Environmental Science is a topic that breaches varying subjects together. Chemistry, Economics, Law and other topics come together to bring a sense of immediacy to out rapidly depleting Earth. While many people on this blog have tackled true topics that environmentally affect our planet - I will talk about something that does not. Because this false claim is something that is being given serious consideration in academic fields with money being donated to prevent it from happening, when we could be investing our time and energy into something into problems that are exacerbating climate change.
The idea of overpopulation was first developed by political economist Thomas Malthus. In his 1798 treatise “An Essay on the Principle of Population” Malthus predicted that population grows at a geometric rate while food production increases at an arithmetic rate, so unless birth rates decreased and dealt with the world would face mass famine and substandard quality of life. However, as you can see, Malthus' predictions have yet to come true. As the population has increased from around 800 million in 1798 to approximately 7.7 billion in 2019.
Malthus’ argument that there is not enough agriculture to sustain our population is untrue. Due to modern agriculture techniques and high yield crops the earth can produce enough food for at least 11 billion people (without even increasing the amount of agricultural land we use). Considering the UN is predicting a decline of the global population growth rate, the world population is approximated to reach a peak of about 8.1 billion people, followed by a decline. Ehrlich’s overall connection between the environment is also untrue. While people who live in developed nations — and are wealthy — have lower fertility rates, they emit more carbon dioxide than the poorest 50% due to their lifestyle. We should also bring up that while developed countries are some of the main propagators of overpopulation, they should remember that the United States is one of the highest-emitting countries in the world as they consume more resources.
The idea of overpopulation was first developed by political economist Thomas Malthus. In his 1798 treatise “An Essay on the Principle of Population” Malthus predicted that population grows at a geometric rate while food production increases at an arithmetic rate, so unless birth rates decreased and dealt with the world would face mass famine and substandard quality of life. However, as you can see, Malthus' predictions have yet to come true. As the population has increased from around 800 million in 1798 to approximately 7.7 billion in 2019.
However Malthus’ philosophy hasn’t been banished from intellectual sphere, The man who was responsible for bringing Malthus’ theory into environmentalism was Paul Ehrlich when he released the “Population Bomb”. In his book Ehrlich predicts mass environmental degradation and worldwide famine due to overpopulation. While environmental degradation is occurring overpopulation is nowhere near a main factor.
Malthus’ argument that there is not enough agriculture to sustain our population is untrue. Due to modern agriculture techniques and high yield crops the earth can produce enough food for at least 11 billion people (without even increasing the amount of agricultural land we use). Considering the UN is predicting a decline of the global population growth rate, the world population is approximated to reach a peak of about 8.1 billion people, followed by a decline. Ehrlich’s overall connection between the environment is also untrue. While people who live in developed nations — and are wealthy — have lower fertility rates, they emit more carbon dioxide than the poorest 50% due to their lifestyle. We should also bring up that while developed countries are some of the main propagators of overpopulation, they should remember that the United States is one of the highest-emitting countries in the world as they consume more resources.
Overpopulation in the way it has been framed is simply a harmful myth. To save the environment we have to look at factors such as class, economics systems, gender, race, and nationality to save humanity from ourselves.
Why do you think Overpopulation is seen as an environmental problem?
Why do you think fertility rates and consumption are often correlated with each other?
What are some ways that we can combat things such as famine nowadays?
21 comments:
Over population is seen as a environmental problem to people because people believe that we can't sustain the world and we are starving all around the world but we have the resources to provide everyone food in the world and that is a big misconception.People believe that whenever food is available and life is good than people tend to have more children.We can combat famine to educate people on birth control and other sustainable farming techniques to help everyone around the world and provide food for everyone.We as a country can donate food to others in need such as food donations and other sources to provide everyone food and shelter.
Overpopulation is seen as an environmental issue because humans are a detrimental part of the environment. In some cases we help it, but unfortunately we hurt it a lot of the times. As the population rises, this will be compounded. humans will need more space to grow crops, raise cattle, and to simply live. This all affects the environment. Combating famine should not even be something we have to worry about with such an advanced world and altitude of ways to transport goods around the world. More developed nations need to lend a helping hand to other nations that cannot help themselves with food issues. The US throws away so much food that could be saved to help others.
People see overpopulation as a big issue because of the concern of limited resources as a result. Humans are naturally self centered, so we see problems occurring around us and believe we are in the center of it. Sometimes, we are, but sometimes we are not. Clearly, the sheer number of us is not the sole cause of resource scarcity, but it’s other issues like climate change, as crop yields can be affected. If fertility rates are high, then consumption will also be high since everyone needs to be fed. But, this doesn’t mean we are not capable of it, especially since we have technology that improves and increases crop yields. We shouldn’t be afraid of overpopulation, but instead more pressing issues that actually will catastrophically damage the planet such as climate change.
I think overpopulation is seen as an environmental problem as a scapegoat to the amount of environmental damage developed nations and middle to upper class are creating. By blaming it on the amount of people instead of the luxuries we take for granted people justify their spending and further damage the ecosystem
Overpopulation, like a lot of urban myths, spread through big mediums. For example, the first Kingsman movie was all about of the issues of the world were because of too many people. A person who casually watched that movie might see the basic logic Samuel L Jackson was using, and take it as their own belief. That sort of thing happens all the time, where something that isn’t true gets blown way out of proportion. There needs to be more concrete news out about environmental issues, so that these misconceptions about the environment are easily suppressed.
