In recent years, over population is a very serious problem. Currently, it is said that world population is 69 billion. By 2050, the population is expected to reach approximately 100 million. In particular, developing countries increase in population. China has a population of 1.3 billion people. India has about 1.1 billion people. China and India alone accounted for 37.5 percent of the world’s population. India’s population is expected to overtake China’s population in the 2030s. This paper will discuss various problems caused by overpopulation. There are three demerits: environmental problems, lack of resources and food problems.
First, overpopulation causes environmental problems. For example, climate change, decrease in the rainforest, exacerbation of desertification, destruction of the ozone layer, and so on. Developed countries are required to make paper and wood construction. So, developing countries cut down forests. Between 1990 into 2005, around 13 million hectares of forests were lost every year. And, we will also need a lot of people with more and more food. Thus, desertification occurs caused by expansion of agricultural land and forest destruction. In addition, developing countries are worried about air and water pollution caused by industrialization and urbanization. The greater the increase in population, the more trash. There are many serious problems.
Secondly, developing countries become enriched with increasing population and economic growth. So, is expected to continue to increase global energy consumption. Needless to say, underground resources are limited, such as coal and oil. If the population continues growing, we would run out of resources. A worldwide competition has begun for limited underground resources. Furthermore, demand for water resources also has been increasing. In particular, emerging countries such as Asia and Middle East has been growing rapidly expanding the consumption of water. We have to change to renewable energy to reduce the use of finite resources.
Finally, running out of food will occur. Food on which we are living is very important. However, food supply can’t keep up with rapid population growth. Therefore, people suffering from hunger will increases rapidly. In fact, food problems are serious in Africa, because of low self-sufficiency. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that a total of 925 million people are undernourished in 2010. 98 million down from 1.023 billion in 2009. “But with a child every six seconds because of undernourishment related problems, hunger remains the world’s largest tragedy and scandal” said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.
In conclusion, this paper has discussed three demerits of over population. It leads to various problems. Moreover, they are serious problems that threaten our lives. We have to take some measures to stop this problem. However, trying to control the number of the population is not an easy thing. So, developed countries should try to solve this problem for the future. For example, actively take advantage of renewable resources, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, to save forests, and so on. We have to keep this serious worldwide problem in mind.
Works Cited
Overpopulation video. 28 Apr. 2010. YouTube. Web. 11 July 2011.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWHo_ega0RU>
“World Health Statics 2010” Memorva. 21 May 2010. Web. 26 June 2011.
“925 million in chronic hunger worldwide” FAO Media Centre. Food and Agriculture Organization, 14 Sept. 2010. Web. 25 June 2011.
