A Rising Issue: Overpopulation

732 Words3 Pages
In today’s society there are many global concerns including the Greenhouse Effect (global warming), pollution, and overpopulation. Although these issues have an impact on society in general, overpopulation potentially stands to have the greatest impact on the environment. Overcrowding of the human race leads to depletion of our world’s natural limited resources. This also brings up the topic of sustainability. Sustainability is the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting a long-term ecological balance (Dictionary.com). Sustainability also means that this generation and future generations will have enough resources to last. This is only possible by conserving energy, resources, and by maintaining a balance and sense of a median between births and deaths. There are many solutions to this growing problem but the common factor in all of these solutions are the people of earth. We need to work together now so the world can sustain us for longer without substantially decreasing natural resources required for mankind’s survival. Overpopulation would not be a growing issue if we had unlimited land, unlimited water, and unlimited resources. Overpopulation comes with the same size pizza, but with each piece getting smaller and smaller, these ever decreasing pieces will not be enough to keep 100 people alive, let alone the 7 billion people that inhabit this earth. In less than 12 short years, the population has increased from 6 billion to 7 billion people. Analysts expected the population to hit 7 billion by 2015, yet it has reached that staggering amount as of October 31, 2011. Four years earlier than they expected. Population has been growing faster and stealthier than ever, right under our own feet. Analysts now expect the population to reach 9 billion by 2040. How off will they be in there estimation this time?
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