I think that overpopulation is seen as something that contributes to other environmental problems rather than the initial problem itself. We can sustain ourselves with our population as of now as long as we change our lifestyle to fit the the needs necessary to maintain the quality of our earth. We can combat problems such as famine by sharing the food wealth to areas around us and by supporting impoverished nations.
One of the biggest flaws in the argument of overpopulation is the overlooking of unequal distribution. We have enough food to sustain the current population and probably even further. However, the distribution of it is severely unequally distributed— with people in the US suffering from obesity and those in developing nations with famine. While I do agree with this blog, it is also important to not view humans as a animalistic species. Along with being an invasive species, we too have a carrying capacity just like every other species.
Overpopulation can definitely seem like an environmental issue, considering that population growth means more land will needed to be used for crops, homes, and other necessities. But, as we learned in this class, there is enough food in the world to sustain more than our current population. It is just an uneven distribution of resources, with developed countries having more food than they need. We need to focus on distributing these resources more evenly, and the developed countries need to help in that.
It is incredibly difficult to say whether our rapid growth will lead to devastation. As humans, we have continuously found ways to sustain our growth by producing/creating more and more technological advancements that face the enemy of famine. However, the truth really is, we don’t know how long we can keep fighting this enemy. I do not have an answer for if we will continue to create technology that can once more make overpopulation seem like less of an issue. Overpopulation, in my opinion, will inevitably defeat us as these forms of technology are only providing underdeveloped families the means of increasing their fertility rate. It is a complicated matter indeed.
Overpopulation is seen as an environmental problem because many people are unable to sustain the earth and our resources are depleting every day of usage that people are needing. It is just an uneven distribution of resources, with developed countries having more food than they need. To help the environment, we need to change our habits to keep animals and ecosystems healthy and safe.
It is important to understand that although it is projected that population will level off in the coming decades, developing countries' populations are still rapidly growing. Therefore, the problem with unequal resource distribution will continue to be a problem. To help solve this problem, the entire world must come together and work to distribute resources equally. Overpopulation is a big problem for developing countries specifically, therefore for developed countries must help them to solve the problem for the entire world.
I believe that overpopulation is seen as an environmental problem due to the fact that many people on earth already have such a large carbon footprint. On average, our class had a carbon footprint that's about three to four earths worth. Fertility rates and consumption are often correlated with each other due to the fact that the higher the fertility rate the more consumption there is due to a larger population. However according to your blog, it seems that developed countries’, like the U.S., fertility rate is lower compared to the developing countries, but yet we seem to be consuming more than necessary. Some ways we could combat famine is to innovate and improve on the consumption rates; finding ways to reduce food waste and find more efficient methods of agriculture and even distribution. All in all, it is important that we educate the populous, especially those in developed nations.
I think overpopulation is seen as an environmental problem because more people equals more needs for resources. With more people, that also means more pollution. These issues can be huge problems for developing countries, due to them not having enough resources to provide for more humans. To combat famine, resources need to be distributed equally.
More resources are needed to cope with larger populations, this leads to the use of more resources which the environment cant handle at times. Humans use some resources like fossil fuels that are extremely detrimental to the environment and with rising populations, the use of fossil fuels in daily life goes up. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone but it is only distributed to privileged people and not the poor which leads to starvation in developing countries.
Yes, I do see overpopulation as an environmental issue because the more people that we have, the more we have to take from the earth. Fertility rates and consumption are often correlated with each other because if people believe that they can provide for more children, they will have more. Some things that we can do to combat famine would be to donate food not used, and distribute it more evenly.
Overpopulation is seen as an environmental problem because the more people you have, the more resources are consumed therefore hurting the environment. Same thing with the fertility rate’s correlation to consumption, more people, more resources used. Some things we can do to help counter famine is to provide food at an equal distribution and also lead the path for better farming systems in countries that are affected by famine.
Overpopulation is seen as an environmental problem because of the limited and unevenly spread resources. These resources are more concentrated in developed countries, whereas developing countries have very few. The human population is increasing very rapidly that once we reach our carrying capacity, there will be major consequences. To be sustainable in the future, we need to make sure these resources are evenly distributed around the world.
Overpopulation is a major issue in todays society because if there are too many people, there wont be enough resources on Earth to sustain everybody. This is called exceeding the carrying capacity. If this happens, there will be many problems such as resources depletion, meaning less food, space, and other resources for people. Also, there will be more environmental damage due to more carbon footprints and all of those bad things. This is why we have to do something to reduce the growth of the world’s population.
Rather than over population, I think it is an uneven population that is the issue. While our food supply can technically satisfy 11 billion people, we still have people dying of starvation at a population of 8 billion. This is because food and people are not distributed evenly throughout the world, which causes problems to arise. In order to solve these issues, we need to redirect the focus to uneven distribution and work on finding ways to even out food and energy supplies.
Overpopulation is a prominent issue environmentally because of the overcrowding it creates. In these areas, resource consumption is high which creates pollution and depletion with it. Fertility rates are what cause the high consumption rates. There is a correlation between high fertility rates and consumption because of population.
Overpopulation is seen as an environmentalist problem since there are so many people, it is harming the planet as there are not enough resources to feed everyone. Fertility rates and consumption correlate every strongly with each other because if the fertility rate is very high, the consumption rate will also be very high as there will be more people being born who will require more food. One way that can be used to combat famine is to create a GMO that will survive in very harsh environments but yet is still very nutritious.
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