Premium Essay

Overpopulation & Overconsumption

In:

Submitted By jdaall
Words 2458
Pages 10
Global Context of Business

Overpopulation & Overconsumption

As a species, we tend not to talk too much about population growth, but we all know it is there. Modern man first showed up on earth over 50,000 years ago, and by 1850 we had reproduced to such amount that we reached the 1 Billion people mark. The next billion took only 100 years, compared to over 50 thousand years for the first one. In 2011 world population reached 7 billion. According to the Population Institute, which focuses on raising awareness about overpopulation, we add around 220,000 people per day, which amounts to around 80 million people per year, or 1 billion every 12 years. Currently, for every two people who die, four more are born. Many experts argue that population growth will cap at around 10-11 billion by the end of the century, and therefore we shouldn’t concern ourselves too much with this issue. This may very well be true, however, 11 billion people leading the lifestyle of a middle class citizen in a developed country is nowhere near sustainable, and this is certainly a big cause for concern. Therefore, as humans we need to define what is the underlying problem and how do we tackle future challenges.

There are plenty of arguments for and against overpopulation. Many argue that population controls have to be applied in order to stop grown, such as China’s one child policy. Others say that population growth is unstoppable and therefore we have to focus more on how we deal with it rather than stopping it. One of the first big thinkers to bring forward the issue of overpopulation was Thomas Malthus, who said that while human population grows exponentially, our ability to feed ourselves only tends to grow linearly. Implying by this, that we are not able to cope with the population growth and therefore the surplus in population would die by famine or disease. However, Malthus

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Assess the View That Overconsumption Is Now More of a Threat Than Overpopulation to World Development (33 Marks)

...amongst others, hold the view that overconsumption is a larger threat to the world than over population. Overpopulation has long been seen as a hindrance to world development, in 2014 the world population is currently 7 billion, there is no doubt that the world has experienced a mass rise in population. Most of this increase has occurred in the developing world, the world population rises by approximately 83 people annual and 99% of this increase happens in the less developed regions of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. For example, Africa’s population, despite the AIDS epidemic has tripled to 926 million from 1960 to 2005, whilst Asia’s population doubled to 3.9BN in this period. Six countries account for half of this total increase in world population; these are; India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Contrasting to this the population of the developed world has actually fallen. The United Nations predict that by 2050, the world’s population will reach 9.2 billion, the population of less economically developed countries is expected to rise from 4.9BN (2001) to 8.2BN (2050). Thomas Malthus (1766-1843) argued that populations increase in size at a much faster rate than the ability of those same populations to feed themselves. He concludes that these limits on food supply lead to natural checks on the population, such as famine and malnutrition, perhaps even war and increase death rates. He argues that overpopulation needs to be avoided by delaying...

Words: 1152 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Using Material from Item a and Elsewhere, Assess the View That Overconsumption Is Now More of a Threat Than Overpopulation to World Development

...Using material from item A and elsewhere, assess the view that overconsumption is now more of a threat than overpopulation to world development The sociological study of population is called ‘demography’, sociologists believe that it is important to study demographic trends such as those associated with birth and fertility etc. such trends can produce insights into why societies experience social change, for example, overconsumption and what demographic changes have brought about this change. Sociologist Paul Ehrlich studied the figures for birth rates and death rates of developing countries and compared them with food production and malnutrition rates, he concludes that the birth rate ‘must be brought into balance with the death rate or mankind will breed itself into oblivion’. As item A states ‘the developed world consumes 5/6 of the world’s resources and each person in the developed world consumes around 20 times as much as a person in the developing world’, to understand the causes of such figures claimed in item A and the predictions made by Ehrlich, we must look at the demographic causes linked to both population and overconsumption. This essay will assess whether or not overconsumption has in fact become more of a problem than overpopulation to the world’s development and what such sociological views and perspectives support this view, focusing particularly in dependency, modernization and Malthusian views. Firstly we look at the Malthusian view of population growth...

