Essays

The demands of increasing population magnify demands for natural resources, clean air and water, as well as access to wilderness areas. In the future, when there are not enough resources to go around, we will see significant scarcity, and a backlash of poverty.

Left unchecked, the combination of population growth and consumption- along with increasing inequality between rich and poor individuals and nations-will soon threaten not only the well-being, but even the lives of a majority of people on this planet.

When population levels reach a critical threshold, we will see both a decline in the resource base, and damage to the environment, which supplies all those resources. These trends reinforce each other - the damaged environment provides fewer resources, and the shortage of resources causes us to further damage the environment. World energy needs are projected to double in the next several decades, but no credible geologist foresees a doubling of world oil production, which is projected to peak within the next few decades.

Increasing population and consumption are already causing massive damage to the planet. The soil erosion, extinction  of species, pollution of air and water, and deforestation are all indicators of exceeding carrying capacity. Deforestation is driven by a wide range of social and economic forces, but underlying them all is the severe growth of human population and the rising demand for land and forest products such growth creates. Due to overpopulation, and hence over-exploitation, the world's oceans are being pushed beyond breaking point.

Eleven of the fifteen most important oceanic fisheries and seventy percent of the major fish species are now fully or over-exploited. It is impossible for people to live without forests, food, and water. Yet the world's supply of these necessities is gravely threatened by thriving population growth.

Another issue concerning population is employment. The growth and economies of the countries are suffering. There is a shortage of work, with billions of people unemployed or underemployed.

With the abundant growth of world population, at some point there will no longer be enough resources to go around. At the present rate of consumption, it is estimated that the oil and gas supplies will last about forty years.

Although there is enough coal to last for four hundred years it is damaging to the environment.

Limited resources due to overpopulation will cause people to move in search of more resources. There are hundreds of millions of migrant people in the world today, seeking food, water, land and work. Scarcity drives legal and illegal immigration into industrialized nations as people struggle to survive and support their families,                  

And when insufficiency is acute, people may fight over resources. As world population and consumption grow, environmental impacts multiply, and the limitations of resources worsen. As more people compete for the same' resources social, ethnic, and political tensions might increase. This combination drives political instability, declining social health, and greater migration. The succession of overpopulation, consumption, and scarcity has fuelled more than 150 wars since the end of World War II, and driven tens of millions of people from their homes as economic migrants or refugees.

The effects of overpopulation on human society are many. As population increase the quality of life for every individual decreases.