World Overpopulation
By Evan Chiu
5-22-14
Currently, there are about 7.2 billion people in the world (U.S. and World
Population Clock). In about fifteen years, there will more than 8 billion people, and
almost 10 billion in thirty–five years. In 1900, there were 1.6 billion people living in the
world and 2.4 billion in 1950, but in the year 2000, there were already more than 6 billion
people (Aubuchon)! This growth shows how fast the population grew, and how fast,
although not just as fast, it will continue to grow. All people have needs, and to satisfy
those needs, they use resources. The more people, the more needs there are, and the more
resources are used up. Some of those needs are food, water, education, and rights,
especially women’s rights. They are also issues in the world today because there are not
enough resources for everyone, and finding solutions for them will be harder in the future
if nothing is done. One important issue is the lack of clean water around the world.
World overpopulation is a problem because it contributes to many issues in the world
today.
The problem of overpopulation in the world is not a problem because the number
of people in the world is too high, but because there are not enough resources to support
the growing population. People will compete for the resources, and eventually fight wars
over them. Even if people can ration the resources, we will still meet our demise. We
will run out of resources to support everyone, and people will die at an exponential rate.
A good example of what could happen to the world is what happened on Easter Island.
Easter Island is a part of Chile, and is in the Pacific Ocean. It was an isolated
island with many resources and the climate was just right for growing food crops,
especially sweet potatoes. People eventually sailed there, settle, and broke up into
different clans at some point. Since it was easy to grow food, the people had lots and lots
of free time, so people used that time to build giant human shaped structures called moai.
The moai were built for religious reasons, and eventually there was a competition of
which clan was better. The more moai a clan built, the better the clan was. Building the
moai used up a lot of the island’s resources, and it led to the downfall of the people of
Easter Island. It is possible this could happen to us in the future, except that we will
compete for resources, not religious reasons. An important resource that already is an
issue and could possibly lead to our downfall is water.
Around the world, 780 million people do not have access to clean water. 3.4
million people die each year from a water related disease, or in other words, not having
clean water to drink and use (Water, Water.org). In the developing countries, women and
children spend hours and hours collecting water that is expensive and can possibly kill
them. The time they use collecting the water could be used to receiving an education
they should have or working and making money from a job. Every day, Women around
the world use 200 hours to collect water that is usually unclean; all that time could be
used to build 28 Empire State Buildings each day (Water, Water.org). In those countries,
the sanitation and water management are inadequate, so there is not clean water to use.
Where the lack of clean water and overpopulation are generally in the same area.
The origins of overpopulation are mostly in Asia and other developing countries,
mostly those in Africa. In 2005, 60.7% (about 4 billion people) of the people in the
world lived in Asia, and it will grow to 62% (about 6 billion people) in 2050. In that
same year, Africa will house 20.8% of the people in the world, or about 2 billion people.
There was a large population increase between 1950 and 2000, which is from 2.4 billion
to 6.1 billion (Aubuchon). The top five most populated countries are China with 1.3
billion, India with 1.2 billion, the United States with 0.32 billion, Indonesia with 0.25
billion, and Brazil with 0.2 billion (U.S. and World Population Clock). China and India
are both in Asia and have about four times the number of people that the United States
has, which is a huge amount of people. The huge amount of people in the two countries
contribute to the amount of people without clean water in Asia, and the undeveloped
countries in Africa have a lot of people without access to clean water.
There are 196 million people without water in South, West, and Central Asia, 200
million people without water in Southeast, East Asia and Oceania, and 345 million
people without water in Africa. Combined, there are 741 million people (out of the 783
million people in the world) without access to clean water in the three areas (Water,
Water.org). The lack of clean water affects the poorer, developing countries more than
the richer, developed countries. The developed countries have people with high income
and easy access to clean water, not to mention the cost of water is low. However, in the
developing countries, the people’s income is low, the cost of water is high, the quality of
water is poor, and the time took collecting water is high. The problem with water was
probably noticed in the 1900’s, or at least the U.S. regulated water treatment, when the
U.S. passed the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1948 and expanded it in 1972. Other
countries probably noticed the problem around this time too. They could have found out
about the many examples and evidence of overpopulation and the lack of clean water
around the world.
There was a huge growth in between 1950 and 2000 when it went from 2.4 billion
people in the world and shot up to more than 6 billion people (Aubuchon). There are 1.3
billion people in China and 1.2 billion people in India (U.S. and World Population
Clock). These countries have a high population, and definitely contribute to the high
number of people lacking clean water in those areas. Another way to show that there is
population is the lack of resources in the world. In India, There are 0.1 out of 1.2 billion
people that need clean water and 802 million without sufficient sanitation services.
Bangladesh, being ranked as the eighth highest amount of people in the world with 1.6
hundred million people, has 28 out of 166 million people lacking clean water and 74.8
million do not have sufficient sanitation services. Ethiopia has 49 out of 96.6 million
people without clean water and 76 million do not have sufficient sanitation services.
(Water, Water.org). Fortunately, these three countries are being helped by an American
nonprofit organization, Water.org.
Water.org is trying to make sure that there is safe water and sanitation for
everyone in our lifetime. It has helped hundreds of people in Africa, South Asia, and
Central America by helping them have access to safe water and sanitation. There are
projects in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Kenya, and Uganda. Water.org also
educates kids from Kindergarten and 12th grade. There are other organizations partially
help solve the issue of clean water by trying to solve the problem of overpopulation in the
world. Two organizations that are trying to do this are Facing the Future and Negative
Population Growth, Inc. Facing the Future and Negative Population Growth, Inc. are
educating students about the world and how to think and solve problems like world
overpopulation. These are organizations that are working to solve the problems of
overpopulation and lack of clean water, but there are other possible solutions.
For overpopulation, I would first spread awareness about overpopulation by
creating a website (which I already did), so that everyone can learn about this problem
through technology. I would also educate people about the lack of clean water on the
website. I would try to improve women’s rights so the birth rate would slow down, and I
would try to persuade the leaders of other countries that do not have equality between
men and women. This would at least give everyone in the world to solve the issues that
overpopulation causes or is directly affecting. I would also try to make people less
wasteful, since 20% of the people in the world use 80% of the world’s goods and services
(Eng). This also partially solves the problem of the lack of clean water. Mostly, I would
improve sanitation, build aqueducts, etc., so hundreds of hours will not be wasted on
collecting water and the water will be clean. Since there are less time used on collecting
water, the people who used to have to collect the water can spend the time receiving an
education and on other things.
Since overpopulation is the cause or a contributor to many issues today, it is a
problem. One important issue caused by overpopulation is the lack of clean water. There
are organizations trying to solve both problems. Part of the solution for both problems is
to educate people about the situation and how to solve world problems, not just
overpopulation and the lack of clean water.
China
India
U.S.A
Indonesia
Brazil
Pakistan
Nigeria
Bangladesh
Russia
Japan
1850
1900
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2011
2020
2030
2040
2050
1,355,692,576
1,236,344,631
318,892,103
253,609,643
202,656,788
196,174,380
177,155,754
166,280,712
142,470,272
127,103,388
1.2
1.6
2.4
3
3.7
4.4
5.1
6
7
7.6
8.2
8.8
9.85
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