Is overpopulation the real cause of our environmental problems?

Question

The reason for this question is that the media, the politicians and people in general tend to focus on the symptoms, i.e. global warming, pollution, and not the cause. It's like treating the common cold. There are endless medications, cough syrups, decongestants etc. to treat the pains, sniffles, coughs, congestion and so on. What's really being treated then are the symptoms not the cold itself. The cold is really caused by a virus and until the virus is seen as the root of the problem, nothing will change. So global warming, shrinking polar ice, climate change, loss of renewable resources etc. are really symptoms. Perhaps we are the virus.

Answer 1

It sure has a chain of effects which are all interrelated and heavily tax the system
People use and need land,so more and more is being changed to accommodate human growth and development

The necessary flora ,which permits life as we know it, is disappearing.

Eco-systems are being exchanged for desserts , concrete or roads.

An environmentally destructive wave is in motion, caused by expanding populations,and expanding agriculture,and now the production of Ethanol is responsible for large scale deforestation world wide ,In Mexico alone half a million hectares annually.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgGbjrIOcXiyXBpr6j7qlDLsy6IX?qid=20070618163201AAyuI69

An increase in desserts definitely affects the global climate and is for a large part responsible for the climate change we are experiencing now

World population has doubled in the last 50 years exceeding the growth of 4 million years (since we became homo Sapiens).
To satisfy the growing demand farmers are cultivating unstable lands , too steep or dry to be sustainable.


Mono cultures ,aided by chemicals Exhaust and pollutes the soil .
Adding to this the effects of overgrazing has resulted in large scale desertification.

Each year billions of tons of topsoil are blown or washed away by storms.

Arable lands and their farms are lost all over the globe. Many farmers sons abandon farming and head for the cities.

Northern China is drying up, what once were millions of food producing people,are now hungry refugees ,running for their lives from the all consuming dust storms.

This will have a great effect on world food prices when they start buying at what ever cost, to feed their people.

Africa and Asia are loosing millions of people to AIDS , many of whom were food producers.

The farmers that are left have to feed some 70 million more people than the year before but with less topsoil.

Over the last half century,
Population growth & rising incomes have tripled world grain demand from 640 million tons to 1,855 million

In the near future the global farming community will not be able to feed every body ,food prices will continue to rise. .
NATURES POINT OF VIEW

In Nature exists such a thing as the law of Harmony and Equilibrium
Some Native peoples have always been aware of this
to limit the tribes number to as many as the tribe can afford to feed
The Central Americans sacrificed the excess children,the earlier ones like the Olmec practiced birth control
Amazonian tribes have strict sexual rites that limit copulation in the conventional way.

Animals have lots of young when there is plenty of food ,and have little or none when the conditions are bad
when there is a plague of rabbits ,many foxes are born,
when there is no game lions ,and other predators have few cubs.

plants do roughly the same
All follow the LAW OF NATURE OF EQUILIBRIUM
everybody is welcome ,but nobody in excess.
we must co-exist on this planet and limit our numbers to our resources

All of Nature obeys these LAWS,but Humans put themselves above the LAW,and have bred themselves into a plague
It is a miracle that Nature has allowed us to get this far.

Everything else is set upon by plagues ,disease or predators ,when they exceed their allotted quantity,or there are Natural disasters .

There are two moments in the existence of a specie when extinction is likely,
when there are two few
And when there are too many.

Maybe Gaia is trying to tell us something with Global Warming
Humanity should listen and beware
we are part of the same Eco systems
and subject to the same LAWS
whether we like it or believe it or not

Answer 2

Earth's rising human population definitely complicates things but isn't THE cause. But it's a political hot potato. The Sierra Club practically fractured in two trying to address this recently. So people tend to side step the issue, rather than jumping right in. Perhaps then, it comes down to education. Educate the politicians. Educate the masses. Give people the facts, hard and solid, and pray that enough people and enough of the right people understand and we can begin to get the upper hand on some very complex issues, and make more progress on issues where we've been dancing around by dealing with peripheral issues.

Answer 3

Overpopulation is a problem because it is connected with over-consumption of the planet's resources. The best way to control population is by controlling the number of children. They already do this in China by promoting families with only 1 children. I think the population shouldn't be more than 4 billion people.

Answer 4

An ever growing population with ever growing levels of what they "need" to survive.

Let's imagine that the world is one big party. (woo!)

Now the party has a pretty big cake provided for the guests. We can cut the cake into...100 pieces.

Now, if we have 100 people, they can each have one piece of the cake. If we have 10 people, they can have 10 pieces. The problem is, we keep "inviting" more people. Not to mention, some of the party guests feel they are entitled to eat 5 pieces each. More guests start arriving. Now some of the guests who were already there want more cake. The same 100 pieces are there, but we have more and more people, who all want more and more cake.

Suddenly, someone makes a fist...

see the problem?

Answer 5

Overpopulation causes SOME environmental problems. That's pretty much how you know you've reached "overpopulation", because there are environmental problems, be it too little food, or too much X in (air, water, ground).

However, not all environmental problems are caused by overpopulation. Some are naturally occurring, and some are man-made by mere stupidity. Take the environmental problem of coyotes in a populated area; this can be caused by an oversized deer population, caused by over-regulation of hunting.

I think it's debateable whether we've reached the overpopulation level overall, as many of the alleged environmental problems that would cause are exaggerated.

Answer 6

Certainly if there were 10 times fewer people there would be 10 times less pollution. I wouldn't go so far as to say that is 100% of the problem though. It is technology that has allowed the population to grow, with more food and cures for and prevention of disease. The world fertility rate (basically birth rate per person) is lower now than ever, but technology allows more of those people to survive and so the population grows.

Answer 7

The world is so under populated that everyone in the world could live 4 to a home, on 1/4 acre lot in just 7 western states.

That would leave the rest of the world for farming.

Answer 8

it's only the beginning. watch out for the chinese population to reach over a billiion people in 10 to 20 years.the real problem will be feeding people since farms and farmers are decreasing.

Answer 9

I have lots of info that I think you will find quite helpful and enlightening:

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Along with lots of environmental info, amazing environmental pictures and videos (These videos show the beauty of this world and what life can be like if people take the time to appreciate life’s true beauty).

Let us all strive for a greener/brighter future by helping to create a solid foundation for future generations to build upon, so we can hand them a beautiful world, filled with never ending awe and wonders!!

Where peoples differences and uniqueness are accepted, where we all live as one, helping one another so that we can all play our own mysteriously beautiful melodies in the never ending, awe inspiring, song of life :-)

I truly have faith in humanity and believe that someday our lives and the world in which we live will truly be transformed for the better.

Answer 10

yeah, actually it is. the guy above me is pretty stupid. after the world war 2, the "baby boomers" generation did a lot of pressure on the earth. if our generations continue to grow bigger and bigger, well need more resources, more energy, more water, and global warming is making it worse