Words: 1210 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Overpopulation a Growing Problem

...During my expedition through the Museum of Modern Art in San Jose I saw a photograph that hit me like a bolt of lightning and got me thinking about probably the world’s biggest problem, overpopulation. The photograph I saw was called Architecture of Density and it was taken by photographer and artist Michael Wolf. The photograph portrayed a massive building in Hong Kong that looked as if it was built to house thousands of people using the least amount of space possible. The apartment building seemed to be designed to have people crammed together with no room to move. Although Wolf’s main focus of his picture was to show viewers that the culture of Hong Kong starts in the homes of the people, I saw Wolf’s photograph as a look into the far more complicated issue of overpopulation, whose effects are currently felt worldwide and are slowly getting worse. Human overpopulation on earth is the leading cause of many of the planet’s problems. Overpopulation is defined as “excessive population of an area to the point of overcrowding, depletion of natural resources, or environmental deterioration”, (Answers). The problems caused by the overpopulation of humans range from the extreme of global warming/climate change, pollution, water shortages, desertification and depletion of other resources to other smaller problems such as deforestation, species extinction and overcrowding. However unfortunately, few governments or government officials around the world are willing to look...

Words: 3637 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Overpopulation

...There are many environment problems, such as pollution, untreated sewage, and overpopulation. Although all of these issues have an impact on our society, overpopulation stands to have the greatest impact on our environment. Overpopulation is excessive human population in an area to the point of overcrowding, depletion of natural resources and environmental deterioration. The three most negative impacts overpopulation on the environment are water pollution and overconsumption One of the major sources of water pollution is organic pollution, which is becoming more and more pressing on the environment because of the growing population of the world. It's a simple concept, the more people there are in one area, the more waste they will produce. For example, in a city there are so many people that the sewage plants and the environment can't take care of all of the waste and function in its usual manner. The sewage plants do their best, but the secondary discharge that gets into the water supply causes great problems. The excess waste acts as a food source for algae and the growth rate is uncontrollable. Everyone has been in a lake where there is a lot of dead algae on the shore and the water is clouded with algae. This situation is known as eutrophication, where algae growth is out of control and the water becomes oxygen depleted. There are natural cycles of eutrophication in the spring and fall, but the body of water can deal with those amounts. When excess waste is added to the...

Words: 871 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Population

...Overconsumption and Overpopulation and their effect on the Environment The effect of overpopulation and over consumption on the environment has had a massive negative effect. Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth. We are now adding one billion people to the planet every 12 years. That's about 220,000 per day. (Howmany?.org) This makes overpopulation a big threat to our environment but the bigger issue is that we are not using our resources efficiently to solve the problem. The problem includes shortages of all our resources, war and social conflict, limits on personal freedom, overcrowding in large cities and the health and survival of other species. In the last fifty years, there have been a vast number of people and organizations rising up and speaking against this problem, searching for a solution to this detrimental issue. Howmany?.org is just one of many organizations that are empowering people to find the best population size for Earth. They do this through outreach and advocacy programs that are created to add population into conversations and get people thinking. While overpopulation is not the only cause of environmental problems, it is a root cause that people should be aware of. Growth in population, affluence, and technology are jointly responsible for environmental problems concerning overconsumption. We use technology to produce and gather most of our resources. ...

Words: 2797 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

Over Population

...Over Population The impact of over-population is more widespread than most Americans realize. With an average of over 200,000 more people being added to this planet daily, an effect on the environment is inevitable. I believe over-population has more of a negative effect than positive. Issues such as depletion of natural resources, over-crowding, and the spread of diseases are why I am so concerned about this epidemic. With such a rapid average growth in population, natural resources are dwindling. Our country does not have enough resources to provide for the people. In return, we are cutting down forests to use those resources for fuel. The forests were a natural protection to our planet from global warming. Since they are being destroyed, we are no longer protected. Also, species are becoming extinct because we are destroying their natural habitats. A large percentage of the population lives in poverty and these families are growing rapidly. Some parents from low-income families cannot afford to properly provide the needs of their children. This is causing a rise in mal-nourishment. These children are going without nutrients they need which in turn causes health problems. These health problems go untreated because the families cannot afford health care. Again, this affects everyone because those that have jobs end up having to pay higher health premiums to provide for those that cannot pay for their own medical services. We are also affected because...

