How serious a problem is overpopulation?

Question

Please only reasonable answers with facts. Thanks.

Answer 1

This is a very interesting question. I think it all depends on your opinion of what "overpopulation" means to you. Let us begin by doing some interesting calculations. The radius of the Earth is ~3,950 miles, giving Earth a total surface area of 196,066,632 square miles. Since 1/4 is land, that reduces to 49,016,658 sq miles. Since there are ~6.1-6.2 Billion people on Earth, this amounts to .0079 square mile per person or 126.5 people per square mile or ~5 acres per person. However, at least 1/2 of this land is rather inhospitable, being in undesirable places like Antarctica or Greenland or the Sahara desert or the Middle East. Removing these places from the calculation leaves ~2.5 acres per person or 10 acres per family of four. Is this too crouded? I am not sure, I will leave that judgement up to you to make. Approximately 2/3 of all humanity lives within 450 miles of the sea coast in a band of land stretching from Iran to Japan. The remaining 1/3 of humanity is spread over the rest of the world. I once read that if you housed all of humanity at the rate of 4 people per household on a standard one quarter acre lot, how much land would that be? It would be equal to the US states of Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. This is a relatively small space compared to the whole Earth. I also read somewhere that if the entire Sahara desert and the continent of Australia were intensively irrigated and farmed, that the Earth could easily support over 100 Billion people.
..........But the next question is, would you like to live on an Earth with 100 Billion other people? I wouldn't. The World Health Organization has projected that the world population will peak at ~9 Billion at around the year 2100 and then begin to decline after that. Many countries already have shrinking populations. This trend is likely to continue. I have read that perhaps 1,000 years from now the population of the solar system could well exceed 1 trillion people, with most of these living not on Earth. I look forward to the day when humanity will vacate the Earth and thus leave it to evolve in its own natural way, free from human interference. Humanity will spread out across the galaxy, leaving Earth as a "museum" and "scientific laboratory". This prospect is entirely plausible within the next few thousand years. There is no reason to get depressed about "overpopulation". Just think of the long term.

Answer 2

In normal populations, animals reproduce and then reach a certain peak. Their environment has a carrying capacity, which will only supply resources for a certain number of animals. Once it can no longer do this, the majority of the animals die off from thirst or starvation or disease until the resources can be replenished. Then it goes back up again. Humans, however, dont die out as easily. We are a stubborn species, and have used technology as a means to keep us living longer and in greater numbers. In a somewhat selfish way, we have enabled ourselves to live longer by hurting the environment around us to support OUR needs. We will reach a peak, the carrying capacity, at some point. When we do, nature causes us to die out so that the earth can accommodate more humans in the future. It's earth's way of "taking a break." But there will be a lot of pain and suffering before the resources are replenished. And some resources are not replacable. When this happens, we will all die and cease to exist. That's why we should control our population to delay this from happening too soon. In 2027, there shall be 12 billion humans on the planet if nothing is controlled. Is the earth's carrying capacity going to be able to handle that?

Answer 3

Pretty bad but not as bad as you may think, Its true that in America and China were going to be overflowing pretty quick, but in some other countries it not quite as bad.

Its still, however bad enough that in say... 10 to 15 years, if nothing changes, the world will be forced to convert farm land to city's, destroy large housing to make room for more small housing, and the such.

for proof you may want too look into population count in the last few recorded years, the population now, in the world, is approximately 6,663,670,636. in 1995, the population was approximately 5,614,132,256. in about 2020, 8,056,422,165.

so yeah, i think about 1,500,000,000 more people by the year 2020, is a big deal

So now that Ive proven that the world is overpopulating quickly, here's why its a problem.

FARMERS, my father was a farmer, because or grain prices going down and down he couldn't afford to continue it, the city which will grow larger and larger will have to convert farmland to housing, so then there will be less crops, less crops means less food, less food means we basically starve ourselves to death or the government changes something.

Id like to add a reference to the first Matrix, one of the programs said something along the lines of "Humans are like a disease, they just infest everything until there's nothing" problem is, its becoming true.

(NOTE: ALL OR THE NUMBERS ARE ESTIMATES)

Answer 4

i'm an atheist and that i imagine that overpopulation will be a issue contained in the destiny, yet will be diverse for the developed and coming up international. in a good number of coming up international places, people have extra little ones because there's a larger danger that some will die. besides the undeniable fact that as residing criteria strengthen and birth control turns into extra accessible the beginning price in coming up international places will decline. issues which incorporates larger status and employment of ladies people also make a contribution to a decrease beginning price. in a good number of developed international places, there's a decrease beginning price yet immigration is increasing the inhabitants, and the immigrants have a larger beginning price than something else of the inhabitants. The inhabitants of my us of a, the united kingdom, is increasing worryingly and is keen to achieve 70 million. i imagine it would want to both flow 2 procedures - the inhabitants is going out of control and leads to serious complications, or it stabilizes or perhaps declines.

Answer 5

I'm not sure if you mean the world wide population, or the density of people living within a specific area. If you mean the world wide population, then I believe it is a myth because only a small portion of the arable land (1%) is actually used for crop production. In addition, an unknown percentage is used for fuel production. This is probably a necessity. But with 99% of arable land being not used / used for non food uses (forests, pastures, etc) it shows there is plenty of scope to increase population without harmful effects.

Answer 6

I'm quite certain that it would have to be considered extreme. I've heard that the earth could probably support up to around a billion people or so, in an agriculturally based system, where most people grow most of their own family's food supply. The present world population is approaching 7 billion. Society's demands for fossil fuels, and the production of toxic chemicals are literally killing the earth's biosphere. Things have got to change drastically, and very fast, or it may not be possible to prevent a major, and catastrophic population die back.

Answer 7

It is not as serious as people make it out to be.
There is enough arable land to grow crops to feed everyone. There is enough food produced to feed everyone. Food is wasted rather than the poor fed with it.
There is enough land for everyone to live without crowding. The problems are associated with greed and politics. Governments will pay farmers to dump grain and fruit rather than sell it cheaply to poor nations. Governments in poor nations would sooner spend money on weapons and palaces than on water filtration, crop management, and education; and divert charity funds to corrupt officials.
The problem is not overpopulation, it is wealth distribution.

Answer 8

That depends upon the population in question. Some populations of some species are facing extinction. If you are referring to the human population, that depends upon the region in question. Some regions such as China and India have serious problems with population size. It is argued that New York City is overpopulated. There are many places in the Dakotas that are very sparsely populated. Really, it depends upon region.

Answer 9

When sites like this are made: http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/ it should strike you pretty hard. The way the world is going is cameras everywhere. That's no way for a person to live. We are going to be watched everywhere we go (cell phones, cameras, GPS) Land is wayyy too expensive. Homes are outrageously priced. THe government is corrupt. Do you really need anymore proof? Take a drive on our roads and see how many cars there are... It's H E L L

Answer 10

there is no such thing as overpopulation. starvation occurs where there is a lack of capitalism. you can fit all the people in the world. in homes on 1/4 acre lots, with five people to a house, in a space twice the size of Texas. americans don't starve because we have capitalism, simple as that.