“In the last 200 years the population of our planet has grown exponentially, at a rate of 1.9% per year. If continued at this rate with the population doubling every 40 years, by 2600 we would all be literally standing shoulder to shoulder.”
– Stephen Hawking
The term overpopulation is used to describe a situation in which the world or area has a population so large that the people there are suffering as a result. In other words the population exceeds the region or planet’s carrying capacity. It took hundreds of years to reach one billion inhabitants, yet in little over two centuries this figure multiplied sevenfold.
The current population of the Earth is over 7.6 billion people and growing. It could reach 8 billion by 2025, 9 billion by 2040, and a whopping 11 billion by 2100.
Being overpopulated, it is certain that the Earth will be facing direct consequences in the next 100 years.
Effects of Overpopulation
Exhaustion of natural resources
The earth generates a limited capacity of natural resources each year and each year the planet is exhausting these resources at a faster rate than what the earth is able to generate each year. This can pose to be a major reason of war.
Environmental degradation
The overuse of coal, petroleum and natural gas has put a negative impact on the Earth. Increase in the number of people eventually means increase in the number of vehicles on the road. More vehicles leads to the increase of Amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Which ultimately means : global warming.
Rising Unemployment
Employment is a way for one to work and earn. But vacancies in any businesses and offices are fixed. Therefore a lot of the population will be unemployed. This may lead to the rise of social crimes.
Rising living costs
As the cost of living necessities fluctuates over time. These things may get really expensive over time and many people may not be able to afford these.
Health Issues
Having a big population can lead to new viral diseases because of the unhygienic practices of human kind. Due to rapid population growth the viruses may spread easily and faster in overpopulated areas.
Poverty
Countries with higher population usually have more people below the poverty line than the countries with less population.
Dirty and unhygienic surroundings
Localities with more people will catch up dirt faster than the ones with less population because more people equals to more human residue and waste.
“ Overpopulation in various countries has become a serious threat to the health of people and a grave obstacle to any attempt to organise peace on this planet”
– Albert Einstein