Words: 637 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Population Explosion in India

...The literal meaning of OVER population explosion is “a pyramiding of numbers of a biological population” (Webster’s dictionary). The main factors affecting the population change are the birth rate, death rate and migration. Migration is the number of people moving in (immigration) or out (emigration) of a country, place or locality. The population change is calculated by the formula: Population change = (Births + Immigration) – (Deaths + Emigration) India, being a developing country, has had to face several economic and political challenges. One of the most important problems is the population explosion. India's population hit 1 billion in May 2000, increasing the urgency for the country to take steps to control its population growth. Some of the reasons for this population explosion are poverty, better medical facilities, and immigration from our neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Nepal. The population density of India in 1996 was about 287 persons per square kilometre. Several solutions to decrease the rate of population increase have been tried by the government, some successful, some unsuccessful. Although the rate of increase has decreased, the rate has not reached the satisfactory level yet. The population in India continues to increase at an alarming rate. The effects of this population increase can be felt in the increasing poverty, unemployment, air and water pollution, and shortage of food, health resources and educational resources. The main reasons, effects...

Words: 299 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Kpop

...ontent Page * Aging Population * Overpopulation * Mindmap Aging Population Article : http://www.cnbc.com/id/46010334/page/11 1. Monaco Old/young ratio: 2.18:1 65 years & over: 26.9% 0-14 years: 2.18% Monaco, one of the world’s most densely populated countries, is home to the oldest population. It leads eight other European countries in the top 10 list. But the country is also a bit of a statistical anomaly because its status as a tax haven makes it a big draw for the wealthy and the retired rich. With an estimated population of 30,539, the country saw its population decline in 2011 by 0.12 percent, according the to CIA Factbook. Only around 8,000 people are citizens of the city-state. The proportion of Monaco’s population aged 65 and over is 26.9 percent, the highest in Western Europe, where the average is 16.5 percent, according to a 2011 study by research firm Euromonitor. The median age of Monaco’s population is 49.4 years, according to the CIA Factbook. With its older demographic, Monaco spent just 1.2 percent of its GDP in 2009 on education, according to the World Bank. In an effort to attract young professionals and entrepreneurs to boost its economy, Prince Albert launched a new consular service in Britain to attract foreigners in 2007. Overpopulation ARTICLE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-tal/overpopulation-is-still-t_b_3990646.html Country: China Overpopulation remains the leading driver of hunger, desertification...

Words: 1306 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Ecology of Population Growth

...Chapter 2: The Ecology of Population Growth Review Essay by Max Kosusnik Earth’s population has increased by the billions at rates deemed too quick for us to be capable of controlling. We, as a race, grew to our first billion in 1804. In 1927, only 123 years later, we had reached our second billion. To make matters more substantial, it only took 33 years until we had reached our third billion, in the year 1960. The rate would speed up so much that, on average, every 13 years our world’s population would reach another billion, getting us to 7 billion in 2011. This fast paced growth comes with many consequences. Human demands will and possibly already have overrun the amount of our natural support systems, and our food supplies, such as our fisheries, grasslands, forests, soils, and aquifers. If our demands increase over the sustainable output these resources provide for us, then it will result in overfishing, overgrazing, overcutting, overplowing, and overpumping. A recent demographic projection by the U.N. shows that the world’s population will grow to well over 9 billion by 2050. Although many believe this will materialize, it is unlikely due to the hardships we will face increasing the food supply, global warming, and water shortages. Although world population growth has slowed down from the peak of 2.1 percent in 1967 to 1.1 percent in 2011, it is still unclear whether the population growth has slowed due to the shift to smaller families or the opposite, that we...

