Population Issues
- Overpopulation has many causes
-reduced mortality rate -better medical facilities (which allows people to be cured of diseases) -depletion of natural resources (18 million acres of forests are destroyed each year) -technological advances (has allowed humans to live longer lives) -lack of family planning (India has a huge problem with this.) -Women are not not exposed to education in India and are married forcefully at a young age. Women in India are not aware of the effects of overpopulation and how harmful thy can be. Current population issues -80 million people are born per year. -1 billion people are suffering because of hunger. -60% of the world population lives in Asia. -Nearly 220,000 people are added each day. Future Population problems -Natural resources are gone -Population will be more aged(Japan, China and the UK will have 26 million people 65 and older that will require care) -Scientists predict by 2050 that the world population will be 9.7 billion. -Prices for housing will increase with limited areas to live. Environmental effects -Deforestation around the globe has been a huge problem. (From 1980 to 1990 the world's tropical forests were reduced by an average of 15.4 million hectares per year!) The land cleared during that decade was equivalent to to nearly three times the size of France!(“Deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa”). -Human waste -Africa has about 30 percent of the world's tropical forests. By 1990 countries in the Sub Saharan region exceeded the global rate of deforestation by 0.8 percent. That is due to man made problems since 90% of Africa's population uses fuelwood for cooking and in this region of Africa; 52 percent of all energy comes from firewood and brush supplies(“Deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa”). -Countries in Asia are so densely populated which is really common to see in China. China has 1.386 billion people living in the country and that causes many issues. Air pollution is a main problem with in the city of Beijing with 5 million plus cars and coal burning factories which harm the environment. -Polluted drinking water is another concern. In Beijing 39% of the water was so polluted it was functionless. In Tianjin a city in northern China, only 4.9% of water is usable for drinking("In China, the Water You Drink Is as Dangerous as the Air You Breathe | Deng Tingting.”) -With more people being added onto earth every year that strains Earth's natural resources. The loss of biodiversity is a big problem due to humans needing more space to live. Humans damage or destroy habitats or ecosystems which affects animals making them endangered. Solutions -Bring birth rates down(family planning) -Educating women(third world countries especially like India, Colombia, Brazil) Women with no education tend to have more children. African women have no education and on average they have 5.4 children. Women with secondary education average 2.7 children and women who have a college education have on average 2.2 children(“Solutions.”) -Contraception Obstacles to solutions -Many people don't want to be told on how many kids there supposed to have. -The world isn't educated in many areas. Third world countries aren't educating women on how bad the problem of overpopulation is overall. Examples of progress -Brazil has reduced deforestation by 70%. By not cutting down trees in the forests of Brazil they've saved 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide from releasing into the atmosphere since 2004(“Making Progress on Deforestation”). -The Clean Air Act was established in 1970 and has shown ways of helping the air pollution problem. The Act has lowered levels of six pollutants such as particles, ozone, lead, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide. From 1970 to 2017 the six pollutants dropped an average of 73% while gross domestic product grew by 324%(“Progress Cleaning the Air and Improving People's Health”). |
References
Tingting, Deng, and Toxics campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia. “In China, the Water You Drink Is as Dangerous as the Air You Breathe | Deng Tingting.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 June 2017, www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/jun/02/china-water-dangerous-pollution-greenpeace. “Solutions.” Population Matters, 12 Nov. 2018, populationmatters.org/solutions. “Progress Cleaning the Air and Improving People's Health.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 14 Aug. 2018, www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/progress-cleaning-air-and-improving-peoples-health. “Making Progress on Deforestation.” State of the Planet, 21 Aug. 2014, blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/06/23/making-progress-on-deforestation/. “Deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Maritime Theater, web.mit.edu/africantech/www/articles/Deforestation.htm. |