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OUTLINE
A World with Over-Population
I. Over-Population Introduction
A. Definition
B. Thesis Statement
II. Population
A. Definition
B. World Population
1. 1990
a. Location
2. Current
a. Growth
3. projections for 2025
C. USA Population
1. 1990
2. Projection for 2025
3. Projection for 2050
4. Growth after 2050
III. Causes of Over-Population
A. Unavailability of Family Planning
B. Poor Education
IV. Results of Over-Population
A. Social Problems
B. Environmental Strain
C. Economical Difficulties
D. Slowed Development
V. Solutions
A. Take Control
1. women’s empowerment
2. Family Planning
3. Birth Control Technology
4. Education
5. Sterilization
6. Nature
VI. Conclusion
Over-population occurs when there aren’t enough resources on the earth to support its
population. Each day the world’s population grows closer to that limit. Swelling
populations in all contries are becoming a liability, and no one can afford to ignore this
expanding problem. Growing populations tend to threaten economic development, and
with economic instability comes political instability. The quality of life and the
environment are also hurt. From one point of view, human beings are becoming a form of
pollution(Smith). The rate of growth is exhausting the natural resources on this planet at
an horrifying rate. Presently the world is dealing with the four horsemen of revelation,
which include war, poverty, disease, and ignorance. Failure to seriously addressed the
problem of this exploding population rate will introduce us to the “four horsemen of the
21st century apocalypse: deforestation, ozone depletion, global warming, and
over-population”(Van Auken).
The population is the number of people in a given area. In 1990 the world
supported 5.3 billion people and only 1.2 billion of them lived in developed nations, the
rest in less developed contries(“Population”). Currently the world’s population as of April
this year was 5.75 million and growing approximately by 93 million people each year. It is
expected that by the year 2000 the earth will be supporting 6.2 billion people, and by 2025
there will be approximately 8.5 billion people on this planet(“Population”). Most growth
will occur in less developed nations.
In 1990 there were 249 million people living in the United States. It is
approximated that by 2025 there will be 334 million people residing in the US and
by 2050 there will be 383 million. After the year 2050 there would be virtually
zero growth rate in America if the estimates are correct. “Population”
The population here and throughout the world is obviously growing; it wasn’t until 1830
that there were one billion people on the earth, but it only took one hundred years for that
to double, only 45 years for that to double again, and the present population is expected to
double in less than 40 years.
Over-population is the result of many causes that have been building and building
with-out any action being taken. It is estimated that there are 300 million couples in the
world that want family planning and can’t get it. Before that was even available for any
one many people had little to control the reproductive system. Another cause, poor
education, has been a major factor in the coming of over-population. There were
approximately 960 million illiterates as of 1994 and two-thirds of them were women.
Lower fertility in women will come after the health and education of girls is improved.
When we start to deal with the causes, we start to deal with the problem.
It seems that the results of over-population are never-ending. Such high growth
rates embitters the social, environmental, economical, and developmental problems in
poorer nations. Many of these nations are having trouble providing jobs, wages, and
social services. The growing number of people are straining water supplies and destroying
the soil with indusdialization along with depleting other vital resources, which will cause
environmental damage along with global hunger and misery. This will cause the price of
food and many other products to rise, which will bring about more food suppliers. When
prices go up more people get out of the market due to the fact that they can no longer
afford the products, but on the other side, more people want to produce it to make a
profit. In conclusion a surplus of wasted products is created. Most nations with high
populations are poor, and poor nations have raised their living standards as the
populations increase. These nations with high populations have deteriorating savings and
investment, and their education systems are hurting. An example of this is that 27 million
people in Sudan suffer from starvation, even though the United Nations believed in 1982
that 260 million Sudanese could easily be fed. Population is affecting development and
“we are approaching biological limits”(Begley).
Now that people are admitting that there is a problem with the population of
Earth someone has to come up with a workable solution. Obviously everyone needs to
“take control of the world now”(Van Auken). This can be done in a number of ways.
Women need to better themselves through empowerment. They must have equal
opportunity in and out of the work force. Also, everyone that wants it should have access
to family planning, either natural or medical. We also need the government to promise to
inform the public about voluntary family planning. Another possibility would be to “put a
massive effort into birth control technology and distribution of this technology to where it
is most needed”(Thinking Magazine). This would also include education and cultural
changes. Willing or enforced majority sterilization is conceivable, but that raises many
ethical questions. One final option is to wait and hope that nature will take care of itself
through “famine disease and war”(Thinking Magazine).
Every human life is priceless and worth saving from poverty and agony. To
provide a healthy Earth for future generations population growth must be slowed, that’s
necessary for a better world.