Introduction to World Overpopulation
The world that we inhabit has an increasing number of people every day. Every day resources are shared with more and more people. This planet only has a finite supply of the resources we cherish, and we are steadily approaching that finite amount. It humans thousands of years to reach 1 billion in 1804 but only 123 years to reach 2 billion. Our worldwide population has increased by 1 billion from 1999 to 2011, just a period of 12 years, and the growth rate is still ever increasing. We must slow the increase of our planet’s population before our resources become scarce and our quality of life decreases drastically. We must solve the problem of overpopulation before we, the human race, reach our carrying capacity. Our population is believed to currently be over seven billion people! That is seven billion people sharing the same planet as us and relying on the same resources as we do. When we reach our ultimate carrying capacity our population is guaranteed to decline due to lack of resources and this would be a bad thing for all of mankind, competing for the same resources generally causes conflict. If we do not slow down the increase in the world’s population, then we must find new ways to split up our resources among more people and thus, raise our carrying capacity.
With seven billion people and counting, at what point will people become concerned with the future and what their children’s lives will be like? When we have to get rid of our cars because gas is no longer available to us because it is being used by so many other people, will we care then? We as Americans account for only a small percentage of the total population; however we consume 26% of the world’s energy. Each person in the United States accounts for the same amount of energy consumption as hundreds of people in almost every other country. With every new person adding to the world’s total population the quality of life goes down for us and the competition for resources goes up. We must find ways to cut down our energy consumption so we can effectively raise the carrying capacity of this planet, as well as maximize our resources so we can continue to live normal lives.
With seven billion people and counting, at what point will people become concerned with the future and what their children’s lives will be like? When we have to get rid of our cars because gas is no longer available to us because it is being used by so many other people, will we care then? We as Americans account for only a small percentage of the total population; however we consume 26% of the world’s energy. Each person in the United States accounts for the same amount of energy consumption as hundreds of people in almost every other country. With every new person adding to the world’s total population the quality of life goes down for us and the competition for resources goes up. We must find ways to cut down our energy consumption so we can effectively raise the carrying capacity of this planet, as well as maximize our resources so we can continue to live normal lives.