A common misconception about overpopulation is that it means that there are just too many of an organism. Overpopulation is defined as the condition when an organism exceeds the holding capacity of its habitat. This can be because it has used up, or is using up the resources available to it, or is destroying the environment around it. Therefore it doesn’t really matter how many of an organism there are as long as they all live comfortably and with enough resources for sustainability. Human over population has only really been acknowledged in the last century, but has always been an possibility as human population has been rising at an exponential rate. Currently world population is growing at 75 million people per year, which is unfortunate seeing that human population has already reached a point where we are already in trouble.
As technology advances so does our ability to survive. Better medical procedures and equipment, better food sources etc. all result in a longer life span. With longer to live, there would be more people to sustain at any one time, increasing the use of resources and therefore reducing the amount of people that a space can ultimately hold. While an increased quality of life could mean more children, it is evident in the demographic transition model that population is going to peak in some time, because of lowered birth rates, which could be because families have less need of children. While a decrease in births would mean that there would ultimately be less people to sustain, we would have to wait quite a while for previous generations to “pass away” to really see the change in population growth. The demographic transition model is what is widely accepted to be an accurate reading of what is likely to happen in the future. It shows what happens when a society goes from a low technological standing to its advances, and how all this is a result of the transition from high mortality and birth rates to low mortality and birth rates.
· Stage One occurs in a pre-industrialised society which basically means a society which is devoid of all technological advancements that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. Birth and death rates are high and heavily impacted by environmental causes such as drought. High birth rates are influenced by a children’s necessity to a family’s household economy by doing tasks such as cooking, cleaning and working in the fields for food. It is accepted that all countries have passed this stage.
· Stage Two is the decrease of death rates and the initial increase of a population. Lowered death rates are influenced by improvements in food production and better transportation to prevent starvation and improvements in public health to lower deaths, particularly ones of younger children. Improved water supply, sewerage system and general knowledge of personal hygiene are also important. As many third-world countries are currently progressing through stage two, the gap between deaths and births increases, as in deaths lowering before births has a chance to catch up. The large numbers of countries currently experiencing this population explosion is a main concern of the population explosion occurring worldwide.
· Stage Three is the stabilisation of the world’s population through decreased birth rates, which is what some say the world’s population as a whole is approaching. Some characteristics of stage three which causes this are the realisation that perhaps having a lot of children is not a necessary investment for parents to make to ensure a comfortable old age, increasing costs to support children in the family, changing ideals towards women and their role as primarily child-raisers and housewives to a more independent status and development of contraceptive technology has become an ever increasing factor.
· Stage Four is when both birth and death rates are low and the population is constant. Most well developed countries such as Australia, America and Canada are currently in this stage. Demographers debate that the population will remain at this stage and that this is the final stage, where as some debate that a fifth stage of population decline will occur.
· Stage Five is when fertility rates are low enough that children being born no longer exceed the population of their parent’s generation. It is noted to occur from a de-industrialisation of a society, in other words a shift from manufacturing industries to information and communication industries.
It is interesting, because what we all hope will stop overpopulation, is what ultimately started global population to rise. Technology will hopefully provide better ways to mange resources, decreasing unnecessary expenditure while increasing use and productivity in the area of renewable energy. Hopefully new technologies will provide a more sustainable society for the decreasing population to live in. Resource depletion will cripple the world even if the population declines, because if the same amount of resources are being used with or without a decrease in population size, the world will be overpopulated.
If overpopulation is occurring then it can have dramatic effects on a society. Some examples of what overpopulation could result in include:
- Supplies would be drastically reduced, meaning that people all over the world will either have to pay more for, or not able to access necessary things like clean water, food, power, or even shelter. Without food and water people all over the world would resort to drastic actions. Crime would elevate dramatically as people steal to survive and the government would have to support the prisoners, resulting in more taxes and even more stress on everyone.
- If the population does not start decreasing then even more resources will be drained, further aggravating the whole problem. As we become more dependent on what little resources there will be left available to us, we will expend all resources, including forests and animals. This would destroy ecosystems and ultimately make the places effected inhabitable, due to lack of resources.
- If there are small amounts of resources, there will eventually be conflict. If society is in a weakened state a war would completely throw things out of balance.
- Increased waste disposal will be a factor because it will be difficult to treat sewerage. More waste will mean further stress on the environment through pollution.
- Crowding will occur in places that are easier to live in, spreading disease, which would be worsened by improper waste management.
To overcome overpopulation and in turn the problems it faces, it would mean that we would have to increase mortality rate and/or decrease birth rate, and at the same time manage resources better. Since increasing mortality rates does not even sound like it could be done without confronting any ethical issues, it doesn’t sound like it could be considered. So instead we turn to resource management and managing birth rates. There are quite a few possible solutions that could be looked at, and some that have actually been enforced in some seriously overpopulated places such as China.
A good place to start in solving the problem of overpopulation would be education of the public. If people knew about overpopulation they might think about things that they can do, such as reduce their resource consumption. An added bonus of teaching anyone anything is the fact that they could actually tell other people of what they have learned, increasing the effect that education would have. Unfortunately a common misconception is that in a society a lot of people means progress. This view must be eradicated since there is always going to be a maximum amount of people that can be supported. Another thing is that if people know that overpopulation is a problem, they would understand and possibly support new laws if they were put in place. These laws would be aimed at combating a growing population, and if it is possible, resource consumption. An example of one of these laws is one that is already implemented in China. This is the “one-child-policy,” which allows a woman to have only one child. Since previous generations had many children, population of this generation would be significantly less. If China’s population eventually peaks and declines, this would be good incentive for other countries to use the same method, possibly even world-wide. It would be relatively easy to enforce and wouldn’t involve costs.
A more controversial way of controlling the amount of people born is to release a virus to make people infertile. If this was the method to be used, then the administering of the virus would need to be controlled and enforced responsibly. Improper use of this could result in whole towns being infertile, and in time it could be possible that there would be not enough people left in the town to keep it going. Alternatively it would be relatively easy to administer and would be the most effective means of ensuring that people don’t have children. The problem with this lies in the fact that it should be administered without the people knowing, which would mean it would most likely be air based or in the drinking water. This is a big morality problem, as it invades people’s privacy and their rights. This would most likely only really be considered as a last effort to combat overpopulation, as it could be risky and it is not regarding the rights of the people it is applied on.
Regarding resource management it is simple. If there are more people in the world there will be a greater demand for fossil fuels, which would create more greenhouse gases and putting the environment in jeopardy. But if we make the switch to renewable energies then there will be no need for conflict, it would be better for the environment and in the end there would be more energy for the world. Recycling is also a big part of creating a sustainable society. To reuse metals and woods would again be better for the environment and result in no substantial conflict. These options are good because anyone can do them, meaning that everyone would be involved in the process. The problem is the going to be the world’s reluctance to change from fossil fuels, which have been relied upon for so long, to something that is good for the environment and human existence.
In the end the biggest problem is in the lack of resources, but there are things that can be done. But to save a lot of trouble would be to get to the decline in population, because if there are more people it puts more stress on an already tense situation. It does seem that the most sensible solution would be a policy on numbers of children combined with good resource management. Attitudes will have to be changed across the globe, but a solution is possible and we do have the abilities required for it.