Words: 1252 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

New York City

...The long term effect of China’s overpopulation comes with many issues. The main issue China will face is an overall environmental strain. There would be a shortage of food supply, which would increase the hunger and death rate in many Chinese people but mainly children. The water storage would be insufficient, which would result in individuals getting improper water intake. The gases that build up would make the air quality rather poor and causes more asthma and breathing issues. Oil and gas would probably reach its peak and cause prices to rise tremendously. The air pollutions will not only affect breathing, it will also contribute to the already thinning ozone layer. The oceans would be affected and will not sustain quality sea life. Then an issue many do not focus on is top soil. Many farmers and gardeners will not be able to do any deep planting but only shallow. These are the long-term of China overpopulation. The main stakeholder involved in the overpopulation in China issue is the government. The government is the unit that creates and passes the laws that are needed to deal with the issue of over population. One well known government issued policy is that every couple in China can only have one child. It is believed that with the one child policy, there can be a better management on the population growth. Just like any law passed, it is not always followed. For example, if a couple has twins they are and exception to the rule. Now many women are taking fertility...

Words: 352 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Cemetaery Anthropology

...Pamela Kofton ANT 102 Cultural Anthropology Fall 2012 Ellsworth Center Marlboro Cemetery Lamoine, MaineThis old time cemetery in Hancock County, Maine seems, at first glance, to be a forgotten patch of Maine woods. Adjacent to a new housing development, Marlboro Woods with large homes spread out on Ldyia's lane, a seemingly bustling neighborhood of the future, an overgrown woods path leads to an entrance marked with a bent iron gate attached to stone pillars and delineated by a wire fence. Marlboro Cemetery is located in Lamoine, Maine off Route 204 (called Partridge Cove Rd) approximately 4.4 miles from the intersection of Rt 184 and 204. Turn left onto Lydia's Lane, drive approximately 0.1 miles. There is a path to the cemetery on the right. The cemetery is named Marlboro Cemetery. Marlboro is a village which was incorporated into the town of Lamoine. Although a number of gravestones do display Christian symbols, there seems to be no obvious church or religious affiliation represented, leading me to deduce this cemetery was used by all town members. There are a total of twenty two surnames represented with no prevailing ethnicity. Wives are buried with their husbands showing this is a patriarchal society. Most stones are crafted from the local granite with a few different types unrecognizable to me. Surnames Represented in Marlboro Cemetery (QTY) | Bowden (2) | Bragdon (6) | Closson (1) | Corey (1 + 1 Dog) | Ford (5) | Frye...

Words: 1153 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Population Growth

...POPULATION GROWTH AND THE PRESSURES IT PLACES ON EARTHS RESOURCES World population has rapidly increased in the last century and has now reached a staggering seven billion, raising alarming concern for the sustainability of our planet. Rapid population growth and economic development are increasing the demands on natural resource stocks (Orimoogunje, 2011). Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to become the primary source of population increase (United, 2002), yet lack of infrastructure represents one of the most significant limitations to economic growth, environment management and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (Paul M. Pronyk, 2007). Uneven resource consumption is wasteful and contributes to the maldistribution of basic resources in developing countries. Studies show that high income earning countries constitute a smaller number of the population, but consume nature’s resources much faster than developing countries; this adds to the inequality of the world and compromises the stability of our ecosystems to support population growth (Kemp, 2004). The global population is expanding and human resource consumption rates are increasing adding to the environmental problems we face today. During the last century alone, global population in the world has grown from 1.65 billion to 7 billion (World population). In the gap between when my parents were born and I was born the population has roughly doubled from 2.25 billion in the late 1940’s to 4.5 billion in the early...

