem.

At the end, I gave the results of a population survey of the class and the results were as expected.

Almost everybody thought that there is an overpopulation issue and that the world population is

too high. This literature review was made for the raise of awareness in the class and also the

world about human overpopulation.

Abstract

Human overpopulation is a major issue in the world today. The population is expected to

reach 10 billion by the year 2050. In the past people thought that the population would never be a
Human overpopulation 12

real issue because there would always be a major war or a deadly disease that would kill a couple

of millions of people but that hasnt happened. With better medical facilities around the world

and better medicine better live longer and dont die from the common cold or flu like people

used to hundreds of years ago. The effects that overpopulation has on not only humans but on the

environment and the animal species. The depletion of natural resources could cause major

conflict between countries when they become scarce. Animal species are becoming extinct at an

amazingly fast rate due to human overpopulation and taking these animals out of their

environments. Overpopulation is a real issue in the world and people need to realize that the

human race needs to come together to find out solutions.

References

D. (2010, January 07). Population Education. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from

https://www.populationmedia.org/2010/01/07/population-education/

Farrell, P. B. (2013, October 14). World's top problem is overpopulation, not climate. Retrieved

March 31, 2017, from http://www.marketwatch.com/story/climate-report-proves-humans-are-

the-new-dinosaurs-2013-10-12

Green, Robert. (2008) Overpopulation. Cherry Lake Publishing.

JAMES, B. (1994, September 08). Overpopulation Has a Brief History. Retrieved March 31,

2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/08/news/08iht-birth.html

R. (2016, December 09). Overpopulation Causes, Effects & Solutions | Renewable Resources

Co. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from

http://www.renewableresourcescoalition.org/overpopulation-causes-effects-solutions/

R. (2017, January 23). Overpopulation: Causes, Effects and Solutions. Retrieved March 31,

2017, from http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-of-

overpopulation.php

. (n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2017, from

What is Overpopulation and Problems of Overpopulation? (2016, May 06). Retrieved March 31,

2017, from http://www.eartheclipse.com/environment/problems-of-overpopulation.html

(n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2017, from https://www.state.gov/j/prm/population/