Overpopulation is an undesirable state in which the current human population exceeds the Earth’s real carrying capacity. A variety of factors contribute to overpopulation. Overpopulation is caused by a variety of situations, including lower death rates, improved medical services, and the depletion of valuable resources. If a small inhabited place cannot sustain life, it can become highly populated.
With each passing year and its technological advancements have impacted humanity in a variety of ways. One of these has been the ability to save lives and in the improvement of medical care for everyone. As a direct result of this, people are living longer and longer and the population is growing.
Various Causes of Overpopulation
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The Decline in the Death Rate
At the root of overpopulation is the clear difference between the overall birth rate and death rate in populations. If the number of children born each year equals the number of adults that die, then the population will stabilize to some extent.
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Agricultural Advancements
Technological revolutions and population explosions occur at similar times. There have been three main technological revolutions. They are the tool-making revolution,the agricultural revolution, and the industrial revolution.
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Better Medical Facilities
Following this the industrial revolution started and technological advancement was perhaps the biggest reason why the balance has been permanently disturbed.
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Overcoming Poverty
However, when we are talking about overpopulation, we should understand that there is a psychological component involved as well in this. Poverty is considered as the major cause of overpopulation. In the absence of educational resources, coupled with high death rates, which results in higher birth rates, that is why impoverished areas are seeing large booms in population thus resulting in overpopulation.
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Child Labor
It is no less than a tragedy that child labor is still practiced extensively in many parts of the world. As per the UNICEF, approximately 150 million children are still currently working in countries having few child labor laws. The children being seen as a source of income by impoverished families begin work too young thus lose the educational opportunities reflected, particularly when it comes to birth control.
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Technological Advancement in Fertility Treatment
With the latest technological advancements and more discoveries in medical science, it has become eminent for couples who are unable to conceive to undergo fertility treatment methods and have their own babies.
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Immigration
Many people prefer to move to developed countries like the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, where the best facilities are available in terms of medical, education, security, and employment but the result is that those people settle over there, eventually making those places overcrowded.
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Lack of Family Planning
Most developing nations have a large number of people who are uneducated, living below the poverty line, and have little or no knowledge about family planning. Getting their children married at an early age increases the chances of producing more kids.
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Poor Contraceptives Usage
Poor family planning on the part of couples can lead to unexpected pregnancies though contraceptives that are easily available in developed countries.
THE EFFECTS OF OVERPOPULATION
It does make sense that an increase in the world’s population will cause additional strains on resources and lead to it being depleted. More people means an increased demand for food, water, housing, energy, healthcare, transportation, and many such more things. All that consumption contributes to ecological degradation, increased conflicts, and a higher risk of large-scale disasters like pandemics.
ECOLOGICAL DEGRADATION
An increase in population will surely create pressures leading to more deforestation, decreased biodiversity, and spikes in pollution and emissions, which will exacerbate climate change. Ultimately, unless we take action to help minimize further population growth leading into the remainder of this century, many scientists believe that the additional stress on the planet will lead to ecological disruption and collapse so severe it threatens the viability of life on Earth as we know it.
INCREASED CONFLICTS
The scarcity brought about by environmental disruption and overpopulation has the potential to trigger an increase in the already present violence and political unrest. We’re seeing wars fought over water, land, and energy resources in the Middle East and other regions, and the turmoil is likely to increase as the global population grows even larger.
HIGHER RISK OF DISASTERS AND PANDEMICS
Many of the novel pathogens that have devastated humans around the world in recent times, including COVID-19, Zika virus, Ebola, and West Nile virus, originated in animals or insects before passing to humans.
Conclusion
Overpopulation occurs when the human population grows to a level which exceeds the ecological setting’s carrying capacity. People are outnumbering available vital supplies for survival in an overcrowded environment, such as transportation, water, housing, food, or social facilities. This frequently contributes to environmental degradation, a decline in quality of life, or even population breakup.
Annually, an estimated 81 million people are added to the world’s population. Overpopulation has its worst consequences and issues in areas with the highest population density (the number of people living in a given area). Populations will continue to grow as a result of immigration, lower mortality rates, medical discoveries, and higher birth rates.