Words: 1929 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Sinking Lifeboat

...Mirella Villa Professor Potratz English 100 10/2/2013 Sinking Lifeboat Garrett Hardin was an American Ecologist who wrote the article “Lifeboat Ethics” in Psychology Today in 1974. Garrett Hardin is a neoconservative with a Doctorate in Biology from Stanford University and has written about how human life is sustained on our planet. By using metaphors, statistics, and cause and effect, Hardin attempts to sway the audience opinion on the world food bank but fails to do so. Hardin uses metaphors such as a lifeboat and a spaceship to represent the U.S. and planet earth. A lifeboat can only hold so many people and before it exceeds the capacity and a spaceship does not exclude anyone but limits the resources for everybody. In the lifeboat are many of the rich nations such as the U.S. and the United Nations and outside in the water are many of the poor countries like Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Pakistan. Since the U.S. is considered one of the rich nations they are considered the rich passengers among the boat which will be able to stay, the poorer countries will remain outside and only allowed if there is any room in the lifeboat. If the boat has enough space for fifty passengers then only fifty passengers will be allowed but if our “conscience stricken” side comes out then we possibly may allow more passengers. Suppose we allow ten more passengers we have now lost the safety factor on the lifeboat just as if we allow the country to overpopulate then we can lose the safety...

Words: 1020 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

One Child Policy Interview

...In this day and age, China has the most population in the world. This largest number in the world also represents that China has a great number of labor focus. But there are also lots of issues following the huge number of population, such as shortage of resources, limited space and so on. In order to solve these problems, the government of China has to take a series of actions to prevent the population growing too fast. So the governor of China instituted the One-Child policy to restrict the growing population. This policy was introduced in 1979 and initially applied to first-born children in the year of 1979. After more than 30 years carry out, the main goal of this policy was achieved. Under the influence, the growth rate declines apparently. In the 1970s, China’s growth rate was 3 percent; in the mid-1980’s, it was 1.2%; and today, China’s growth rate is 0.7 %”( Jackson & Eleen, 2001). On the other hand, this policy also causes several adverse consequences, including high rate of old-age, increased abortion rate, unexpected change of sex ration. There is no doubt this policy’s affection which is obvious. Even though the Chinese government within the pressure of human rights improvement has relaxed the policy and makes this policy more humanistic but some of people still consider the one child policy impact China in a more negative way. Therefore, I will introduce how does one child policy impact towards Chinese society in the below. On the current situation, even...

Words: 1807 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Telenor

...Telenor Company Profile Telenor PK is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telenor Group, a Norwegian company. The Telenor group operates in 11 markets across Europe and Asia and in additionally 19 markets through its 31.67 per cent ownership in VimpelCom Ltd. Telenor Group is among the largest mobile operators in the world with over 140 million mobile subscriptions (Q4 2011) and a workforce of 30,000. Telenor started out as a public company in 1855 and builds on more than 155 years of telecom experience. A Telenor is a global company it is always looking to expand in to untapped markets or where oppuruntities are available for expansion. Telenor acquired a license for providing GSM services in Pakistan in April 2004, and launched its services commercially in Karachi, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi on 15 March 2005; it expanded its services to Lahore, Faisalabad and Hyderabad on 23 March 2005. Telenor Pakistan’s Corporate Headquarters are in Karachi, with regional offices in Peshawar, Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Hyderabad and Islamabad. On 28 January 2005, Telenor established its first call centre in Karachi. TELENOR TOOK ADVANTAGE OF GRADUATES IN KARACHI BY OPENING ITS CALL CENTRE IN A CITY WITH HIGH LEVEL OF GRADUATES. As of January 2012, Telenor Pakistan had a reported subscriber base of 28.47 million, and a SIM market share of 24%. On October 2012, Telenor officially declared to have the customer base of 30 million. Competitors Its main competitors are Warid (UAE), Mobilink (Egypt)...

Words: 8545 - Pages: 35